LETTER TO THE EDITOR: What about the rest of us, Senator?

Since 2009 I have participated in the Texas Legislature, which meets every other year. Over the past 14 years I have met some wonderful people and built some long-standing relationships. Every elected official that has represented me in Austin has always had an open door and been willing to meet with constituents. That is until now.

I recently made the four hour trip to Austin with my family over spring break and tried to set up meetings with my legislators.

I am aware that all the legislators are very busy during the legislative session. Therefore, I started making the arrangements for these meetings several weeks in advance. Our State Representative made time in his schedule to meet with me and my family and we enjoyed a great conversation with him and his staff.

However, State Senator Drew Springer stated that he was unable to meet with us due to his busy schedule. We were not notified of this until we were halfway to Austin. Of course, he made time to meet with the various lobbyists and special interests, he just could not meet with those whom he was elected to represent.

This is disappointing behavior from an elected official for multiple reasons. The pay-to-play system of politics has got to stop and we the people need to get involved and put a stop to.

We also need to stop treating our elected officials like they are celebrities and start treating them like they are our employees, which they are. When they do not do the job we hired them to do, they need to be fired like they would be in the real world.

If Sen. Springer is too busy to meet with his constituents, he should consider another line of work because he’s clearly not good at this one.

Calvin Tillman

Valley View