A letter to my Congressional representatives

At the end of last week’s blog post on The Farm Bill and racial equity, I said I would post the letter I wrote to my Congressional representatives. I imagined writing the most beautifully persuasive letter, one so well-written that they would have no choice but to assign their aides to delve into details of the bill related to access to credit for young and BIPOC farmers and make phone calls to the relevant people on the Agriculture Committee to make sure this bill would meet these farmers’ needs.

I was too intimidated by this lofty goal, however, to even get started. Never mind that my writing skills do not skew towards poetic description or powerful inspiration (though I strive for both of these).  I would be writing to politicians with much more conservative beliefs than mine, and the idea of using all the correct policy jargon that would focus them on the specific legislation I wanted them to pay attention to overwhelmed me.

What I did instead was to go to the National Young Farmers Coalition website, found a letter they had written with all the information relevant to creating equitable policy around this issue. I sent their letter to my guys in Congress. It wasn’t the most personal action I could have taken, but the information that I wanted to share with them was correct. I had declared what I believed in. A decent first step. I know these three men who represent me in Congress are all more interested in White corporate farmers than they are young and BIPOC farmers, but I have gone on record to say they should also pay attention to someone else.

 What I decided to do also, though, was to write them each another letter, less about specific policy, and more about my values orientation that has implications for all policy. They likely will not care, or adamantly disagree, but maybe someone will read it and be moved. And what it definitely does is make clear to myself my commitment to the principal of racial equity that will push me to take the next step and the next. I wrote the same text to all of them, but sent each a separate letter. It is a simple message really. I wrote it by hand to make salient that a real person wrote it. Here is what I wrote:

“Dear Senator Tillis, Senator Budd, and Representative Hudson:

Last week I sent you, via email, a form letter created by the National Young Farmers Coalition relevant to several specific policy issues in the 2023 Farm Bill that you will be voting on (I hope) later this calendar year. I am in agreement with everything in that letter. I hope you will use your influence and your votes to support their recommendations. I used their letter because I was impressed with how clearly they were able to communicate the need to streamline access to farm loans by young people and Black, Indigenous, and People of Color who need more land to make their farms financially sustainable.

I am following up with this letter to tell you this as well: as a constituent and as a voter—my overarching concern, for all legislation you will ever vote for or against, is racial justice and equity. As my Senator/ Representative, I would like you always to vote for legislation that promotes racial justice and against legislation that does not.

I believe that loving one’s country means loving all the people who live in it and wanting everyone to thrive. I want you to care about all of us.

Sincerely,

Cynthia Geary”

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If you haven’t yet looked at the Young Farmer’s website, please take a look. Here is a link to the letter template I used. The software will identify your Congress people for you. If you do send something, I’d love to hear about it, and if you got any response. I will share what I hear back in response to my letters

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Thank you for reading this post! I know that there are many difficult, dangerous situations in the world at this time. It is important in the midst of our concerns about these, however, to keep our attention on local concerns that continue to affect people’s day to day lives. Every action is important.