An Open Letter to Senator Thom Tillis — R. NC

Dear Senator Tillis,

I would like to thank you for having an intern take the time send me a form letter in response to my email to you. It speaks volumes to me about your level of interest in my concern over the current climate of our country and my hope for our home state.

I emailed you to express my disappointment in you voting “Yes” to repealing the Stream Buffer Rule on February 2 of this year. The rule that you stated;

“Under the Obama Administration, some federal agencies have overstepped the authority granted to them by Congress. As a result, as a result they have implemented policies that harm hard working taxpayers, sometimes without any measurable benefits.”

Honestly, I never expected a response. You’ve been so busy ducking Town Halls with your constituents, I’m impressed you even found the time.

While I appreciate the implied effort, I am truly disappointed that the best explanation you could come up with was a recitation of your party’s line. Surely, you remember the Duke Energy coal ash spill from a few years ago and the impact it had on the water supply for the people living in that area? It was devastating. And yet, throwing the Obama administration under the bus was the best explanation you could come up with when asked why you would favor legislation protecting those people? Maybe you could explain to me how stopping corporations from dumping their waste into rivers and streams hurts me or my neighbors. I realize your office has been too busy to schedule appointments with constituents lately, but there’s got to be a spreadsheet laying on someone’s desk you could reference, right? I assume that if you weren’t too cowardly to host a legitimate Town Hall, (and not some phone-in Town Hall that you’d announce within 2 hours of it’s start time) you would provide a Power Point Presentation that breaks down the benefit of allowing publicly traded companies to poison my water supply.

Did ever occur to you, Senator, that perhaps the regulation was put in place because greed hoarding, climate change denying, morally bankrupt, corporate fat cats like you and your friends at Duke Energy couldn’t be trusted to make the right decision?

I seriously hope you’ve been working on a plan for when the water runs out because you won’t be able to drink your money when that day comes.

You are a disgrace to the good people of North Carolina and now that our spirits and voices have been woken to the corruption currently leading the GOP, we will not be silent any longer.

Sincerely,

Holly R. Riley