Senator Scott Brown
359 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Senator Brown:
My name is Sean Shannon, and I’m a freelance writer and English teacher from Toledo, Ohio. I have not yet had the opportunity to visit your fair state of Massachusetts, but I hope to do so in the future, and like all Americans I am impacted by your work in the United States Senate even though I am not a Massachusetts resident.
Like many Americans who follow politics, I know that you are involved in a contentious election this year over your Senate seat, and are facing a tough challenge from the Democratic candidate, Professor Elizabeth Warren. Last week Professor Warren celebrated her 63rd birthday, and the Massachusetts Republican Party gifted her with an account at ancestry.com, a subtle dig at recent controversies surrounding her heritage. I applaud your state’s Republican Party for the magnanimity of giving Professor Warren such a wonderful gift, even in spite of any ulterior motives it may have had; being able to research and track one’s ancestry is a wonderful way to get in touch with your past and learn more about the people who helped make you what you are.
In fact, I was so inspired by the Massachusetts Republican Party that I feel compelled to give you a gift myself. I know your birthday isn’t until September, but I’m not good at remembering dates, so I hope you don’t mind an early birthday present.
I’m giving you the gift of a heart. Just as Professor Warren will benefit from being able to research her lineage online, I believe you will benefit from having a heart when it comes to conducting your senatorial business. You see, given the actions you have taken in your career as the junior Senator from Massachusetts, I find it hard to believe that you have a heart for the people of Massachusetts and the rest of this country, and how they are suffering from the actions you and other Republicans have taken recently.
See, earlier this year I was led to question whether or not you had a heart when you cosponsored legislation that would have enabled employers and insurers to deny coverage for services they find “morally objectionable,” most notably birth control. This plays directly into the stereotype that women on birth control must be sexually promiscuous, when many women actually take birth control medications to reduce the risk of certain cancers and alleviate pains caused by the menstrual cycle. Why should they have to suffer, or endure financial pain, or be forced to leave their jobs at a time when the job market is still far from ideal, just to appease a certain section of conservative voters who think that politicians and corporations should take all possible measures to interfere in women’s lives and choices?
I also have to wonder whether or not you have a heart when you continue to lobby for Wall Street bankers – congratulations on the award from Forbes, by the way – at a time when corporate profits are at all-time highs and the earning power of the average American’s wage is at a historic low. While working-class and middle-class Americans – including millions in Massachusetts – are struggling to make ends meet, you and other Republicans continue to undermine and underfund key government programs that would help them survive these troubled times, while giving big businesses huge tax breaks that are clearly not “trickling down” to help those most in need right now. You are credited with getting Wall Street off the hook for $19 billion in fees to help enact regulations to prevent another crash like the one of four years ago – a crash whose shockwaves are still being felt both here in America and around the world – when that $19 billion could have been used to provide relief to unemployed and underemployed Americans, programs to help them keep roofs over their heads and food on their plates.
Your opposition to immigration reform also makes me question whether or not you have a heart. Aggressively deporting young people who have contributed positively to their communities here in America, when they demonstrably pose no danger to anyone, takes even more attention away from the corporate malfeasance that continues to hurt average Americans, and contributes to a strong undercurrent of racism that still pervades this country. If elected officials like you policed the behavior of multimillionaires as actively as you want to police the behavior of the most disadvantaged among us, then we would not have as large of a disparity in power and privilege in this country as we have now.
I could talk about other areas in which the actions you have taken as a Senator have shown a lack of heart for the concerns of average Americans, but I think I’ve made my point. Although five justices on the Supreme Court ruled that corporations should be treated as people legally, corporations still do not have hearts. They already have tremendous power due to the wealth they’ve been able to accumulate during the past thirty-one years of deregulation and tax cuts for the wealthiest and most privileged, and those who aren’t rich or privileged have suffered more and more. Repeatedly voting to give corporations and the wealthy more power while the problems of the poor and needy continue to get worse, as you and so many other Republicans have done, makes it hard for me and others to believe that any of you actually have hearts for the plights of the non-privileged.
It is in this spirit that I offer you a heart. Unfortunately I lack the legal standing to procure or ship an actual human heart; my next thought was to send you a heart-shaped box of chocolates, but I was afraid you might get the wrong idea from such a gift. I’m afraid that all I can really send you is a sketch of a heart, and even that won’t be too good because my drawing skills have always been minimal at best. I’m sorry, but it’s all I can offer.
In that same spirit, I also hope that you will soon receive drawings of hearts from others as well, both residents of Massachusetts and residents of the other forty-nine states. In fact, I hope other Americans will take it upon themselves to send drawings of hearts not just to you, but to politicians in every state, from every party, who continue to advocate and legislate for the benefit of corporations and the wealthy, and show no apparent concern for the pressing and dire needs of the rest of us. Maybe, just maybe, this might lead some of you to have a heart for their ordeals, to legislate for their benefit, and not make their lot any worse than you’ve already made it.
The least advantaged of Americans need politicians who will help them, Senator Brown. Will you have a heart for their problems?
Sincerely,
Ms. Sean Shannon
♥