Today's Mailbag

Since the latest flurry of publicity for me and for my work as a writer, I've gotten mail from a number of different sources. Two that really thrilled me today were from Bubbie Fatt of B. Fatt & Lazy Movie Reviews, one of the funniest sites on the Internet. And I got one from my Congressional Representative, Sue Myrick.

B.Fatt emailed me because I post at the site and he was touching base.

Sue Myrick because of the recent newspaper article about me. As it happens, I do write to her often, to try to get her to vote on legislation the way I want. No luck there, so far, but she and her office have always been responsive and civil. Which puts her in the company of the most responsive legislators whom I've routinely written over the years. I could always count on a response from the following elected officials:

Senator John Edwards.

Senator Jesse Helms.

Representative Sue Myrick.

Which brings me to a story about Rep. Myrick:

I used to deliver mail to a World War II aviator named Captain Killen. (Great name for a military character, and yes I filed it away for future use.) His wife had recently died and he was having trouble transporting her body. Forgive me, as I've forgotten some of the details, but either she had died while they were visiting in Italy or had died here and her wish was to be buried in Italy. Either way, he was having fits getting her body transported from point A to point B.

One day after he had told me of this difficulty, I was delivering mail to him when he stopped me to talk (as he almost always did). "Guess who I was just speaking to on the phone?"

"Who?" I asked.

He had gotten in touch with Representative Myrick. She knew, of course, where to go to get this done for Capt. Killen, but on this she needed some extra help. She needed someone with some clout, and she got it. So Captain Killen had a conference call that included himself, Congresswoman Myrick, and the late Senator Ted Kennedy who was able to get the final piece of the puzzle to fit to get the body of Mrs. Killen to its final resting place.

So there it was: he'd just gotten off the phone with one of the best known elected officials in North Carolina, and one of the best known in the nation. The two had put their heads together to help out this World War II veteran in his time of need.

That's what I call bi-partisan cooperation.

Thanks, Cap'n Killen!