Dear Rep. Harriet Hageman:

It was with at first interest, and then dismay and sadness that I read the letter associated with your “Protect Our Rights” form that I received in the mail. I had hoped that I would have encountered a thoughtful discussion of the many issues before us as Americans in today’s world but instead was presented with a negative diatribe against the current administration.

Among the more disturbing portions of the letter were the apparently deliberate untruths printed in the letter. For example, you state that Republican investigations have exposed, “How Joe Biden sold out our country to foreign adversaries to enrich himself and his family at the expense of our national security.”

Yet you cite no specific evidence to back up that statement. Furthermore, I have seen no credible media sources reporting the existence of any such evidence. I cannot be other than deeply concerned and disappointed that my lone representative in the House would stoop to spreading falsehoods in a re-election bid.

You speak long and forcibly about rights. Individual and legal rights are important. That is why our founders created the Bill of Rights. How those rights are understood and lived out, however, is a different matter. Americans have different understandings and interpretations of our rights and therefore need to be in cooperative conversation about them to develop a consensus of how we are to honor and preserve them.

What I did not find in your letter and rarely in the discussions around rights is the concept of responsibilities. We seem eager to “defend our rights” but less willing to accept the responsibilities of participating in our democratic form of government.

Are we not, in a democracy, responsible for fully educating and informing ourselves about all aspects of issues and controversies? Do we not have a responsibility to see other points of view? Are we not called to consider reasonable compromise when seeking to solve problems?

Do I not, as a citizen and voter in Wyoming, have the right to expect the members of my congressional delegation to do their jobs in good faith both reasonably and responsibly?

We are facing a government shutdown if another continuing resolution is not passed to fund that government. What are you doing to make that happen?

Are you supporting your speaker to get a vote in the House on the compromise bill just out of the Senate to buy time to work on the many other issues before congress? Or do you see your mission as simply one to obstruct the work you and Congress are called to do? (Editor’s note: Hageman voted “no” on the bill to continue to fund the government.)

You stated in your letter that you are “fighting … for All Americans.” Really? Based on your letter you are clearly not working for me. So, no, I will not send you money. Instead, I will support local efforts to help improve the lives of Uinta County residents as best I can.

Roy Walworth

Evanston