I Know I'm Petty

Monday my father told me that he'd opened a letter that was intended for me, because it was addressed to him. I looked, and it was a letter from my congressman, Frank Pallone. It seems that 2 months ago, I emailed him that I was upset about him voting "no" on a Net Neutrality bill that I was hoping would be supported. I admit that the letter was informal, and probably a little insulting. I believe the text went something like this:

You voted against
'net neutrality? What gives?

I was very surprised when I never got any sort of an email back. Every other congresscritter that I've ever written hit me back with an auto-mailer almost instantaneously. While that doesn't give me confidence that my letters are being read, at least it lets me know that my letter got there. Incidentally, eventually I have actually received direct replies from every single letter I've ever written, which is nice. Even when I wrote President Carter, back in the stone age, I got a nice autographed picture of his family sent to me, with my name on the envelope and everything.

But not last Monday - and so, even though I know it's stupid, pointless, and beneath me, my ego wrote Frank Pallone another letter, and this time instead of being irreverent, I was just pissy:

To The Honorable Frank Pallone Jr.,

I would like to thank you for getting back to me about your position on "Net Neutrality".

I would like to, but you didn't actually get back to *me*. Instead, whomever it is on your staff that reads these letters completely ignored the fact that I sign my letters "Tami", and instead mailed a response addressed to my father and my late mother.

While I am heartened to read that you say that you support the same position I do in the idea of keeping the Internet on an equal footing for all, I can't help but wonder at why the response was addressed to my parents. I may not be a property owner, but I pay my federal taxes just like anyone else, and can't seem to get past the fact that my actual name wasn't anywhere on that letter. Perhaps it's an insignificant detail to dwell on, but we all have egos, and mine's a little bruised.

If by chance, you decide to write me back about this by snail mail instead of email (the medium that I'm using to contact you) in another 2 months, please address the letter to me, and not my father. If that's too much to ask, please leave the "Mrs." off, since she's been deceased since 1987, and it's a bit jarring to my poor dad to see that on a letter these days.

Sincerely,
Tami

And that's almost exactly what I sent him, except for the parts with my real name, and my address.

Seriously, when I was 11, I got my own letter from the president. Now I'm 38, but the letter gets sent to my daddy and (dead) mommy. That's not right.

ed: wait - I'm 37, not 38. Damn.