The Senate is Watching me now...

Several weeks ago, I asked Ben Nelson to contact me personally to talk about his stand on issues of importance to me. Today, I received a phone call from one of his people in Scottsbluff who assured me that by talking to her it would be the same as talking to him. She calmly expressed her ability to relay my concerns to some other people who control Ben Nelson and that she felt she could answer all of my questions to my satisfaction.

I explained to her that I wanted to talk to Nelson personally, that I wanted to convey my opinions as well as the opinions of many people I come in contact with over his position on health care, energy and government spending. She told me that Senator Nelson was far too busy to talk with every citizen who wanted to meet with him and that my concerns would be relayed to the Senator.

The gist of the conversation was this: The Senator has heard what you want to say before and he doesn't want to answer to anyone who doesn't agree with him. His staffer said that the Senator took the advice of the citizens of Nebraska into consideration when he negotiated the changes in the health care bill he sold his vote for. He is far too busy to meet with the people whose fortunes and livelihoods he is selling down the road for generations to come, even for 10 minutes on the phone.

Even though I am not from Nebraska originally, Nelson is my representative and frankly I am entitled to speak with him. The argument that he simply can't meet with everyone is false, primarily due to the fact that everyone doesn't want to talk to him at the same time.

Perhaps the future former Senator should go back and try to understand that voting for the democrats isn't the same as voting for Nebraskans, whether they were born here or not.

Michael Rowland
Sidney