Readers write

Lawmakers must face voters at home

When we elect someone to represent us, we expect them to show up — not just in Washington, but here at home.

With Congress on recess this month, our U.S. representative, Rich McCormick, should be holding a real, in-person town hall. Not a virtual town hall where questions are screened and scripted. Not a closed-door meeting with a select few. A real town hall where every voter has a chance to be heard, ask questions and get straight answers.

Lately, it feels like too many politicians would rather hide behind press releases and social media posts than face their constituents directly. But public service isn’t supposed to be easy — it’s supposed to be accountable. That’s what town halls are for.

There are real issues facing our community: immigration arrests of hardworking, long-term residents, elimination of CDC employee jobs, cuts to Medicaid and so many others that deserve open and honest discussion. We deserve to be part of that conversation — not shut out of it.

I’m urging McCormick to step up and schedule a town hall this month. Show up. Listen. Answer questions. That’s not too much to ask. That’s democracy.

MARGARET WESTON, ALPHARETTA

It’s an all-out battle for democracy

Democrats need to listen to the Alice Cooper song “No More Mr. Nice Guy.” It’s time to stop taking the high road.

President Donald Trump is a schoolyard bully. He doesn’t fight fair, never has and never will. He will sucker punch you and hit below the belt every time. Your only chance against him and his ring-kissing legions is to get down in the dirt and throw mud in his eye.

This is an all-out battle for our democracy, and anything goes.

PAUL GLASSER, DECATUR

White House ballroom latest outrage

Every day, I am accosted by outrage after outrage from our Republican president with the cooperation of his lazy, incompetent Congress.

I am so numb I can scarcely put into words my disgust. Still, the decision to waste $200 million on a 90,000-square-foot ballroom on the East Wing of the White House so stuns me that I want to cry. It’s the people’s house, not his, and we should have a right to say how it ought to look.

Call the White House every day and protest this monstrosity. The comment line for the White House: 202-456-1111. Please call and write. It’s the only way to stop it.

MAUREEN BEAMER, DUNWOODY

Oh deer, urban squatters are taking over

Growing up in South Georgia, there was a ritual for hunting deer: Men in camouflage headed into the woods, armed with loaded rifles, and climbed into deer stands with hopeful expressions and eyes and ears on high alert, hoping to see a deer.

Now living in Roswell, our yards and gardens have become a smorgasbord for the urban deer to feed on. And if they do not find expensive landscaping to their taste, some homeowners are quick to hand out corn, apples, cabbage and lettuce.

This has taught the deer to leave the woods nearby on the river to become urban squatters. They now sleep under my shrubbery, give birth in my backyard and look hopefully into my kitchen window, I suppose, thinking I am making dinner for them.

I’m so afraid that well-meaning humans, and some virtue-signaling humans, are teaching these beautiful wild creatures to be dependent on them for food: a new kind of animal welfare.