June 2008

For those of you that have followed my previous writing, you know that I usually speak in more subtle and sometimes psychological terms. This time, however, is not rhetorical. This time is not for innuendo or the hypothetical. This time is for a serious dose of reality to come our way.

I went from concerned, to worried, to downright scared of the looming threat that begins this fall – the heating season. I have talked with and listened to many people, all ages, all venues, and heard some heart-breaking stories. The retired nurse on a fixed income that is contemplating having to sell her house and move to assisted living because she got seriously ill a couple of years ago and while still paying the bills for that, does not know how she will pay for heat come winter. The employees of the oil delivery company that tell me that every day they have people come to their office, sometimes crying while they put some money toward their future fuel bill and yet don’t know how they are going to buy food. The young veteran that has sold all the possessions he could spare in order to just pay the bills for his family and yet is still falling behind. I’ve heard those stories and so have you. I’ve had tears in my eyes and sometimes got choked up enough that I could not answer, and so have you.

I know that, thanks to visionaries, we have programs that help people pay their utilities, rent, mortgages, and even babysitting. All good, all well-intentioned, and most of them broken, exploited, deficient, and uncontrolled. We all know who needs help and who does not. The fact that some people have become so good at finding how to take advantage of the system, which by the way is all of us as a society, does not mean we should let them do it.

How we prioritize, enable, and control our assistance should be our first step in getting the support to the people who need it the most first, such as our senior citizens, disabled veterans and those for whom these programs were intended. The fact that some people know how to fill out the right application with the right answers and the right amount at the right time and the right place does not make them more deserving of the help. It just makes them more aware of how to get the most with the minimum amount of work. We can’t blame them from taking and enjoying what is there to be taken.

But we can ask for some things in return. We can make them aware that there will be a price to pay if they are caught cheating. We can make it easier for people in the field to report flagrant abuses they see every day. We can enforce the laws we have. We can make human services agencies have a streamlined, consistent, and transparent databank, so one can’t hop from one to the other without impunity of consequences.

It is not about cutting the help to the people who need it, it is about getting the help to people who need it first and need it the most. Sounds like simple common sense, but this is not what is happening now, and this has to change, not tomorrow, not someday, it has to change now. And even if I am the only voice, if I am the only legislator that thinks this way, I will be fighting so not one person that does the right thing, is honest, and respectful of our laws, has to lose their house, go hungry, or go without medication. A lot of these people either don’t know how or are too proud to apply for help. For them I say, please, please do not wait until it is too late. Seek the help. You deserve it. Call me. Call your representative. Do not go without. Do not live in fear and anxiety. Do not accept having to live this way just because you think it is not okay to ask.

And for those who get and don’t need, I say, for every dollar that you take from those programs with limited funding, somebody who needs it goes without, and this situation is going to end. With or without me, such wrong has to be corrected, and it will be.

It is time for us to rise above the constraints of party lines, administration mandates, and feel-good politics. Time to sit, put it on the table, and do the best possible with our limited resources.

Representative Michel Consejo
Sheldon/Swanton


Running for Re-election
May 2008

Two years already. Boy, whoever said that the older you get the faster time goes by was not kidding. It is also true that if you love what you do you never work one day in your life. A whole biennium has come and gone, and I loved every minute of it. Never once in my short legislative career have I ever regretted being your representative. There were times that I asked myself why I was putting myself through this, but I quickly remembered that I asked for that privilege. And indeed, it has been a privilege and a great honor to do so.

Over these two years, I have somehow managed to upset most of the political players. The Republicans, of course, did not agree with me most of the time even though I was on their side on some important issues. The very liberal were so mad at me that they would not even talk to me for awhile. My own party questioned my sometimes conservative opinions and votes. The only ones that did not try to bend me the other way were you; most of you anyway, respected my integrity and loyalty to what I thought was the best for us as a whole. Of course I made decisions that could have gone either way, as both sides had very valid arguments. At the end I always try to vote to improve or at the very least protect and prevent from further damages.

I heard you, loud and clear. I know that most of us can’t accommodate any more increases in taxes, gas, oil, food, and that most of us are already working as much as we possibly can just to be able to hang on to what we have. I had to register for Catamount Health Insurance as both my wife and I had no insurance for over a year. We pay almost $800 a month for it. Heating our house cost us over $600 a month and counting. My own business, that I operated for the past 18 years, fell victim to economic stress and I had to close the doors in early April. Yes, I know the dangerous directions our country and our state have taken. I am in the same boat you are in, weathering the same storms.

This letter is to make you aware of my intention to run again as your State Representative for Sheldon and Swanton. I feel that in the sea of obstacles and challenges we face, there is room for a beacon of hope. Once again, we are not going to be able to count on anybody else, or hope for some divine intervention. It will happen as it has in the past, with the help of our ingenuity, our resilience, our ability to deal with the problems rather than pretending they are not there, and through real collaboration between all the parties.

One of the best slogans I have ever heard is from the AARP campaign: “Divided we fail.” So true and so simple. Our strength resides in our collective will to find solutions to our challenges. Sometimes there is more than one solution for a given problem. Sometimes there is more than one way to get there. That’s fine. Let’s explore, talk, argue, as long as the intent is the same. To make our lives better. To make our state better. That is what I have done as your state representative. That is what I will continue to do if you deem me worth sending back to the golden dome.

Thank you for all your letters, comments, emails, and insults. They all made me a better person and I hope to continue this journey. I look forward to seeing you on the campaign trail.

Sincerely,

Representative Michel Consejo
Sheldon & Swanton