Not worth much

I’m typing this through my tears after reading about poor Renee Ellmers having to live paycheck to paycheck (“Ellmers will decline paycheck,” Oct. 5 news story).

After a miraculous and almost voluntary change of heart, she decided to give up her salary to be in solidarity with federal workers whom she and her Republican colleagues laid off. The hilarious reference to her as “one of the poorest members of Congress” (a wonderful double entendre) is conditioned, of course, by the fact that only her financial status is disclosed, not “the salary of her husband, a doctor.”

I never thought I’d miss being represented by Howard Coble, but Ellmers – whose chief interests seem to be obstructionism and memorializing that champion of intolerance, the late Jesse Helms – has me longing for the old days. As her balance sheet would suggest, as a congresswoman, she’s really not worth much.

H.D. Maynard

Southern Pines