If you feel compelled to stand behind this message below that I am sending to elected officials, please feel free to sign the petition. 

Attention: To the elected members of Congress who were elected to represent EVERY neighbor in EVERY zip code of their jurisdiction, 

If you are reading this letter and the Government Shutdown is still affecting this nation, I hope this letter finds you extremely unwell. I want it to find you so unwell that you are harshly reminded of your duty to your constituents, and what happens to politicians who cannot perform for their people. 

I have one request with a ton of reasons, so I’m going to make the main point loud and clear:

THE GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN MUST END!  WITH NO REAL, TANGIBLE, NON-POLITICIZED REASON TO POINT TO, YOU CAN ONLY POINT AT YOURSELF AND YOUR COLLEAGUES ON BOTH SIDES OF THE AISLE WHO CONTINUE TO REMAIN DISCONNECTED FROM THEIR CONSTITUENTS AND ARGUE LIKE CHILDREN. IF YOU FEEL THERE IS A SOLE REASON TO THIS SHUTDOWN, YOU NEED TO DO A BETTER JOB AT COMMUNICATING THAT TO YOUR DISTRICTS AND THE REST OF CONGRESS. 

My office at work has become one of several collection and distribution points in our community for gift cards to grocery stores for those who have applied for assistance because of losing benefits that, no matter your opinion of them, were promised to them with the backing of the Federal Government. Thanks to you and your colleagues' selfishness, this food insecurity issue is affecting our friends and family all throughout our community - with what seems to be very little concern from our elected officials. Our neighbors are having to decide between food, gas to get to work, heat, and paying for their child’s field trip that they have been so excited about for months. 

Our neighbors are having to cancel real estate contracts on their dream homes that they have been searching so long for. They are losing their deposits (sometimes thousands of dollars,) which would have been some cushion in the shutdown. To connect the dots here if you’re not following - the people having to cancel their contracts are the ones NOT getting paid because of the shutdown.

Our neighbors who own small businesses, which North Carolina has repeatedly touted as the backbone of our economy, are struggling to earn business with some being on the verge of closing. Closures will collapse much of the extensive work that has been done over the last 10 years to rebuild America’s small towns & businesses. 

These are just three examples of many that are coming about all thanks to this nefarious shutdown. Let this no longer be an issue of politics, but an issue of humanity. To show you others that are on board with this message, I’ve created a Change.org petition to allow other neighbors to stand behind this letter and amplify it. Here is a link to the petition: https://c.org/JjyH5dkyjD

Jonathan Moore

-A concerned, outspoken member of Northeast North Carolina