My Breakfast With The Senator

This morning Mr. Beale and I headed out for a late breakfast at a local eatery not too far from the house. Who is sitting behind us but Sen. Bob Corker, dining with what appeared to be a staffer. Plenty of folks were stopping by his table to say hello, so when we had finished our meal and I saw the senator was still there, I screwed up my courage to do likewise.

Keep in mind, I’m someone who has sent copious amounts of letters to both of my senators, and my House representative, too. At this point I figure they must think I’m a delusional crackpot (if they think of me at all), and if nothing else I could present myself as a reasonably normal citizen, as well as share my concern about an issue I care about. After all, when congresscritters return to their home states for the summer break, they expect to find out what’s on the mind of constituents.

So I did introduce myself, and I told Sen. Corker I hoped he would do everything he could to bring the troops home from Iraq. I told him I thought it was immoral that Americans were dying in Iraq for oil, that soldiers and their families were the only ones sacrificing at a time of war while everyone else in America could pretend the war didn’t exist. That's just wrong.

We had a very brief conversation about the war. He seems to feel that whether John McCain or Barack Obama is elected, troops will begin coming home soon after the new president is sworn in--that there’s very little difference in policy between the two where Iraq is concerned. I’m not so sure about that. But regardless, I told him our representatives in the Senate have a role to play in bringing the troops home, and I wanted him to know I was someone who cared about it.

Anyway, he thanked me. He knew this is an issue I cared about deeply, and it is. The stolen election of 2000 and the Iraq War are the two main events that set me on a path fighting this corrupt administration, which I’ve been doing for the past seven years.

So that was my breaksfast with the senator. I figure that was worth at least two letters to Washington, eh?