Hello Mr. Baird,
I've been meaning to write for a while, and your recent mailer provided the motivation I needed.
First of all, I'd like to thank you for representing our district. I realize that it takes a significant amount of effort to keep in touch with your district at home and be involved in Washington, too. I also want to thank you for your military service. It's clear that you are dedicated to our country.
The primary thing that I wanted to write to you about is the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Frankly, I'm quite discouraged by the lack of control of the spread of the virus, and the lack of any effective effort by the federal government in this area. I think it's good that there has been significant economic relief. But that's a bandaid. I'll repeat what I said in my May email to you: the economy will not recover as long as coronavirus transmission is still happening. Why hasn't the federal government taken the lead on controlling spread? As a member of Congress and as a representative of our district, will you please do everything in your power to influence Congress and the President to take this issue seriously, to look to other countries (like Germany, Iceland, and New Zealand) for advice, and to provide real tools to states to get ahead of the virus? I don't know what we need, but we need something. Do we need to restrict movement between states, so that states can effectively control spread? Do we need nation wide contact tracing? It's true that we need economic relief, and thank you for your support of measures like the CARES Act. But that should have been temporary, and now it seems like it's going to end up being much longer term. What we really need is a strategy for minimizing or eliminating the spread of the virus and the leadership of the federal government in implementing it. We don't need to wait months, or a year, or more, for an effective vaccine when we can take steps now to mitigate this problem. For America to be truly great, we need to set an example and help the rest of the world, too. Instead, other countries are leading on this.
Additionally, I was shocked by the opening statement on your mailer. In it, I read disrespectful dismissiveness of some real problems that face our country. To label the "Green New Deal" and "Defund the Police" as "socialism" and to stop there is quite disrespectful to scientists who have worked hard to learn about how our world is changing, people of color who have been treated unjustly by the police, and ordinary citizens who are concerned about both of these issues. I'm not asking you to agree with all of the policies that these movements are proposing. I am asking you to take climate change and unjust policing seriously. There is much that we can do as a country to address both of these challenges in ways that make sense to Republicans and Democrats. Also, I was really blown away by your use of "socialism" as a slur on the front page, and your desire to publicly fund investment on the back as extremely dissonant. Please do not decry socialism while you tolerate things like farm subsidies.
Sincerely, (me)