Roskam website a public interest disgrace

In the digital age Congressmen can provide vital, current information and views on subjects of utmost importance to constituents thru their website. But you will get nothing of value from my congressman Peter Roskam's (R IL 6th) website www.roskam.house.gov. The home page is foreboding to one seeking insight: 3 headlines under the title 'Latest News' that trumpet Roskam's vendetta against the IRS, lauding Trump's meeting with Ukraine president, and touting Roskam's bill to sanction Russia for subverting European democracies. Baffled by the irrelevance Roskam treats as 'Latest News' I tried the search engine figuring the entire site couldn't be that worthless. First up: global warming. The pop up was a May, 2014 Roskam tirade against the Obama administration for withholding info on the Benghazi investigation. The connection? The words 'global warming' appear as a concern of House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi who Roskam blames for Benghazi obstruction. Next up: Infrastructure. Alas, it's a February, 2012 call by Roskam to build the Keystone Pipeline to create infrastructure jobs. Ouch! Last attempt was tax reform. Maybe Roskam might call on his affluent base to pay a few more bucks to provide middle class relief. Tho more current, the April, 2012 plea simply echoed eventual 2012 GOP candidate Mitt Romney's call for more tax cuts for, you guessed it, Roskam's affluent base. We should all call Roskam's office and channel his political hero Ronald Reagan by declaring: "Congressman Roskam...take down this website."

Indian removal second driver of 2nd Amendment

When gun fanatics tell me they have a Constitutional right to bear arms, with virtually no restrictions whatsoever, I ask them if they're planning to go searching for runaway slaves. For that is one of the primary drivers for the 2nd Amendment, enacted in 1791, just after the Ist Amendment protecting free speech. To be fair there was a second driver of the 2nd Amendment: Indian removal. The colonists looked west at the lush land inhabited for centuries by indigenous peoples and said, "We want that." King George demanded the colonists stay put in the 13 colonies and levied taxes to be paid in English pounds to pay for soldiers sent to enforce that edit the colonists feverishly ignored. Voila! The Declaration of Independence and revolution.

Once free of hated George III, the colonists formed militias and embarked on westward expansion initiating a century long plunder of Native Americans' wealth. And gun ownership was key to the marauding militias, hence the second driver of the famous: " A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." What did you expect them to enshrine?: "A well regulated militia being necessary to capture runaway slaves and clear Indians from the west, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."