A Letter

Dear politicians,

It's simple, really:

I'd like to know where my food came from and what's in it. 

I'd like to know that those enacting and enforcing our nation's laws are also subject to them, and even respect them to the extent that they seek to hold themselves to a higher standard.

I'd like to know that I can go to a protest or be an activist or attend a lecture or read an article or book and won't end up on a list somewhere as an appropriate target for persecution or that I am somehow considered less than others because I am passionate about a cause.

I'd like to smoke a bowl, or a joint, or eat a medible without wondering if the feds are going to crash through my door and flash-bang my family in order to remove the dangerous criminal from the community that never knew she was a criminal.

I'd like to point out that I do not consume marijuana because I can't legally, but that it would probably be really beneficial to me if I could.

I'd like to know that my fellow citizens and I, regardless of who or how or how many or when or why we love have equal rights and protections under the law.

I'd like to be able to go to school, or a doctor, without fearing the penury that is sure to follow.  

I'd like mental illness to no longer be used as a reason to marginalize people.

I'd like to go out in public without fearing that I, or my family, or anyone else, will be shot by another citizen, the police, or some government agency when we are not a direct threat to anyone or anything and are simply going about our lives.

I'd like you to quit thinking that a group largely made up of older white males has some moral imperative to regulate my (or anyone's) reproductive system - sex work, birth control, reproductive rights, and everything that goes along with them belong to me and whoever I share me with, not you or anyone else.

I'd like not to chew my water or air.

I'd like to know why The Constitution is only applicable when it backs you and yours, but not when it protects me and mine.

I'd like to see laws enforced equitably, not with bias reflecting beauty, wealth, popularity, fame, infamy, social station, sex, or skin color.

I'd like to see fewer laws.

I'd like a fair tax.

I'd like to know what it's like to not live in fear of the government taking or harming my family simply because I don't fit the defined norm.

I'd like to believe that you give the tiniest damn about the people you allegedly serve, but I don't.

I'd like to think we can fix this mess we're in, but hope is a tiny flame flickering against the cold and dark and you seem to be striving mightily to extinguish it.

You make me tired, and sick, and disheartened, and sometimes even afraid, but I'd like to think that those things will never silence me, and that somewhere, somehow, someday, you will hear me and the other voices crying in the wilderness and you will tremble.