Burned Photos for Climate Change

Changes to EPA regulations will help speed the process of climate change, leading to even more forest fires in the Western United States.

March 28, 2017

Dear Person Who Opens the Mail,

Did you ever do decoupage? It was quite the rage, back in the day. You’d take a nature photo, burn the edges, and slap it onto a piece of old board. Artistic, you know.

So, I made you a scene from one of my favorite places to see fall aspen: Boreas Pass.

The picture burned rather more than I thought it would, but that’s the way with climate change, isn’t it? Everything burns more than we want it to.

Here’s my message to the Congressman: resist efforts to put more carbon, more methane, and more pollution into our air. Trump’s executive actions on rolling back regulations that help preserve the earth for human habitation are a travesty. I’ll back to you with specifics later.

And, you may have the slightly burnt fall scene. A little Mod Podge and an old board, and you’ll have a work of art.

I tell you, this little bit of burning paper caused quite a bit of smoke. Made my eyes water.

I’m off to buy some carbon offsets, now.

Most sincerely, from someone who is growing rather fond of nature now that it’s disappearing,

Ellen Mackey

Our Families Need Affordable Health Insurance

Even those of us who have health insurance through our jobs are worried about how repeal of the ACA will affect our extended families.

Dear Person Who Opens the Mail,

Here’s something you might not expect: If I had to pay for my own health insurance, I would get $3,000 more under the AHCA than under the ACA.

But, I am STILL against AHCA. Here’s why:

I have a daughter. What if she starts a business after she’s 26? What if she becomes ill and doesn’t have insurance through her employer?

I have a sister who is barely making it. Her son has a life-threatening illness.

What will happen to them if she loses her health insurance?

I have a mother. What will happen to her when the ACHA cuts Medicaid?

Here is what I want you to tell the Congressman: do not forget that we have families and friends. That is why I call and write about AHCA. It’s not just about me and what could happen if I lost health insurance. It’s about everyone.

That’s why I’ve enclosed this papercut family. Americans are all connected, and we are all going to do much better if we can minimize health catastrophes.

I urge the Congressman to vote NO on the AHCA.

Sincerely,

Ellen Mackey

Paul Ryan, Health Care, and Lift-the-Flap Subtext

These are the top flaps of Congressman Ryan's health care plan. But, if you lift them, you will find out what he really means underneath. See next picture.

Here's the subtext of Paul Ryan's claims.

Dear Person Who Opens the Mail,

I am a children’s librarian. Kids love lift-the-flap books.

I’ve included a grown-ups lift-the-flap for you.

Please tell the Congressman that I stand with the following organizations in opposing the American Health Care Act (it hasn’t escaped my notice that the word “affordable” was left out):

American Medical Association

American Hospital Association

AARP–there are 38 million of us

Most sincerely,

Ellen Mackey

What Shall We Do With Our Tax Money?

Sorrow Eaters and American Health Care

 a Poem About People Who Feed on Sorrow

[Note: The book I reference in this poems is called The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill. It won the prestigious Newbery Award this year. I recommend it. Like George Orwell's 1984 it seems appropriate in these times.]

Dear Person Who Opens the Mail,

I read a book last week,about a village

That had a day of sacrifice.

On that day, the youngest child

A baby was taken to the woods

And left there to appease a witch.

But there was really not a witch.

Only a woman in the village

Who needed sorrow.

A sorrow-eater.

She made up the story about the witch

To make people feel bereft and afraid

The better to feed her appetite.

Just a fantasy book, right?

No sorrow-eaters in America.

And yet, we must have sorrow

People who can’t pay for insurance must suffer

Personal responsibility, and corporate profits

And They Have to Learn Somehow, and all that.

But, would it be so bad if

We didn’t have to be thrown in a dark hole of fear?

Live one tragedy away from ruin?

Is there really a better way to spend our money?

Puppet Show: Is the US a Compassionate Nation?

Stick puppets of Tom Price and Bernie Sanders to use for re-creating the dialogue of their discussion of whether the United States is a compassionate nation in terms of health care.

[This copy sent to Senator Bennet]

Dear Person Who Opens the Mail,

Wasn’t this election grand? I now have a favorite confirmation hearing dialogue. Heck, I didn’t even used to watch confirmation hearings before.

So, I’ve included some stick puppets of Bernie Sanders and Tom Price for you. I’ve even transcribed the dialogue you can use J:

Bernie Sanders:  Do you believe health care is a right of all Americans, whether they’re rich or they’re poor; should people, because they are Americans, be able to go to a doctor when they need to, be able to go to a hospital because they are Americans?

Tom Price:  Yes, we—we’re a compassionate society—

Bernie Sanders:  No, we are not a compassionate society. In terms of our relationship to poor working people, our records is worse than virtually any other country on earth. We have the highest rate of childhood poverty of any other major country on earth, and half of our senior older workers have nothing set aside for retirement. So, I don’t think compared to other countries, we are particularly compassionate.

Tom Price:    …I believe, and I look forward to working with you to make sure that every single American has access to the highest quality care and coverage that is possible.

Bernie Sanders:  “Has access to” does not mean that they are guaranteed health care. I have access to buying a ten million dollar home.  I don’t have the money to do that.

Oh, and here’s what I’d like you to remind the Congressman:  Do not roll back the Medicaid funding that was part of the ACA. More people gonna die if they do that.

You can give the puppets to one of your Republican colleagues, if you think they need a reminder. Keep fighting the good fight

Most Sincerely,

Ellen Mackey 

Maybe You Need Some Better Magic

Congressman Mike Coffman, whose magic trick didn't turn out so well.

So, they re-drew the lines of my representatives' district sometime back, and he now has a more diverse community to represent. Now, he's supportive of DACA & he shows up at Chinese New Year events. 

I don't begrudge him that. His constituency changed, and he changed (a bit) along with it.

Still, it seems a little like pandering to me. Does he really care about immigrants? will he stand up for them when it counts?

He had a campaign commercial in which he said,

“People ask me, ‘What do you think about Trump?’ Honestly, I don’t care for him much,” Coffman says in the ad. “I’m a Marine. My duty is always to you. So if Donald Trump is the president, I’ll stand up to him. Plain and simple."

Well, maybe not too much standing up to him. He was all in on the scuttled American Health Care Act, even though it would hurt many of his constituents who were able to get health insurance under the ACA.

And, as far as I can tell, he hasn't really spoken up on the more egregious things Trump has done: his budget which makes deep cuts in vital programs so that he can give even more to the military, decimating the EPA, the travel bans, appointing alt-right leaders and corporate billionaires to positions of power, etc.

And, it took hi 4 months to have a face-to-face meeting with his constituents.

But, on the afternoon this photo was taken, he was perfectly happy to get some attention from a friendly crowd.

The magician called him up to be a part of her show. They cut the middle out of a handkerchief, and of course hers "healed" during the course of the act, and his was left with a gaping hole.

The symbolism of the thing struck me, though. Is he just a void at the center? Will he sell out his principles to get ahead with the new administration?

Here was my letter:

February 19, 2017

Dear Person Who Opens Mr. Coffman’s Mail,

In case you didn’t hear about it, your boss tried to perform a little magic at the Chinese New Year celebration last month.

It didn’t go so well.

Please tell him I sent him this magic wand so that he can fix health care so that it can do all they’ve promised with the tax credits and HAS contributions they’ve proposed.

Without an individual mandate, they’re going to need some magic to keep premiums affordable.

And—they haven’t said a thing about trying to keep costs down. Letting the government negotiate with pharmaceutical companies would be a good start. They shouldn’t get to profit 20% while so many middle-income people go without medicine. Shameful.

Most sincerely,

Ellen Mackey

Mr. Coffman needed a better magic wand. So I sent him this one.

New Health Care Bill Not Good for People of Modest Means

As I post this, the AHCA has gone down in a ball of flames. Not, as I had hoped, because it took money from the poor and gave it to the rich, It failed in the House because it didn't take enough money away from poor people.

I still believe the points I make in this letter are the things our country needs to think about in terms of health care.

PS: I got a form letter back saying that we need to repeal and replace ACA. Same old song and dance.

Mr. Jeremy Lippert

2443 Rayburn House Office Building

Washington, DC 20515

Dear Mr. Lippert,

I have looked at the better.gop site which proposes an ACA replacement, and I believe it will be a worse deal for the struggling people of this country. I was referred to that site by one of Rep. Coffman’s aides, so I have reason to believe it is the one he supports.

**First, it looks like you all will be relying on tax credits and HAS’s to do the bulk of the work on trying to make health insurance affordable, those trusty old standbys of Republican policy.

Those ideas would probably work fine for me. My husband and I both work full time in professional jobs and would be able to pay the premium, save money in an HAS and wait for our tax credit.

It’s not going to work at all for my sister who makes $40,000/year, is a single mom and has two kids to take care of. The premiums for a family are around $18,000 this year. I SERIOUSLY doubt that the tax credits are going to make that premium affordable for her. Plus, she has to wait til tax time to get them. Do you really think she can afford to do that? And really, how is she going to put anything away in an HSA when she needs the money for—oh—things like food and shelter?

It’s typical of rich people like you (and me, truth be told) to think that tax credits and shelters will solve the problem. They only work for people who have enough money to wait for all those benefits.

**Second, I find it disturbing that you don’t make any mention of bending down the cost curve, except to say that you’ll let companies sell across state lines. There’s not even any evidence that insurance companies want to do that. It takes a lot of investment to develop deals with providers in other states, and they would have to be sure of the market before they’ll take a risk like that. That’s a weak piecemeal solution at best.

How about allowing providers to negotiate lower prices with drug companies? Medicare is prohibited from doing that. The pharmaceutical companies with their campaign contributions have carved themselves out a nice little exception. They raise prices 100, 200, and—not uncommonly—5,000 % because they can. Nice monopolies they have going. They get their profit margins of 20% on all their medications and Americans in particular suffer the consequences.

And, let’s look at for-profit insurance companies. They spend 30% of their money on marketing and underwriting NOT on helping their customers. Shameful.

And the doctors and hospitals are not blameless, either. They are all making tons of money off of us, which is why  1 out of every 6 dollars in this country goes to health care. That’s ridiculous.

We have the most costly and inefficient health care system among our peers, and often terrible outcomes besides. I’m glad that people are marching in the streets about it. They should have  been way before now.

Have a Heart. No, Really. Do Have One.

Here are the hearts I embroidered and sent to the people who open the mail. We get everyone employed by helping everyone, not by chasing them away, creating an "us" and "them mentality.

February 10, 2017

Dear Person Who Opens the Mail for Senator Bennet,

The embroidered heart enclosed is for you. I had some time during the Super Bowl to make it. It might be a good rug for a dollhouse, or something.

Mmm-mmm-mm.

What are we going to do?

Crazy people in the White House.

Gonna bring back all those jobs that left.

My parents lived all their lives in Monte Vista, Colorado.

Down south, in the San Luis Valley.

Ever heard of it?

They had a Sears store. Good money in a small town.

Closed up in 1991. Wal-Mart killed it.

I even wrote about it for the paper.

Google “Sausages, Saddles, and Bees.”

It was in the Denver Post.

Internet would have killed the business if Wal-Mart hadn’t.

They opened a health food store after that.

Barely broke even.

They basically made no money after age 55.

Rural areas are a tough place to be.

Yeah, Trump and the Republicans,

Gonna bring back those jobs.

What—Dial back Wal Mart? The Internet? Those robots that do what people used to do?

You know they’re not going to come back.

Ok, here’s what I’d like to tell Mr Bennet:

Keep thinking about education.

That’s what helps.

Flexibility, too. If only we could teach that.

I’m behind you.

Let me know what I can do.

El 

Evil at the Center of the White House

Here is the picture I sen to my Congressmen. Like having a combination of Dick Cheney, Darth Vader and Satan in the White House. Why do we have to put up with him there?

Dear Person Who Opens the Mail,

Yes, he really said this.

Very cool for a comic book villain.

Not so cool when you’re talking about the United States of America.

When you’re talking about the National Security Council.

What the hell is up with letting this man in the White House?

-The question I have for your boss is: What is he going to do to protect us all from Steve Bannon?

There has to be something. As Leia said “You are my only hope.”

Most Sincereley,

El

Save a Heart -- Keep Insurance for All Americans

"Dear Mr. Congressman"  I sent hearts to staffers ans asked them to remind the Congressman that my dad's heart problems were not covered before ACA. They were pre-existing conditions.

January 24, 2017

Dear Person Who Opens the Mail,

Today, some hearts for you and your co-workers.

My father had a bad ticker.  He owned a small business, a Sears catalog store. It was kind of of like a franchise. He would get a percentage of the sales. Boy, you could buy anything from the Sears catalog. You could even order bees. The Post Office would call my dad in the morning to tell him a hive of bees had arrived for a customer.

Well, as I said, he had heart problems. And, insurance companies were glad to take his money. But they made sure to make it clear that they wouldn’t cover anything related to his heart. Pre-existing condition, you know. And the thing that would be most likely to kill him.

Dad was lucky, in some ways. He didn’t have his heart attack until he was old enough for Medicare. The bill would have bankrupted the whole family, otherwise.

So, here is my message to the Congressman: don’t repeal the ACA. Don’t get rid of the rule that says insurance companies have to cover pre-existing conditions. Otherwise, all but the jillionaire are one bad health scare away from losing everything

I hope you have a nice day. Talk to you later.

Warm regards,

El

The "Dear Mr. Congressman" Project

For my first "Dear Mr. Congressman" letter, I sent the person who opens the mail a lucky red envelope with 26 cents in it. 

Hi.

Welcome to the first issue of "Dear Mr. Congressman." All of my representatives in Congress are men, hence the name.

Like a lot of people, I think that our representatives are getting farther and farther away from the people. So, this year, I've decided to get in contact with them more.

I call.

I fax.

And, I write letters.

I'm away that many Congressmen ignore letters that are sent out. But, I'm hoping that I can make my letters interesting enough for the people who open the mail to pay attention to.

I send art.

I send humor.

I send food for thought.

And, I also ask them to talk to their boss for me.

Above, you'll see a picture of the first thing I sent to them.

And, here is the text of the first letter:

Dear Person Who Opens the Mail,

Do you like your job? I used to be the person who got all the mail at work, and I found it fun. A lot of mail was humdrum, but every now and then there was a surprise.

And I have a surprise for you, not for the Congressman. Enclosed you will find a red envelope that is used to present gifts for the Lunar New Year in China. It’s coming up on Jan 28. People typically include gifts of money.

I have a daughter, adopted from China, and I must say, it’s been fascinating to learn about Chinese history and customs.

Here in the US, we’ve added a different take at big Chinese New Year celebrations, and we give the children a chocolate coin in the envelope.

I considered sending you a chocolate coin, but let’s face it. Who would eat something from someone they don’t know?

It seemed ungenerous not to enclose something, so I’ve decided to enclose 26 cents. See, my daughter is in college now. She studying Spanish and Chinese and International Affairs. She wants to study abroad, maybe get a master’s degree and work in government.

I am concerned that it will take her a while to get one of those good jobs with health benefits. And now, it seems that Congress wants to repeal ACA and take with it the provision that children can stay on their parents’ health insurance until they are 26.

So, here is my message to the Congressman: don’t repeal the ACA. Could you pass that along for me? I’d be ever so grateful.

As to the 26 cents, I’d like to stress that it’s not a campaign contribution. Take the envelope to your child or grandchild. Or leave it on the sidewalk for someone to find.

I hope you have a nice day. Talk to you later.

Warm regards,

El