Letter to the House

Speaker of the House

Nancy Pelosi

Dear Madam Speaker,

My name is Molly Rogers and I am a resident of New Mexico’s CD1. As you know, my former representative Deb Haaland was selected by President Biden to be Secretary of the Interior. Since her seat will remain unfilled until a special election on June 1, I am currently without an elected representative in Congress to whom I may express my concerns. I am therefore writing to you directly because I believe that I have the right to be heard.

Congress was created to be a legislative body for the people of this great country. We have the House to advance the interests of We the People and the Senate to legislate for States’ governments. In a well-running machine, this allows the people to use their shared resources in the most efficient manner for the most persons possible, while preventing the kinds of damage that come from waste and abuse.

Our machine is out of balance and not working right. We have the resources and knowledge to prevent pandemics, and yet we lost nearly as many Americans in the past year to a virus as we did in the Civil War. For what purpose do we agree to be a union if that union hurts us instead of protecting us from threats that are too great for any one of us to handle on our own?

We all agree tacitly, upon donning the title of “American” to respect the Constitution that gives our organization its legitimacy. And yet too many people fail to understand the obligation that puts them under to respect their fellow Americans.

We have rooms full of laws that attempt to ensure every person is allowed the full measure of their freedoms. But never was a bullet stopped by a piece of legislation. The only assistance our laws can provide is in the form of guidance. When that guidance is blatantly ignored by the people tasked with turning laws into reality, Americans are denied their human rights.

Upon joining the US Navy, I swore an oath to defend the US Constitution and to protect Americans from all enemies, foreign and domestic. Though I am now a civilian, I still take this oath seriously. How can I fulfill my oath if I fail to demand justice for the needless deaths of my fellow Americans? How can I honor my oath if I fail to demand accountability for acts of treason carried out by my fellow Americans?

We came to this land for a lot of different reasons. We all have inherently unique visions of what a perfect America should be. The Constitution is our best attempt at codifying the behaviors we all agreed would give us the best chance to achieve individual happiness for all families while keeping our community strong. People who violate the Constitution steal some measure of peace, security, and in some cases the very lives from their neighbors. For the good of all, this cannot be allowed.

If our democracy is to remain intact, our democratically agreed-upon laws must be applied in equal measure to all Americans. We have a form of apartheid here that protects certain groups from prosecution for breaking our laws. This is cognitive dissonance on a national level.

As I write this, more than 560,000 Americans have died. That doesn’t include the ones who were shot. Or the ones who died from lack of access to healthcare, lack of access to clean water, those who starved to death, nor those who froze to death in their own homes.

I posit that a majority of my fellow Americans find these needless deaths unacceptable and join me in calling for accountability for those responsible.

If our laws are not made manifest through application, how can we know they exist?

I need answers to my questions because I’m trying to raise a child to be a good American and it’s getting harder and less sustainable to do so.

Thank you for your time and service.

Humbly yours,

Molly Rogers