From: Brent Thompson Sent in February 2018
An Example of various letters sent to US Senators including Oregon’s Senator Ron Wyden
Senator Steven Daines of Montana
320 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Re: Why have we grown so much?
Dear Senator Daines,
I write because I now spend time in Bozeman because my son is there on a pole vault scholarship. And as you know, Bozeman has changed.
I hope you realize that we have too many people in the US. When your colleague, Senator Feinstein, was born around 1940, the US had 135 million people and California about 12 million. We now have probably 100 million people beyond what we need to have a viable economy. Our formerly idyllic small college towns such as Bozeman are now sprawled and often overcrowded. Our national parks increasingly require advance reservations for access. Many airports reached capacity. Highways are at capacity. We produce insurmountable mountains of trash. In short it has become less fun to be in America. You have some power to change the pace of this degeneration.
Yes, we should continue to offer some refuge for those in war town areas, but we need to drastically reduce annual regular immigration to 250,000. And those who we let in should have a working knowledge of English so our teachers do not have to cope with a multitude of languages and so schools are not so handicapped in teaching the basics. People who are already in the US deserve to have preserved what is left of that which made the US special. We deserve what we traditionally had before the country became too crowded.
In any desirable small, mid sized, or large town or city including Bozeman the refrain is the same, —-how much the traffic has increased, how much sprawl there is, how much change people have to endure. Why would Congressional Representatives and Senators want to continue to inflict so much change on constituents?
I ask that you respond to the need to level or even reduce the population of the US. There is no case other than habit for allowing our population to continue to increase until it reaches 400 or 500 million people. We had more than enough people at the 200 million people we had 48 years ago.
For farm work we do need a guest worker program. And pay must go up to what it should be worth to harvest our crops. Marijuana harvesting pays $20 per hour as probably should regular farm work. Then maybe low skilled American born people will do the work as in past generations.
Plus, anyone can understand that adding people to the country that consumes more energy and resources per capita than any other does nothing but undermine efforts we might make to counter global warming and to preserve our environment in general.
But then again the reality is that people are often stupid, and they do things that ruin their futures, national representatives included as shown by Congressional policies allowing growth to continue. Pity.
Hoping for enlightenment in our national elected officials.
Former Resident of the San Francisco Peninsula who fled to Oregon in 1983.
Brent Thompson
The following is a letter to three UCSB Grads who were in Congress in 2018 13 February 2018
Congressmen Tony Cardenas, Salud Carbajal, and Jared Huffman
Congressional Offices
Washington DC 20515
Re: We have had too much growth
Dear Representatives Cardenans, Carbejal, and Huffman,
I write you three because I am also aa UCSB grad (Hispanic Civilization). I hope you realize that we have too many people in the US., particularly in California When Senator Feinstein and Minority Leader Pelosi were born around 1940, the US had 135 million people and California about 12 million. Yes, we entered WII with 135 million people. We now have probably 100 million people beyond what we need to have a viable economy. We have too many people to make environmental gains and too many heavy consuming people to have any hope of reversing global warming.
Our formerly idyllic small college towns are now sprawled and often overcrowded. Our national parks increasingly require advance reservations for access. Many airports and highways reached capacity. We produce insurmountable mountains of trash. In short it has become less fun to be in America. California, the former paradise of the world is unrecognizable from 80 years ago, but ironically San Francisco feels mostly the same, maybe why Senator Feinstein and Congresswoman Pelosi haven’t tried to stop growth.
UCSB is not recognizable from when I graduated in the 1970’s. I spent time there in the last couple of years. My son was there on a decathlon scholarship. I cease to feel an affiliation to UCSB because the scale of UCSB is beyond what I can relate to.
You have some power to change the pace of or even stop this degeneration.
Yes, we should continue to offer some refuge for those in war town areas, but we need to drastically reduce annual regular immigration to 250,000. And those who we let in should have a working knowledge of English so our teachers do not have to cope with a multitude of languages and so schools are not so handicapped in teaching the basics. People who are already in the US deserve to have preserved what is left of that which made the US special. We deserve what we traditionally had before California and much of the rest of the country became too crowded.
In any desirable small, mid sized, or large town or city the refrain is the same—-how much the traffic has increased, how much sprawl there is, how much change people have to endure. Why would people such as yourselves want to continue to inflict so much change on constituents?
I ask that you respond to the need to level or even reduce the population of the US. There is no case other than habit for allowing our population to continue to increase until it reaches 400 or 500 million people. We had more than enough people at the 200 million people we had 48 years ago.
For farm work we do need a guest worker program. And pay must go up to what it should be worth to harvest our crops. Marijuana harvesting pays $20 per hour as probably should regular farm work. Then maybe low skilled American born people will do the work as in past generations.
Plus, anyone can understand that adding people to the country that consumes more energy and resources per capita than any other does nothing but undermine any efforts we might make to counter global warming and to preserve our environment in general.
But then again the reality is that people are stupid, and they do things that ruin their futures, national representatives included as shown by Congressional policies allowing growth to continue. Pity. I am hoping finally for enlightenment in our national elected officials, yourselves included.
Brent Thompson
BA UCSB- Hispanic Civilization