Dear Patriots

Dear Patriots:

William G. Burmer

Recently I received a reply from Barbara Boxer, Senator from California, to an editorial I sent to her and Feinstein some weeks ago. Oh yes, I send my editorials to my representatives. I believe we should all let them know how we feel, not just our friends and those who may disagree.

The reply was predictable, sanitized, polite without mention of any actually subject matter; I was thanked for my comments and assured they would play a role in her decision making process as she worked in the Senate.

I have, in the past, received several letters from my representatives of the same genre. I am sure each of you have also received similar letters if not the same. They begin by inserting your first name “Dear _____. (First Paragraph) Thank you for your recent letter, your comments are important to me BLAH BLAH BlAH. (Second Paragraph) Please visit my web site for some (BS). The (third Paragraph) More (BS) and finally the salutation can be interpreted to mean (Kiss off) your comments are trivial to me and I will enjoy my power and retirement at your personal expense.

I would that the following words of Davy Crockett rang sober within the hearts of more of today’s politicians.

Letter (28 January 1834), reported in A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett (1834), p. 113, final paragraph.

I am sorry to say I do doubt the honesty of many men that are called good at home, that have given themselves up to serve a party. I am no man's man. I bark at no man's bid. I will never come and go, and fetch and carry, at the whistle of the great man in the white house, no matter who he is. And if this petty, un-patriotic scuffling for men, and forgetting principles, goes on, it will be the overthrow of this one happy nation, and the blood and toil of our ancestors will have been expended in vain.

In a letter following his defeat in the 1830 elections, as quoted in David Crockett: The Man and the Legend (1994) by James Atkins Shackford, p. 133

I would rather be beaten and be a man than to be elected and be a little puppy dog. I have always supported measures and principles and not men. I have acted fearless and independent and I never will regret my course. I would rather be politically buried than to be hypocritically immortalized.

To all who serve party over principle I say: Woof Woof, Bow Wow.