elected representatives, Faust, Davis and Pittman:

Wednesday I e-mailed the three of you expressing my personal concerns regarding the actions of the large insurance carriers affecting Baldwin County. My feeling is that there is no time for any of you to delay a response to this, but I think that is what you are doing. One has to respect the fact that being a legislator is in general a fairly comfortable position, and that the legislative process moves slowly and consequently a legislator can move slowly as well. All that seems to work well in what I call the Alabama Matrix of making laws which is that the legislature devotes itself to acting slowly on making laws which don’t mean much.

This, however, represents a slightly different situation, and I would like to hear from you as to what you feel is within your means, your power, as legislators to help the citizens you represent from being covered over with onerous costs paying for an insurance system which may or may not have any value whatever. So, in brief, when could I expect to hear from you?

What is particularly galling from this excerpt is the statement “many north Alabama lawmakers fear changes will lead their constituents subsidizing coastal rates.” May I remind you that under Equity Funding, Baldwin County, Alabama, does exactly that, but in reverse. Under Equity Funding our taxpayers subsidize the education systems of dozens of local education systems around the state. My question to you is when these hypocrites in Montgomery make these statements to you, what do you say to them?

I hope we all understand that more than at any time in our past, the election coming in 2010 is an election about money. Money we don’t have, money we need. Social issues are fine and easy to talk about. We all revere the commandments, and so forth and so on, but perhaps we accept discussions like this as substitutes for discussion of critical issues. Well, at least Ben Brooks opened his mouth on the matter.

Fairhope