Letter to Congressmen

by Cherie Garofalo, Hamilton

Dear Senator Sheehy and Representative Zinke:

I called and I called and I called your Missoula offices and nobody from either of your offices returned my call, even though your messages say they will. Based upon your failure to respond, an open letter published in the newspaper might get a public answer.

I simply would like to know when you are planning to hold a town hall meeting in Ravalli County to meet and hear from your constituents. To give you the chance to prepare your answers, I will tell you the questions I plan to ask and why I am asking them.

Question One: Do you support or oppose the decision by the Trump Administration to terminate United States Forest Service employees in Montana? If you support the decision, explain why. If you oppose, what have you  done or intend to do to reverse these terminations?

I ask because terminating these employees will directly and indirectly harm the economy and way of life here in Ravalli County. Terminating them will directly harm our county because the incomes of these employees goes directly into our local economy by their purchase of local goods and services. And the work they perform to maintain, preserve and protect our public lands will harm the ways of life for the many Ravalli County residents who rely upon the condition of those lands to live, farm, ranch and recreate. Terminating these Forest Service employees will indirectly harm our county in the form of lost revenue from people outside of Ravalli County who come to our county and other parts of Montana to experience our wilderness, in the form of hiking, hunting, fishing, boating and sightseeing. Limiting public access and degrading of our public lands due to the lack of employees to maintain, preserve and protect them (not to mention the outright closure of national parks) will discourage visitors from coming here.

Question Two: Do you support or oppose the decision by the Trump Administration to terminate employees of the Rocky Mountain Laboratories? If you support the decision, explain why. What does the country have to gain, another epidemic like measles? If you oppose, what have you done or intend to reverse these terminations? Terminating these employees will also directly harm the economy of Ravalli County in the form of their lost income that goes directly

into our community by their purchase of local goods and services. Terminating these employees endangers the health of the residents of Ravalli County, the state of Montana, the United States and the rest of the world, because those doctors and scientists work to investigate, understand, cure and eradicate diseases that threaten the lives of all of us.

It is your fundamental duty to hear from your constituents, inform us of where you stand on the issues that impact our lives and take actions that are consistent with our best interests.

Please do not shirk your responsibilities by hiding in Washington D.C. If you are scared to hear from us or are following the orders of your party not to hold town halls, then perhaps you are in the wrong job.