Dear editor,

Did you ever receive something in the mail that you neither ordered nor wanted and then found that, furthermore, you had paid for it without recourse? Such was the case with the four-page, four color, 8.5″x11″ document on card stock that arrived this week from our congressman “Serving Wisconsin’s 7th District.” I might have felt privileged to hear from my representative except for the impersonal portion of the address that read, “Or Current Resident.”

Not surprisingly, the gist of the communication was merely a thinly disguised, self-promotional piece for the sender, Mr. Duffy. To his credit, he did notify us that, “This mailing was prepared, published, and mailed at taxpayer expense.”  Note that this disclosure was printed in a 4.5 point font size on the last page; hope your glasses prescription is up to date.

So, it was not just the postage expense we bore but the creation and publication costs as well. How many meals for the needy or other worthy causes could have been funded with these taxpayer (not campaign fund) dollars? Given the number of households with “current residents” in the district, this cannot be a trifling sum.

Yes, Mr. Duffy did solicit our views, in an almost meaningless, generic way, concerning many of the hot button issues facing our federal government, and he provided a check-box reply card for our convenience.  How ironic that there was no prepaid postage affixed for returning that card.

Douglas T. Koehler
Marshfield, WI