Peter Roskam: The Phantom of the District

With 8 weeks to go till election day, my congressman Peter Roskam (IL-6) is still MID (Missing In District). He could just as well be living in Alaska as far as his visibility in the district is concerned. For much of his 12 years in Congress he has largely avoided local public appearances. The reason is simple; he cannot handle the groundswell of discontent from voters whose concerns on the critical issues he ignores. Voting over forty times to prevent, defund, overturn the Affordable Health Care Act shows an utter disregard to fixing the worst health care delivery system in the industrialized world. Denying climate change along with virtually his entire party puts district voters, their children and grandchildren in great peril in a world heating up near the point of no return. Siding with the most religiously fanatic to deny women the reproductive health they require is unconscionable. Helping author, promote and pass the biggest tax giveaway in history to the already wealthy, causing a trillion dollar budget deficit over the next decade, is breathtakingly irresponsible. It's no wonder that Roskam demurred on meeting his challenger Sean Casten before the Daily Herald Editorial Board in a public forum. It's a closed door session or no Roskam was the Congressman's response to the request. Pondering Roskam's inability to face the pubic in the Sixth, possibly the most important element of a congressman's respect for his constituency, reminds me of Lon Cheney in the 1925 classic 'Phantom of the Opera'. We know he's there...we just can't see him.