June 25, 2026
Vote to damage reputation
I sent the below email to the state legislator for my area, Iris Rudder. The reason for sending the email was two fold. First to express disappointment in her vote because of the damaging effects of the vote itself, and secondly to express need for some sensible legislation to address gun violence that is out of control. I had hopes of a response, but there has been none.
Array
Array
The only thing that was accomplished by the expulsion action was to raise the issue to a national level, and to bring disgrace to the legislative leadership and all legislators. Cutting off microphones to stop the peoples voices from being heard is most definitely NOT democratic and undermines the entire process. There are multiple perspectives on the subject that was at hand and refusing to allow those varied perspectives limited their ability to properly weigh the question at hand and therefore eliminated any chance of entertaining any meaningful debate about gun violence. The legislative leadership just wanted to push through a token bill that was meaningless in protecting human lives. My personal opinion is that they should have undertaken a review of legal actions in other areas to gain consensus on what has worked and what has not. Only then could they have any meaningful debate on the subject. How could they even pretend to find a solution when they were without sufficient background knowledge. There is so much more to this story, but I will leave the focus on this for now. I just really am disappointed that Iris Rudder could not respond. Apparently she felt her constituents were not worthy of her time, or maybe she is just ashamed.
Array
Array
Here is my email to Iris:
Array
Array
Sent: Friday, April 7, 2023 9:21 AM
To: rep.iris.rudder@capitol.tn.gov
Subject: Expulsion vote
To: rep.iris.rudder@capitol.tn.gov
Subject: Expulsion vote
First let me introduce myself. My wife and I moved to Franklin County about 15 months ago and have become your constituents. We watched the activities yesterday and were very disappointed in your symbolic votes. I call them symbolic because they were pretty much meaningless. There is no doubt that both Justin’s will appointed to return to the legislature to finish out their terms, so you did no damage to them. They will continue to represent the people who elected them, so no damage to their constituents. What the vote did accomplish was to put on display an out of control legislature that needs some serious turnover.
This country, especially this state, has a very serious gun violence problem. That fact cannot be disputed. If a person were to take the epidemic of gun violence serious, they would take a serious look at what actions have had a positive impact and which ones have not. That research is vital. At the very least, the legislature should have set up some kind of investigation on that focus. Instead, the legislature did the exact opposite by doing virtually nothing except to throw more guns into the fight, create a diversion, and widely publicized their inability to address possibly the most serious concern of this state. Your actions have convinced me that you cannot be part of the solution by your own choice and that the next election must bring some serious change. I really wished that you could be capable of understanding exactly what you accomplished yesterday. The only thing you accomplished was to damage your own reputation, something for which you should feel no pride. You brought shame to our state. For these reasons, I want to let you know that I will be actively working hard to ensure that you are replaced.
At this point you have two options. You can take this as a wake up call and begin to take the subject of gun violence seriously and work toward some meaningful solutions in an attempt to heal your damaged reputation. Or, you can take the gamble to fight back. So, the big question is, are you a legislator, or are you what you displayed yesterday?
