Dear John Salazar

This is a letter I penned to Representative Salazars office today. I will post the response once(if)it is received.


The Honorable John Salazar
326 Cannon House Office Building
United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Representative Salazar,

My wife and I are your constituents, we live in Grand Junction, Colorado. I am writing you because you are my Representative and I have some thoughts that I believe you should know.

The heading of your website states; “Defending Rural Values - Third District of Colorado”. I thought that I would give you a list of values that are held by me and my family, so you have an idea what you are trying to defend.

I believe in God and he is the center of my life

I believe that God gave our founding fathers the wisdom to have our freedoms written into our Constitution. I do not believe that the government gave me those freedoms, God gave me those freedoms. This was stated in the Declaration of Independence as “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights”. I will not curtail my value system on what the government tells me what is right or wrong. I will only do what is required of me by my God.

My family is sacred. My wife and I are the ultimate authority not the government.

My wife and I make the decisions in our household, we tell our children what is right and what is wrong, we do not need the government to tell them for us. We make our decisions based on our values, taught to us by our God. The government will not decide what is best for my family, my wife and I will.

If my wife and I decide that my children should be educated at home, they will be educated at home. If we decide that we do not wish to partake in some over-hyped opinion, that we (as Americans) are the reason for the entire environmental destruction of the earth, we will not.

America is good

I am citizen of this great country and I am blessed. We were given this land from the sacrifices of our forefathers. We do not believe that we should be apologizing to leaders of other countries for what we are, or what we have done. When the leader of our great country goes abroad and bows to a king of another place, or apologizes for what we have done, it shows weakness and is unacceptable. We are Americans and we are proud to be Americans.

If you break the law you pay the penalty. Justice is blind and no one is above it.

President Nixon learned the hard way that it does not matter if you are the President of the United States, if you break the law, there will be consequences. It is time for our politicians to know that people in this country are watching their every move, and the time of corruption and greed will come to an end.

When Timothy Geithner was appointed and confirmed as the Secretary of the Treasury, it was a devastating blow to our judicial system. This is a man that we were told was the only person in the entire country that could “fix” our economy, a man who is now in charge of the Internal Revenue Service, yet he could not figure out how to fill out his own taxes. This is wrong.

I have a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, but there is no guarantee of equal results.

I have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I have those rights, given to me, by my Creator. I choose what I want to do in life, and I take the compensation given to me, but the government doesn’t owe me anything that I did not work for myself. I do not believe that every resident should be compensated for just living in our country. We work for the honor. It is not a gift, it is a privilege to be an American citizen.

I work hard for what I have and I will share it with who I want to. The Government cannot force me to be charitable.

I work hard all week long so I can supply the things my family needs such as food, clothes, housing, health care, etc... I am not guaranteed those things, and I do not want to be guaranteed those things. I am guaranteed the ability to pursue those things. I do not want a hand out. I want to be left to pursue my own happiness. If I choose to spend every minute of the day working to achieve greatness, I will. If I choose to not have a job and live on the street. I should also have that choice.

But I do not, and will not, work 50 hours a week so someone else can do nothing and get paid for the privilege. That is not my choice. It is not capitalism, that is socialism, and I am not a socialist.

If I choose to give my money and possessions to someone else, I will. The government should not make that choice for me.

It is not un-American for me to disagree with authority or to share my personal opinion

I am an American and I am granted the freedom of speech in the First Amendment of the Constitution. I know that not everybody is going to agree with everything I say. That does not mean I have no right to say anything. I will not be intimidated into silence on my views on issues. I will speak out by letter, by speech, via the Internet, and during public assemblies. I am not ashamed of what I believe and I will make it publicly known.

The government works for me and I do not answer to them; they answer to me.

Over the last 20 years, the political climate has changed to one of personal liberty and freedom to one of subservience to an all powerful government. This has got to stop. The preamble to the Constitution does not say... We the Government of these United States. It says WE THE PEOPLE of these UNITED STATES. We the people are in charge. We the are people for which our country was founded. It was not founded so politicians could become wealthier and place people into servitude for the government. It was founded to break free from the governmental control of England.


I believe that the citizens of this country are tired. Tired of all the lies, deception, and greed of government officials. We are tired of being told we have to pay for some else’s mortgage or health care. We are tired of the constant bickering of both political parties, while nothing is actually accomplished. Tired of being told that some else is “to big to fail” while we eat Ramen Noodles and count pennies for milk. We are tired of legislation that “has” to be rushed through Congress, without even giving Congressmen time to read the legislation. We are tired of our Representatives not representing us, but representing some lobbyist in Washington D.C. We want our government back! The power of the government needs to be returned to us; WE THE PEOPLE.

You, John Salazar, are the voice of our Congressional district, Yours is the only voice, of the 650,000 people in Colorado’s third Congressional district, that can be heard on the floor of the House of Representatives. Please sir, stand up for true, rural Colorado values, stand up for reason, stand up for common sense, stand up for us.


Todd Transmeier
Grand Junction, Colorado