Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Mom writes to Hillary

My sister and I may get paid for it, but the real writer in our family is Mom, who does letters we save and newsletters our friends ask to subscribe to. She recently sent me a letter she wrote to Hillary Clinton -- whose bid for the presidency she supported despite being a life-long Republican. She wanted to know if I thought it was silly or if Hillary people would think she was crazy. Just the opposite. I asked for permission to reprint it here:


Dear Senator Clinton,

I am so disappointed that you did not get the Democratic nomination. I know that you have urged your followers to switch their support to Senator Obama, but I just do not feel that I can vote for him because he was responsible for your defeat. I almost hope that he will not win the election mainly to prove to the Democratic party how wrong they were not to nominate you. While discussing this with a friend who does not share my admiration for you, she said "Why? As our senator, what has she done for New York?" And I thought "What did we want her to do?"

I am not sure just how much a senator can do -- but some of my thoughts on the subject:

The debacle of 9/11/01 caused many problems for the airlines, but the airlines have been arrogant and greedy long before that date. I do not understand why our railroad system has not been upgraded to be competition for the airlines. I understand that in Europe you can travel from one country to another efficiently and economically. Our country is covered with rails that are wasting away from disuse. Could not the government subsidize the overhaul of the railroad system? It would also create many many new jobs.

Also, why is everything "made in China?" Why are there no longer any factories in the United States? I know that things can be made cheaper in China and other third-word countries, but could not the government encourage factories here at home by means of lower taxes for factories hare and higher taxes on imports. This would also make employment available for many people. Not everyone is college material, but there seems to be no alternative for our young people.

And speaking of education, it bothers me to read and to hear that our education system not only is not the best in the world but, in fact, is way down on the list. It annoys me that Germany, Russia and Japan have smarter engineers and scientists than we.

Also, someone should be working on a system to improve the way we nominate and elect our president. The people would like more of a say in the nomination process.

I am truly sorry, Senator Clinton, that you will not be in the position of president where you might well be able to do something about some -- if not all of these issues. Instead, however, I wish that you would consider what you might do in the position you do hold and how your supporters might be able to aid you. That would go a long way toward easing my unhappiness about the current state of politics and help move us in the direction I had hoped you would take us.

Sincerely yours,

Theresa Armao

2 comments:

Rosemary Armao said...

From Mary J.:I agree totally and felt so bouyed up by Hillary's campaign. I was proud when she won just about every debate, and was annoyed at the media's treatment of her. Nobody worried about what kind of suits the males wore nor cleavage for godsake! Hillary was taken seriously and had a legitimate shot at winning the nomination. Why when she was just hitting her stride after a few initial mis-steps that resulted from bad management and her winning states long after the pundits had written her off - why then was it decided she couldn't win? Hillary proved she could win under impossible conditions. Her concession speech was to treasure - her wonderful remark about 18 million cuts in the glass ceiling. But it also brought tears to my eyes and like your mother - I can't simply give my vote to Obama when I know that it was his supporters who steamrolled over her and crushed her candidacy too soon. Hillary convinced me that she cared about us older women who devotedly supported her and she cared about all women and knew our strengths and pain. I didn't see Bill as any liability either - things were fine with this country when he was president and I did enough traveling to know how well respected Bill was in Europe...Probably you don't have too many old broads reading your blog and surely none as mouthy as this one. love, Mary

Rosemary Armao said...

From Jane W: What a letter, what a mother! Tears in my eyes.

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