May 12, 2020 2 min read

In his May 1 opinion piece to the newspaper, state Rep. Tim O’Neal described a woman he recently met who he claimed was eating dog food because she had not received her unemployment benefits. He also wrote about a small business owner he met whose company and its five employees were suffering due to the COVID-19 outbreak. After telling us, the reader, about the examples of the effects of the coronavirus, O’Neal spent the next 500-plus words criticizing and pontificating about the governor’s efforts to contain the virus.

We found it ironic that not once in his article did he let us know how he was able to help by connecting the woman who he said was eating dog food to the Greater Washington County Food Bank or how he was able to assist her with unemployment benefits. He also did not use any of his 500-plus words to explain how he helped the small business owner find resources at the Small Business Administration or connect that person with state resources. This advice could have helped others in the same situations. These are all state issues that he could have been helping with, as he is a state representative. Instead he used his 500-plus words to politicize the COVID-19 crisis and offer no solutions for the woman or small business.

As our state representative, we would expect the powers to be in Harrisburg would listen to his output to help address the major problems in the unemployment filing process. His nonpartisan cooperation with the administration and his fellow House members would also help us deal with the COVID-19 crisis. Our residents and small businesses need our support to get through this crisis, not words and dissertations. O’Neal should be spending his time and substantial taxpayer salary actively helping our businesses and residents, not just writing to the newspaper about them.

John and Vicky Lesjak

Houston