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Letter to my Senators

July 4, 2009

Senator Lamar Alexander
455 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510

Dear Senator Alexander,

I am writing to you on the 4th of July to remind you of the principals upon which this great Nation of ours was founded. In doing so I will use the document the signing of which marks this day as the most significant in the history of this Nation, and upon which our freedom rests, the Declaration of Independence. I do this with the utmost respect for those who crafted that document, and ask that as you read you remember the sacrifices they made in the cause for freedom and independence from tyranny.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,…”

It is by no mistake that equality is stated first. It was the foundation of the delegates’ grievances and it has lived on through the centuries as a principal belief unique to the United States of America. Long has this Nation been upheld as a “melting pot,” a place where the foundations of law respected all people equally, regardless of race, station, or gender. It is the responsibility of the Legislative Branch to enact laws and pass legislation in conjunction with the core principals of this Nation, equality being foremost, and it is the responsibility of the Judicial Branch to enforce that legislation.

In regards to the potential appointment of Justice Sonia Sotomayor, that most cherished of values is threatened. By her own admission, Justice Sotomayor wishes to inject compassion into the system of law. It is this intention that threatens our equality. For, to inject compassion into the law is to dissolve the law completely. If a defendant can be found innocent on the grounds that he fostered compassion in the eyes of the Court, there is no law. It is not the responsibility of the Court to decide who deserves mercy and who does not. It is simply the Court’s responsibility to enforce the law, nothing more. All people are to be treated equally in the eyes of the Court. Compassion has no jurisdiction.

Thus, in an effort to uphold the law and to take a stand for the principal of equality upon which our Nation was founded, I ask that you, as a responsible delegate of the State of Tennessee, VOTE NO to the appointment of Justice Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court of the United States of America.

“…that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty…”

Before the Constitution was adopted, and before the idea of amending that Constitution was even a glimmer, this Nation held as a belief that there are certain rights of the people that should not only be afforded them by their governing institution, but that those rights had already been afforded them by God. First of which is the Right to Life and second the Right to Liberty. It is thus the responsibility of the government to uphold these Rights and to not infringe upon them. A government sponsored health care system would infringe upon these Divine Rights of the people. As can be witnessed in socialized countries throughout the world in which government run healthcare has been instated, people are not given the liberty of choosing their own doctor, to having operations and procedures performed in a timely fashion, if at all, and it is the sole decision of the government whether people receive the care they need. Both the Right to Life and Liberty are forfeit if such a program were to be enacted in these United States, a forfeit I and the rest of the country are unwilling to make. I do not wish to have the government decide where I can seek medical attention. I do not wish to give up my Right to choose the course of my own treatment. No bipartisan healthcare plan should be sought, no compromise should be made in this matter. Divine Right is Divine Right, and I choose to hold on to mine.

Thus, in an effort to uphold those Divine Rights and to take a stand for the Principals upon which this great Nation was founded, I ask that you, as a responsible delegate of the State of Tennessee, VOTE NO to the enactment of a government sponsored healthcare program, bipartisan or otherwise.

“…and the pursuit of Happiness.”

As the third, but by far the least of the Divine Rights afforded us by both God and Country, the pursuit of Happiness is one that has made a great mark in the history of this Nation. Immigrants from every corner of the world flocked to the United States ever since it was founded 233 years ago. They did so because of the promise of a better life. The United States was and is a place where it is the Divine Right of an individual to work for their betterment and the betterment of their family. To pursue Happiness in all forms is a Right that has made this Nation one of the greatest and most prosperous nations in the history of the planet, and it has done so in record time. We are a Nation of capitalists, of achievers, of individuals who only want to make for themselves a better life. To take away that Right would be to strip us of our pride as a Nation and would lead to its certain demise.

The Cap and Trade bill that passed by a slim majority in the House of Representatives last week threatens the ability of the people of this Nation to follow through with their Right to pursue Happiness. As the largest tax increase in the history of this Nation, that bill threatens prosperity itself. No one would argue that it becomes much harder to pursue Happiness when more than half of your income is being given to your government in the form of taxes. This bill is even more of a slight when put in the context of the recession in which we currently find ourselves. How does it make any logical sense to raise taxes in one of the larger recessions this Nation has ever faced? It does not.

Thus, in an effort to uphold the Right to the pursuit of Happiness, a Divine Right under the law, and to take a stand for the prosperity of your constituents, I ask that you, as a responsible delegate of the State of Tennessee, VOTE NO to the Cap and Trade bill currently being pushed through Congress.

“Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes…”

When Thomas Jefferson wrote that clause he had the intent of following through with that change, but we now find ourselves on the other side of that reasoning. We have established a functioning Nation that has survived 233 years and are embarking on a path of change that is taking us in a direction we never thought our Nation would go. We now find ourselves in a recession, but the current administration is treating it as if the end of the country is at hand and grabbing all the power it can in the names of progress and survival. But, we have faced recessions just as bad as this in the past and came out of them with greater prosperity than we went in. Due to the industry boom caused by World War II (not Roosevelt’s big government) we came out of the Great Depression as one of the two major powers of the world, and entered into the 1950s as a prosperous growing Nation. Due to the smart domestic policies of the Reagan administration we came out of the 1979 recession into an era of prosperity, some might say the height of our prosperity, that lasted until last year when irresponsible government regulation caught up to us. My point in saying this is not to belittle or deride the policies of the Obama administration, but rather to point out that this recession, like all the others, is temporary, and we as a Nation will recover from it without the intervention of the government. We do not need to change the way our government functions and the power which it holds simply because the economy has slipped. Like everything from light to climate to tides, the economy functions in waves. This wave like all the others shall pass. Please, do not make hasty and irresponsible legislation.

In conclusion I wish to thank you for the time you have taken to read through this letter and I ask that you please follow through with these requests, for the good of your constituency and for the good of the most prosperous Nation on Earth, the United States of America. Please do your part to help our Nation continue to be a light of Freedom in the darkness of our growingly socialist world by VOTING NO to the appointment of Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the Healthcare Bill, and the Cap and Trade Bill as well as helping your fellow senators in making correct and responsible choices for the good of our great Nation. Have a wonderful day.

Happily,

Matthew Kennedy
23 years old