Editor’s note: This article includes profane language.
Sen. John Rodgers, D-Essex/Orleans, sent a message from his Senate email account Saturday evening calling a critic “You clueless fuck!”
The senator was responding to an email accusing him of being a “Republican in disguise” who was wasting legislative resources with a bill that would ban cellphones for people under 21.
“You may think it’s funny or cheeky to waste the Statehouse attorneys’ time drafting bogus legislation, so you can make some political point about gun reform, but the people of VT do not,” the email author said.
“I’ve watched your petty antics before and will tell you this, I will do everything I can and spend every free dollar I have, to make sure you never elevate to a higher office in the future,” the writer continued.
VTDigger could not confirm the identity of the emailer, and Rodgers said he did not personally know the person, whose email name is “Ski VT.” Rodgers responded to the email shortly after 7 p.m. on Jan. 11.
“So you are not concerned with the number one killer of teens in the country,” Rodgers wrote in a two-sentence email. “You clueless fuck!”
Car accidents are a leading killer of teens in the U.S., and distracted driving caused by cellphones is one of the top causes of those accidents, according to studies conducted in recent years. Smartphones have also been linked to increasing rates of depression and suicide among teens.
Rodgers has said he does not expect the cellphone ban to go anywhere in the Statehouse, adding that he probably wouldn’t vote for it if it did. But the gun rights advocate did hope to start a conversation about the lengths our society is willing to go to keep kids safe.
The senator said the response has been fierce.
“That’s the kind of stuff I’ve been putting up with,” he said of the email from Ski VT. “Hundreds and hundreds ‘em, and that was it, I answered too many. It was getting late in the evening. I thought he was disrespectful. And quite frankly, it wasn’t what I should have done, but I stand by the fact that I think that’s what he is based on his email.”
Asked if he was apologizing, Rodgers said: “No, I’m not apologizing.”
Rodgers said he had “probably” sent other emails Saturday evening he should not have sent, adding that someone placed a public records request for all of his emails related to the cellphone ban proposal.
He showed a reporter screenshots of comments and messages he has received on his personal Facebook page since articles about his cellphone bill spread on national news outlets.
“If you’re the retard that wants to ban cell phones for people under 21 go fucking die,” said one person on Facebook.
“You are a Nazi tyrannical peice of shit you really expect a bill like that to pass u should be hung for even proposing a bill like that and I’m had (sic) i don’t live in vermont or under 21 if you want to do shit like that move to north North Korea” said another.
“You are King retard. roll that bill up and shove it us your ass,” said yet another.
Rodgers said the response to his bill, S.212, had reduced his faith in humanity.
“I’ve literally been called more names in the last four or five days than I have in my entire life,” he said.
“It’s this social media society here that reads a headline and doesn’t even know what they’re talking about and they start spewing off rhetoric,” he added.
The under-21 cellphone ban bill has been sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Sen. Dick Sears, D-Bennington, chair of that committee, said he and fellow members may not have the time or inclination to take up the bill.
“I think he’s trying to make a point and I appreciate that, but it certainly gets attention,” Sears said last week of the bill. “The problem is people look at that and say ‘Oh they’re wasting their time in Montpelier on stuff like that.’”
Grace Elletson contributed additional reporting.
