LETTER: Why is Rep. Grothman silent on House response to Floyd killing?

To Ozaukee Press:

 I do not feel represented by Rep. Glenn Grothman. Here’s why:

On June 3, I contacted Grothman, whose gerrymandered district includes my address, to ask him if he would consider signing on as a co-sponsor of House Resolution 988. The resolution was introduced by Reps. Ayanna Pressley and Ilhan Omar to condemn police brutality, racial profiling and the excessive use of force. As of this writing, it has 174 co-sponsors, but only one from Wisconsin, Mark Pocan of Madison.

I received a response from Grothman six business days after contacting him. He sure took his time to send me a response that was not only generic, but also “mansplained” House Resolution 988, as if I didn’t know what the resolution I contacted him about actually entailed.

His lack of thought in speaking to a constituent on this monumental issue leads me to deduce his stance on it. He also gave no real answer but assured me he would “keep (my) thoughts in mind should H. Res. 988 come to the House floor for a vote.” Sure, Glenn. I think he’ll just continue to sit around and collect his $174,000 salary without doing any work.

This is not the only reason I do not feel represented by Grothman.

Since the murder of George Floyd, he has yet to make any statement about the crime, the black lives matter movement or the peaceful protests that happened right under his nose in his district.

But I’m not going to let all this get me down, because the good thing is that the Democratic primary election is less than two months away with three candidates seeking nomination to oppose Grothman in the general election. I urge you to go to ballotpedia.org and read about Michael Beardsley, Matthew Boor and Jessica King to see how they would represent you and be accessible to you, unlike Grothman.

If you care about things like your health  care, the environment, benefits for seniors and expanded broadband access for rural communities, look away from Grothman and look to a new, blue future with a new representative for Wisconsin’s District 6 and the 700,000-plus people in it.

Andrea Sedlacek
Cedarburg