Honorable Lindsey Graham
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Senator Graham,
I am not sure why I recently received a letter from you, asking for money to help your Republican campaign for a seat you have held in the U.S. Senate for over 17 years.
You represent South Carolina, while I live in Maryland. You are a Republican, while I have been a Democrat all my life. I even chaired my college’s Young Democrat’s chapter and have personally volunteered for Democratic candidates for over 40 years.
Also, I have managed many direct mail projects. So I know for me to be a target of your letter, your campaign is either woefully inept or seriously in need of these funds you seek.
Either way, for these and many other reasons, I cannot help you. (Your flipflop in the reasoning for replacing a Supreme Court Justice during a Presidential election year, not to mention turning your back on a nice old lady’s dying wish, is certainly on that list.)
In fact, based on my receipt of your solicitation letter here in Maryland, I am now thinking about you and your campaign more than I did before. Maybe you are more desperate and more vulnerable than anyone ever thought. Therefore, I now encourage support of Jaime Harrison (https://jaimeharrison.com), your opponent in the South Carolina race for the Senate. I urge my friends, and anyone else who reads this, to look at this race and to support Harrison too. It seems Harrison may be worthy of a donation.
Sincerely,
Brian D. Lyles
P.S. Please forgive me for posting this online for everyone to see, but I heard from someone you know that the USPS is not to be trusted.
cc: The Family of Ruth Bader Ginsburg
#SendLindseyHome
#jaimeharrisonforsenate
#LindseyGraham
#ruthbaderginsburg
Recently I re-watched one of my favorite movies, “The Day The Earth Stood Still”, where Klaatu, a spaceman from another world, travels in a flying saucer to Earth in 1951.
He lands on the National Mall in Washington, DC. Feared by the government and the public, he soon finds himself surrounded by military men with guns and tanks. When Klaatu pulls out what looks like a weapon (but it is only an electronic gift), he is shot once in the arm, but survives. The crowd is stunned but silent, and he is soon taken to the hospital and finds himself unrestrained in a private room…
Today, nearly 70 years later, if this were reality and Klaatu was merely an unfamiliar black man from a nearby city neighborhood suspected of questionable activity, wouldn’t he be quickly surrounded and pushed to the ground by policemen? Possibly held in a chokehold until dead? Or maybe subdued by multiple shots in the back before taken to a hospital, partially paralyzed yet still put into restraints?
(Maybe, if this incident occurred in a city with open carry laws, a white teenage vigilante with a semi-automatic rifle would do some shooting — and not to apprehend any criminal suspects, but to “protect” businesses by murdering a few unarmed protesters, only to walk quietly past groups of police to get into his car and drive back to his home, 20 miles away.)
Then there’s the 2008 remake of this sci-fi movie, where a being lands an enormous, spiraling orb in New York City’s Central Park, and again he is surrounded by the military and curious spectators and shot. But he is then comforted by a kind white woman scientist... Today, even if he was just a black man walking alone in Central Park, armed only with binoculars for birdwatching, he could be feared by a seemingly intelligent but hysterical white woman who angrily calls 911, saying she is being threatened and afraid for her life, only because the man talks to her about her unleashed pet.
Aren't science fiction movies supposed to be more gruesome than reality?
Acknowledgements to 20th Century Studios, the company that produced the movies, and the various news media sources, where these news images were sourced.
For those of you who may be reading this in the distant future, here are a variety of links to the actual 2020 news items referenced in this essay:
