Dear President Corazon Aquino,
Words are totally inadequate to express my awe of you! As a United States public high school history teacher, I have watched every minute of your journey from your assassinated husband's comfort to your outstanding address this morning to a joint session of Congress: you are so much an inspiration that I get tears of disbelief and relief every time I think of you and the truly courageous Filipino people whom you represent.
I have put off writing you so many times because I was unsure of how to send a letter to a far-off country, but the contrast between what our Senate has been doing lately (confirming a liar as our Chief Justice and voting money for the Contras in Nicaragua) and your example of rising to the almost insuperable challenge of restoring democracy in its finest tradition to a long-suffering, poor, and beaten-down populace was just too much to go unthanked or unnoticed.
Your speech this morning truly told it how it is: the U.S. has an obligation to bleed, if necessary, other programs in order that you might receive the revenues with which to accomplish your goals. Little people in the U.S. feel so helpless in effecting such an outcome, and are put to shame by Filipinos who had many fewer resources at their disposal, yet still managed to bring Marcos' lumbering dictatorship to its knees. Still, we care and I am writing the Senate after this.
As I've said in other words, every single action and belief on your part in the last years is to me a model blueprint of how world governments should be acting: you have shown my government up for the tawdry excuse for "shining flame" that it has become. I continue to pray for the success of your just cause, and offer my humble appreciation for your efforts which are also on my behalf.
With love and affection,
Barbara V. Smith
Dear Senator Byrd,
This letter, I am embarrassed to admit, has several purposes, but the average citizen doesn't have enough time these days for all the letters to the government that need writing.
First, thank-you so much for being one of the thirty-three to vote against confirmation of a liar to the post of Chief Justice last night. Please express my heartfelt thanks to the others---I think I've already communicated this to the leaders of the fight in the Judiciary Committee (my own Metzenbaum, Kennedy, Biden, etc.), but I also appreciated my other Senator, John Glenn's decision and especially the two Republicans, Mathias and Weicker.
It is a total outrage for Mr. Rehnquist to represent the highest level of our beliefs --- freedom, justice, and equality for all. I felt so helpless since my own two Senators were doing right, to stop such a travesty! There were many perfectly legitimate and obligating reasons not to confirm this man to lead our highest court. I'm afraid it is only symptomatic of the low standards to which our government has sunk, and I pray that, in the coming years, this man is not able to do irreparable damage, as I now fear.
This brings me to the other important reason for this missive: to beg the U.S. Senate to respond generously to Philippine President Corazon Aquino's request this morning for more support. I couldn't have phrased the arguments in favor of this action better than she: we have so often belatedly had to contribute millions to soldier groups, trying to restore governments favorable to our way of life, when they have been destroyed in the first place by our very own short-sighted policies.
Here is a "miracle case" of a genuine fledgling democracy having brought down a dictatorship, solely with the courage of its populace. Help bring our country back to its ideals by digging deep in all the waste going to our military contractors to find the money Mrs. Aquino deserves.
By the way, if you haven't read Endless Enemies by Jonathan Kwitny, a former reporter for the Wall Street Journal , it summarizes many other fine recent works that are recording America's movement further and further away from its ideals, and how this is creating for us "endless enemies". When are we going to wake up and try a little foresighted statesmanship, or are we going to continue playing "Make-Believe" with President Reagan's "Rah, Rah, America's Great" demagoguery while we follow many other great civilizations into decline?
Sincerely,
Barbara V. Smith