I need to write a letter to a rethug... would you "write to your audience?"

[Inchworm]

It's freaking Virginia Foxx no less. Sadly, she represents me.

After weeks back and forth communicating on a state level, both of my state representatives said that my issue would be best mended at the federal level.

So, should I "write to my audience?" I want to call her out on that shit she said on the floor, but I know better than to do that. I may throw a "we all make mistakes" line in referring to it if I think that'll help me get what I want.

Soooo...
Since my audience is her...
Should I just write what comes to mind, use biblical references, or what?

Any ideas?

:hi:

[Turbineguy]

1. There is the reference

about shaking the dust off one's feet.

http://www.scripturessay.com/article.php?cat=&id=685

But that might be too subtle for "your audience"

[Inchworm]

5. After listening to a few of them yesterday

I was thinking biblical may work best.

I was smiling at Repugs yesterday, using Cain, Able, Adam, Eve, etc. stories to explain why we need raping corporations in the US.

:P

[sandnsea]

2. Write to your audience

If this is important, do your research on the woman and write a letter that appeals to her "reason" and personal interests. You're never going to change her mind and she doesn't appear to be the sentimental type. I would hate to have to put a problem of mine in her hands. Yikes!

[Inchworm]

6. Yea.. it sucks

I originally wrote her when I bombed out my plight. All the others responded. She, however, sent a stock reply and thanked me for my concerns...

I may have to go bulleted, cold hard facts on this one to get it even read.

:banghead:

[Birdiesmom]

3. Reported in Wikipedia on the initial trial of the murderers

"In court the defendants used varying rationales to defend their actions. They attempted to use the "gay panic defense", arguing that they were driven to temporary insanity by alleged sexual advances by Shepard. At another point they stated that they had only wanted to rob Shepard and never intended to kill him.<3>

"The prosecutor in the case charged that McKinney and Henderson pretended to be gay in order to gain Shepard's trust to rob him.<11> During the trial, Chastity Pasley and Kristen Price (the pair's then-girlfriends) testified under oath that Henderson and McKinney both plotted beforehand to rob a gay man. McKinney and Henderson then went to the Fireside Lounge and selected Shepard as their target. McKinney alleged that Shepard asked them for a ride home. After befriending him, they took him to a remote area of Laramie where they robbed him, beat him severely, and tied him to a fence with a rope from McKinney's truck while Shepard begged for his life. Media reports often contained the graphic account of the pistol whipping and his smashed skull. It was reported that Shepard was beaten so brutally that his face was covered in blood, except where it had been partially washed clean by his tears.<12><13> Both girlfriends also testified that neither McKinney nor Henderson was under the influence of drugs at the time.<14><15>"

How can Foxx possibly call this an ordinary robbery? How can these murderers go into a gay bar and then say they were "driven to insanity" by a gay man's "sexual advances" towards them -- provided he made any advances towards them at all? One of the girlfriends later changed her story and said the guys were on massive quantities of drugs the night of the murder, and were not targeting any gays. A subsequent 20/20 report also downplayed the gay element of the story, and tried to make the incident appear to be a mere roberry, which may have influenced Foxx and others like her.

Doesn't matter. You don't go into a gay bar, say you're gay in order to lure out a gay man, and then torture him at length to the point of death, and say it wasn't motivated by hatred.

Point this out to Ms. Foxx.

[TahitiNut]

4. Foxx: "He died in the commitment of a robbery."

This is the heart of the despicable LIE that Foxx was peddling. It's this remark in particular that I found pathological and corrupt. It permits and even invites the inference that Matthew Shepard himself was engaged in robbery. It's EXACTLY the same phrasing one might employ in describing a robber killed attempting to escape or shot by a cop.

No matter how anyone attempts to ameliorate or spin her words, it was THIS that condemns her to being a lying, corrupt, hateful piece of human excrement.

[Inchworm]

7. I'm picking my fights right now

Had I not needed her actual help. She'd have for sure gotten a good letter from me pointing out how if she represents me, she does it best not showing up.

:grr:

[Birdiesmom]

8. Ah ... sorry. I misunderstood.

Then I guess you'd best do as was pointed out above -- research her interests, and appeal to her not-so-better nature.

I feel for you. Anyone you tries to get teenagers to favor pro-tobacco lobbying by comparing tobacco to Mountain Dew is nearly hopeless as a human being.