Dear Editor,

I thought maybe our State Representative Ryan Smith might read your paper and catch a glimpse of this, since I’ve called his office several times and received no response. What I wanted to ask him was why nowhere in the 93rd District during the aftermath of the June 29th storm that left most all of his district without power, was there not even one National Guard member in the area? I may be wrong, but I was under the impression that the Governor declared a “state of emergency” in Ohio. I then read and heard that the National Guard was to be dispatched to southeastern Ohio, which, Mr. Smith, is where your district is located. However, as far as I can tell they were all sent to Columbus and Dayton. I was without power for 8 days, and I am one of the lucky ones. Some of our friends here in Jackson County are still without.

I appreciate all the hard work the lineman, out-of-state crews, the tree cutting crews, the law enforcement agencies and fire departments for their hard work to restore power, and we realize it’s no one’s fault — we just had a bad storm. But we still have no ice in our town, and some people can’t afford to eat out every meal, but were forced to because all their food spoiled in the fridge. And Mr. Smith, not everyone can afford a generator, or the gas to run one for 8 days. Thank goodness for the Red Cross and the kindness and generosity of the people in your district, who were reaching out to their neighbors in this time of need. Thank goodness we have each other, because apparently, we can’t count on you … our “Representative”, must I call you that.

I know you didn’t cause the storm, and you didn’t cause the electric to go out, and you couldn’t make the power companies get it back up any quicker, but you could have sent us some help. But guess what … we got through it without you. Which only proves that we don’t need you. Good luck this November, sir, but you absolutely will not have my vote, and I hope no one else’s.

Sincerely,

Judy Hill