Here below is the text of the email I sent to Doug Jones, my Democratic Senator from Alabama.  Feel free to use this text in total or with your changes to write your Democratic Senator if you so choose.

‘While the government shutdown has dragged on, I want to encourage you to keep up the good fight.  Trump has made the foolish mistake of owning this debacle. Democrats have claimed the high moral ground when the House passed the same legislation which had been passed unanimously by the Senate before the holidays to reopen the government and by continuing to push other alternatives for opening at least parts of the government.  

Trump has placed himself and the Republicans in the Senate in an untenable position with no path for a respectable retreat in sight.  As the pressure from damaged lives, blows to the economy, and pressure from their constituents continues to mount, more Republican Senators will be forced withdraw their support of Trump’s stupidity.  Hopefully they already understand that this is inevitable and therefore withdraw that support sooner than later and force Trump to declare victory in any manner that he chooses while putting the government back to work.

Meanwhile Democrats in Congress must stand firm because if they give an inch, in the future Trump will throw a shutdown tantrum every time he doesn’t get what he wants.  I am requesting your assurances that you will stand firm with your Democratic colleagues and continue to talk some sense into your fellow Republican Senators.

Thanks much in advance for your attention to this matter.’

At the same time I left a telephone message for Senator Richard Shelby with similar content, but one that sounded like it came instead from one of his very concerned Republican constituents.  I phrased that message in that manner because in the State of Alabama, Shelby has no reason to heed the concerns of a Democrat.

I urge you to write emails and/or leave similar voice messages for your Democratic and/or Republican Senators.  The more pressure they feel, the quicker this shutdown will end in our favor and the sooner the totally unfair hardships on hundreds of thousands of our fellow citizens and the damage to our economy will end.

Cajun    1/8/2019