Help Giffords do the right thing

by David Safier
After today's health care rally at TCC, I talked with one of Giffords' people. I identified myself as the BfA blogger who was rapping Giffords' stand on health care. I was called "disingenuous" for my posts. I bristled, raised my voice a few decibels and explained how genuine my concerns are.

In a nutshell: our legislators need to be in front of the health care issue, like Grijalva, talking about what we must do — pass either a single payer bill or a bill with a strong public option — and saying we have to find a way to do it. Giffords is one of the politicians emphasizing the problems rather than working toward solutions. They're dragging their heels at the back of the legislative train rather than stoking the fires to move the train down the road.

The "disingenuous" issue put aside, I was told this, as an example of the kinds of public comments Giffords gets. During the debate over the cap-and-trade legislation, Giffords got 1,100 comments telling her to vote against the environmental measure and 17 telling her to vote for it. Even if that's an exaggeration, those are terrible numbers.

Too many of us assume Giffords is supposed to vote with us, then we sit back and are disappointed when she doesn't, while the other side is bombarding her with phone calls and emails. We need to let her hear our voices.

Giffords local office number: (520) 881-3588. You can send her email here. Take a minute out of your day and do it.

I also learned, next Friday, July 17, a group of teabaggers are planning an event at Giffords' Tucson office. My understanding is that the Pima Democratic Party is trying to organize a simultaneous event. I'll post more when I know more.

Giffords needs our help to do the right thing. We should give her what she needs.