1. United States
2. Ariz.
3. Letter

Your constituents are tired of watching you cater to a fascist dictator who doesn’t care about them. You say you are a family man, that you care about the families you represent. Well, I don’t see the proof of that. As a public school teacher, I have watched the number of students in my classroom struggling with anxiety, and stress that no middle school child should ever have to deal with skyrocketing. More and more come to school hungry, or worried because they know their family is depleting to pantry faster than before. They are completely aware of the hate being spewed by our president and the day after the election the number of students who suddenly felt safe to use hate speech in the halls of my school doubled overnight. As teachers we can only do so much to counteract that narrative I’ve watch students feel safe to make jokes about ice while their classmates cringe and feel frightened by the very real chance that their parents might not come pick them up from school simply because of the language they speak and the color of their skin. As a mom to a special needs child at a title 1 school, I worry daily that my child will not have the resources he needs to be successful as his school struggles to navigate and prepare for budget cuts to special education programs. Will my son’s needs suddenly be “just a behavior problem” because he doesn’t struggle academically will he lose the crucial supports that he needs to be able to remain in a classroom setting? Will his school cut back the after school programs that were paid for by title 1, that make it possible for me to continue to teach at my school that goes 2 hours later into the afternoon than my son’s? I worry about my father with liver cancer. Whose medications now cost an additional $2000 a month to keep him aware and alert. Without them his brain suffers and he cannot think clearly or function because the ammonia in his blood builds up in his brain because his liver isn’t able to process it on its own. I watched a worry as my parents decide which of their retirement savings they are going to sacrifice so they can enjoy the time they have left together with him able to be mentally present with his family instead of a foggy zombie version of himself. And then I watch you sit by while people in Tucson are denied representation, while the president quite literally shits on the America people. You continue to kowtow to this administration and your party while your constituents suffer. That doesn’t seem very “family man” of you. Get it together, stand up to your party, represent ALL of your constituents. End the shut down, release the files, feed the children, make healthcare affordable to everyone, protect our public schools.