EDITOR'S NOTE: The views and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not of Ottawa News Network.

Now lest anyone think I particularly like Bill Huizenga, I don’t. But I sent him a note recently telling him that I feel sorry for him.

Sincerely.  

Well, actually, I sent it to his congressional email box, but the salutation was to the aides or interns who read and respond to his mail. Don’t be fooled by that official-looking letter you might get back that appears to bear his signature. It isn’t the real deal.

But I asked the aides to pass on to Bill that we understand what a rock and a hard place he’s between. Some people might run for Congress for the money, but I doubt old Bill does. He comes from a business family that appears to be prospering mightily. Bill probably enjoys the prestige he associates with serving in the hallowed halls of Congress. He relishes the adulation that used to come with returns to his home turf. And I don’t doubt that deep down, he believes he can contribute to his district and our nation by representing us with wisdom and integrity.

And yet there he sits, along with a room full of colleagues, all wearing their fine dignified dark blue suits, but scared deficationless of raising a voice of concern while our executive branch backstabs friends and allies and pulls the rug out from social, health and welfare programs that have come to define our past greatness.

We know the game plan. It’s no secret. Swing the chainsaw far and wide enough to claim we have now cut enough to afford a tax cut. A hundred or two for us, and we’ll grin with delight, proclaiming he’s a man of his word. Billions for Musk, Bezos and the club of billionaires and we’re oblivious.  

Meanwhile, our nation borrows $8 billion a day to keep the lights on, and if anyone dared propose instead we implement a modest tax increase to reduce our debt for the sake of our children, they might just as well begin penning their political obituary. So there our Congress sits, dignified spectators, terrified of the man sowing chaos in our country, because he delights in ruthless vindictive retribution for all who raise so much as a whisper of opposition.

Now, if all were calm on the home front, Bill could just coast through his term, profess his adherence to fiscal responsibility, family values and military invincibility, and count on the party faithful sliding him easily into yet one more term.

But all is not calm, and the natives are becoming restless. We all endorse eliminating waste in government, but don’t understand a Congress full of professing Christians that idly watches unelected chainsaw-wielding minions slashing programs that feed the hungry, heal the hurt, prevent disease, educate those with special needs, or uplift the disadvantaged.  

Many of us are asking if this is really the country we want to be. Are care for creation and compassion for people worth sacrificing in order to fund yet more tax cuts for the wealthy? Is digging our nation deeper and deeper into debt a legacy we choose to leave our children in order claim unchallenged military dominance? The future we are seeing doesn’t look to many of us like the greatness we were hoping for.

Bill probably is a person of integrity. There must be days when he dresses in his dignified dark suit, walks into the marbled halls of Congress, reads of the executive branch’s latest destructive rage, hears of growing unrest back home, and says to himself: “I’m between a rock and a hard place.”  

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I do really feel sorry for him, but I also hope he and his colleagues — on both sides of the aisle — grow enough backbone to stand up and shout: “Enough is enough.”  If he doesn’t, the voters well might.

— Community Columnist Dale Wyngarden is a resident of the city of Holland. He can be reached at wyngarden@ameritech.net.