I received this complaint and thought that you should know how elected government officials treat you as a citizen.

This morning my husband, cousin and I went to the offices of our Senator and Congressperson to express our support for health insurance reform with a public option. We each had a flyer we had personalized by filling in our own reasons for supporting health care reform. At Senator Nelson's office, we walked right in and were graciously received by his office manager and aide, as were other concerned constituents who stopped by. At our next stop, the office of Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, exactly the opposite was the case. No one answered the phone during the first hour during which the office was said to be open (10 am-11am). It was close to 11:30 when I was able to confirm that they were open and that we would be able to stop by. When we got there the door was locked. I phoned and the door was unlocked, but inside there was a waiting room with a shut door and an opaque sliding glass window such as one might see in a doctor's office. There was no sign-in sheet or guest book. When I finally got someone to respond to our taps on the window, we were asked to fill out disclosure forms with alot of personal information, including the problem about which we had come to the congresswoman's office. We were nicely dressed, quiet, courteous, and behaved as well-mannered business professionals. We weren't carrying any signs, or anything at all except the single sheet about why health care reform matters to us.When we completed the forms, we knocked on the window again, and a young man (intern, perhaps) took the forms and our flyers. Then we sat. And sat. Some people working behind the closed door occasionally walked in or out, but they ignored us, saying nothing and not even smiling. We sat some more. We knocked on the door and window, and when no one responded, we gave it 5 minutes more and then left. As we made our way to the elevator, we passed the young man who had taken our forms, who was coming up the elevator. He said he had been checking up on our documents and verifying our information! We asked whether there was any possibility that anyone from the office would actually speak to us anytime soon, and he said no, they were all too busy. Having just visited our senator's office an hour or so before, our expectation of courteous treatment as constituents was not unrealistic. We didn't expect to meet with the congresswoman herself. All we wanted was to hand our pro-health care reform statements, in support of the president's promises, to someone in the office who would note that we had been there along with pro-reform our views. Instead we were ignored and perhaps even investigated!

Dr. M. Cohen