My Letter is Answered

Tonight, I was doing homework when I got a call on my cell from a 202 area code. I know that's Washington D.C., and I figured the only person who would call me would be someone asking for money. I reluctantly picked it up and said, "This is Jesse" like I always do, but no one was on the other line.

A minute later, the same person called and I picked up saying, "Hello?" The person on the other line identified himself as Congressman Rob Bishop. He told me he had my letter in front of him and wanted to talk about it.

About a month ago, I wrote about a letter I wrote to my Congressman about a bill to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," a military policy that excludes military gays from telling anyone they are gay. It's a very important issue to me (since I want to be in the military) so I wrote a personal letter. When I wrote it, I asked Megan if I should send it to his Ogden or Washington D.C. office. She told me that it didn't matter because he'd never read it. At the time, her response kinda hurt my feelings--I was taking time to write a personal letter and my friend basically says it's not worth it.

On the phone, Representative Bishop mentioned that he remembered me from the Lincoln Day dinner because, "I don't have many supporters in Rose Park." He told me that he hasn't looked at the legislation, but will make sure he gets the military's opinion before formulating an opinion. I told him that many military leaders can come out in favor of repealing the ban and encouraged him to learn all he could about the issue. I told him that I really wanted to join the military and I will once the ban is repealed. I then thanked him for calling me and hung up.

I thought it was really nice of him to call me, especially since it was about 11pm in Washington D.C. While I didn't vote for him, the phone call showed me that he actually cares about his constituency and is working for the people of Utah. I thought it was impressive that he took time to call me. While the pessimist would say he called me because he didn't have a formal position on the issue so he couldn't write a letter, I say it was because Representative Bishop could tell that my letter was from the heart. I really hope he keeps me in mind when he formulates a position.