Below is the text of the message I left with Senator Rand Paul on his Senate website.  I sent similar messages to my other senator, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and my Congressman, Thomas Massie.

There will be votes in the coming days on measures to use government lists to restrict or deny our civil rights.  I urge all of you to reach out to your Senators today, be it by phone or email, and let them know how you feel on the subject.  To paraphrase my Congressman, the higher the stack of messages on a subject, the more they pay attention to it.

Senator Paul,

Like you, I was horrified and disgusted by the murders of innocent people in Orlando over the weekend.  When one American is attacked, we are all attacked.  

But I was also dismayed at the political reaction to this atrocity.  While I am not surprised that President Obama and his minions have moved swiftly to capitalize on the nation’s grief, I am also disheartened by the willingness of members of your caucus to abandon civil rights in favor of temporary political gain.

The current proposals before the Senate to restrict the civil rights of citizens without due process of law should not be passed, and I ask you to stand against them.  You have stood up for our rights before, and I ask you to do so again.  Giving this administration, or any other, the power to restrict any of our rights based on denunciation and suspicion would be a precedent leading to tyranny.  Such measures would be enabling acts that permit a faceless government employee, without the checks imposed by having to show cause and give evidence in open court, to negatively impact the life and liberty of our citizens.

Please, as a constituent, I ask you to not only vote against these efforts, but to use your influence to convince others to follow suit.

Thank you for your time,

Tom Rogneby
Louisville, Kentucky