Smart Girls Rock

This is a real life letter from a very real young woman. The people who continue to demonize us need to realize; we are voters too. I removed her last name for privacy purposes.

Dear Madam Speaker Pelosi,

I would first like to introduce myself. My name is Heather. I am a 23 year old single mother of a two year old little girl. In three short weeks, I will also be a nurse. I currently work as a waitress, and have put myself through college while supporting my daughter by myself, with no financial help from my family or from her paternal family.

When not in school or at work, you can find me at home playing with my daughter or at Chuck-e-Cheeze chasing her around a maze of tunnels. I also enjoy baking, reading, dancing and playing baseball with my daughter, although with my busy schedule, these leisure activities are very limited.

My favorite color is pink, and my favorite author is Johanna Lindsey. I am absolutely fascinated by wolves, and I really respect Native American history. I love to travel, although in these economic times that passion has been placed on the backburner. My favorite holiday is the 4th of July, because I love America, and I value a day in which the entire country comes together to give thanks and respect to the greatest country on earth.

I have never been considered wealthy, or even middle class. Because of this, I took the initiative to go to college so that I could give my daughter things that I did not have as a child. In three short weeks, I will successfully move myself from the lower to the middle class. I really think that this accomplishment is the true essence of the American Dream.

So I ask you, Ms. Pelosi, what in the above description of me depicts to you someone who is an UN-AMERICAN, swastika carrying, right-wing extremist with a mob mentality?

Perhaps I forgot to mention that I do not support the current 1,017 page health care reform bill supported by President Obama and Congress. I do not believe that a bill that will increase the national debt by at least 1.6 trillion dollars, as well as ration healthcare, increase the payroll tax, decrease competition, and ultimately eliminate personal medical choices will benefit a country already in economic crisis. Perhaps these views qualify me as irrational; I don’t know. In these days, I don’t know which way is up and which way is down.

Or maybe I am Un-American because I attended a tax day tea party in Columbus, Ohio on April 15th of this year. I took several hours out of my extremely hectic schedule to make hand-made posters and to join thousands of concerned Americans in a PEACEFUL assembly to show my apprehension of not only the growing federal spending, but the growing role of the government into once private sectors. I guess I misunderstood the first amendment when it said we as Americans have freedom of speech, peaceful assembly and a right to petition the government for a redress of grievances. Instead of being hailed as a patriotic American for embracing my constitutional rights, and I would argue, obligations, I have been mocked by my president, my elected officials and the media. Janeane Garofal called me a teabagging, racist redneck who hates black people (although that would mean I hate members of my own family) and I have yet to hear one national figure come out and rebuke her comments. And of course, we can’t forget that you diminished my concerns by claiming that my grassroots effort, which I can assure you, was homegrown and not sponsored by a single group or entity, was “astroturfed”. I have to say, Ms. Pelosi, that’s pretty offensive. Just because I don’t agree with you does not mean that I allow others to think for me. I may be young, but I am completely capable of forming my own opinions and educating myself on political, social and economic issues that affect not only me, but the future of my toddler, as well.

Or perhaps I’m a “CRAZY RIGHT WING EXTREMIST”, as a recent homeland security memo claims, because I value certain fundamental rights such as the right to life. I think the author of this statement must be an extremist as well: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Yes, I have to say that John Hancock must be a swastika-carrying, un-american, lunatic as well.

If I could, Ms. Pelosi, I would like to tell you what I think is Un-American. I think it’s Un-American to criticize your own constituents and marginalize their concerns simply because they disagree with you. I think it’s Un-American to call informed citizens “political terrorists” because they attend town hall meetings and don’t just sit and nod, as some on the left have said. I think it’s un-American for the president to tell opponents to basically shut-up and get out of the way, and to go on an apology tour across the world apologizing for the actions of his own country. I think it’s un-American to try to spend our way out of debt, and to attempt to make the poor rich by making the rich poor. I think it’s un-American to vote for bills you have not even read. I think it’s Un-American to try and pass a 550 million dollar bill to purchase jets for congressional use when I counted out change yesterday to put in my gas tank.

Ms. Pelosi, we Americans, democrats and republicans, young and old, rich and poor, are watching you and the rest of the ELECTED officials on capital hill disregard your own constituents. We are listening as you mock and belittle American citizens while you defend the contrived rights of international terrorists. We have seen how you embrace the radical actions of organizations such as ACORN and yet call every day Americans “crazy mobs.” We are watching. We are listening. And when the time comes, we will be the ones who are voting, and no one will have to pay or bribe us to do it.

My concern is not contrived. My efforts are not organized. I am not a mouthpiece for the RNC, and I have not been fed talking points from Michael Steele. I am not an extremist. I am not a nazi or a racist. I am not an heiress with an agenda and I most certainly am not Un-American. I am a mother. I am a daughter. I am a nurse. I am a contributing member of society. I am patriotic. And I love my country. And I will not be deterred because you and your colleagues unrightfully label me as something that I am not. I will not back down; the governments place is not in my pocketbook or in my doctors office. The recent actions of congress are inconceivable, but every action has a reaction. We will not sit down and shut up; instead we will rise up and vote. It is the AMERICAN way.

Respectfully yours,

Heather