For what it's worth, my Senator writes me back pretty quickly.

[alexr_rwx]

The world, it's not such a bad place really. People can be amazingly hateful roaring jerks. But then there's just little bits of human kindness and beauty and thoughtfulness. When my bike lock fell off of my bike yesterday as I was cycling through traffic, a man crossing the street with his tiny son perched on his shoulders made an effort to push it to a place where I could easily grab it, and apologized for using his foot instead of picking it up! The security guards at my building have started saying 'hi' after we did some lifting together in the little basement weight room. (they're cool guys. and much stronger than me.)

And my senator wrote me back! Sen. Saxby Chambliss is almost totally wrong about everything, but he (or his organization anyway) wrote me back -- and this time, surprisingly, he's got a pretty sane position. He got me a response pretty quick when I wrote him about wiretap amnesty for the telecom companies too.

Dear Mr. Rudnick :
Thank you for contacting me regarding the hearings held regarding steroid use in baseball. It is good to hear from you.
Steroid use by professional athletes sends a poor message to children who look up to these athletes. It is wrong for our children to believe shortcuts to accomplishing great things and that performance is more important than character.
I do not agree with the use of illegal drugs, but I believe there are much more pressing issues facing our nation than steroid use in Major League Baseball (MLB). If Congress were to focus the resources and time that has been used investigating MLB on the pressing challenges facing our nation like health care reform, supporting our troops, and many other issues that are important to American families.
MLB has implemented policies to test baseball players and those who test positive will be suspended for 50 games for a first offense, 100 games for their second offense, and a lifetime suspension for a third offense. If illegal drugs are being used or distributed by baseball players or trainers, we have laws on the books to hold these individuals accountable. It is the role of law enforcement and our court system to bring these lawbreakers to justice, not the role of Congressional Committees.

Huh! Good job, Sax! (did you think I'd ever say that?)

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I'm a little bit surprised that you are interested in steroid use in the MLB! Is that really what you asked him?
-LBrewer

[oniugnip.livejournal.com]

Ah, I guess i could be a little clearer about that -- I wrote to him to say that maybe Congress shouldn't be spending its time on baseball when maybe there are some other things they could be working on. But the congressional baseball hearings were on the news like all day, broadcasting live. I really don't care about steroids in sports one way or t'other.

[(Anonymous)]

Oh, now it makes sense. I thought for one brief moment that you were becoming a sports fanatic(OK, I know you better than that)!
BTW, you should call your mother. xxxooo

[scottique.livejournal.com]

Hee, I misread it at first, and thought that your correspondence today was about the telecom immunity. And thus, the conversation would have gone like this:

Alex: I really wish you'd think about wiretapping amnesty.
Sax: Yes, I'm very concerned about steroids.

Which is so fabulous, really.

[blackdragon7777.livejournal.com]

You and I agree on something politically! Hell has indeed frozen over! This whole wasting tax payers money having Congress(!) investigate baseball is really retarded. And you know one of the biggest proponents of it is? Senator McCain

[pigflipper.livejournal.com]

Holy crap, a reasonable response from somebody in Congress? Has hell frozen over?

[leadsynth.livejournal.com]

If Congress were to focus the resources and time that has been used investigating MLB on the pressing challenges facing our nation like health care reform, supporting our troops, and many other issues that are important to American families.

If . . . then . . . what? That's not even a sentence! Fail.

[kel-e-o.livejournal.com]

Complete with grammatical errors! Yay! At least he got your last name right, though. :D

It's neat that this letter probably goes to everyone who brings up the current jihad that Congress is waging against steroids in the MLB and obviously no one proofread it to fix the subject/verb disagreement or the fact that he uses "regarding" twice in one sentence.

He did reply though, and that in itself is amazing.