You Decide

Here is the email I am submitting to Senator Kerry:

I am incensed about your remarks today concerning my and my fellow enlisted soldiers' intelligence. I also read your follow-up explanation that it was a failed joke - I hope you also do not believe the rest of the country as stupid as me, because I have a really hard time believing it was a joke after being able to view the speech (yes, in context) online.

I have a BA from Columbia University. Maybe you have heard of it. I would be willing any day of the week to put my French language skills up agaist yours. I also attended a certain private high school in Exeter, NH. Maybe you have heard of that one? I enlisted in the US Army after 9/11. Am I stupid?

I went to basic combat training with a guy who has a BS in Aeronautical Engineering. He is, literally, a rocket scientist. He also enlisted soldier in the US Army after 9/11. Is he stupid?

I currently work with another guy who has a Masters in Philosophy and was very close to finishing his dissertation for his PhD. He, by the way, is very liberal politically, but I would be willing to bet that in an exercise of debate, with him taking the other side, he would talk circles around you, or any of your 99 colleagues in Washington. He enlisted in the US Army after 9/11 out of patriotism. Is he stupid?

College degrees in my company in the enlisted ranks outnumber those in the officers'. We obviously did our homework and worked hard during our years in school. Maybe you are out of touch and do not realize just how much things have changed since you were in the military (that is if, in fact, you had an idea about it then). I think you may get too many of your ideas from movies and television, because it is painfully obvious that you have not ever taken the time to really speak with an enlisted member of today's US military.

To my relatives and friends in MA: Please, please, please do not send this elitist buffoon back to Washington the next time he is up for re-election. This is not the first time he has made disparaging remarks about the military, or the general population at large. Listen to his speeches and he will always mention the "working class". We don't have classes in the United States. Our ancestors left Europe because they hated the fact that they were part of the toiling masses which supported a small, elite aristocracy who ran everything. In America, anyone can work hard, become successful and live the good life - ANYONE. Bill Gates dropped out of college to write MS-DOS, the precursor to Windows. Wal-Mart started as one family-run store in Arkansas. Nike was a track coach's dream in Oregon. Next time you hear a John Kerry speech, listen closely and when he refers to "working class Americans" it will be in the 3rd person. That is because he does not see himself as part of that group - he sees himself as part of a small, elite aristocracy."

Posted by TJ at November 1, 2006 06:11 AM