As Americans, we have the responsibility to participate in our democratic republic. For now, we have the constitutional rights to free speech and to petition our government. I don’t want to ever lose these rights and so I wrote two letters to the new House Speaker, Mike Johnson, to express my concerns and expectations. In this post, I share my first letter of two letters to encourage every reader to write his/her own letters or emails to our lawmakers at every level of government. In these perilous times, it’s going to take our collective voices to ensure our democracy for future generations of Americans. Here is the letter (absent two sentences that I removed because they were inappropriate to share on a public platform).
October 26, 2023
Dear House Speaker Johnson,
Congratulations on your new position. It is a position that carries the weight of the country along with the hopes, health, and happiness of its citizens, and the preservation of the individual civil liberties of ALL Americans.
My greatest fear is that you may not view all people born in this country or naturalized to be equal citizens deserving of the same rights to the pursuit of life and liberty. You have taken positions in the past that lead me to fear that you think men should have more rights than women, that Christians should have more rights than non-Christians, that white people should have more rights than people of color, that sic-gender people should have more rights than non-binary people, and that heterosexuals should have more rights than homosexuals. I hope I am wrong and that you support the notion of our founders that all men are created equal and endowed by the Creator with inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
That said, I feel it necessary to share who I am and why your election as speaker is so concerning to me. I am a married Christian female, a descendant of slaves (African American), a senior citizen, a cis-gender heterosexual mother of three productive citizens, the grandmother of three bi-racial grandsons, and a consistent taxpayer and voter. I consider myself a fortunate person who had the extraordinary aptitude, resilience, energy, and determination to overcome the race and sex discrimination I encountered multiple times throughout my education, career, and daily life. It would take a book to describe each of the battles I encountered since childhood and how doors were closed but I summoned the courage to find a window. I encountered far too many closed or limited opportunities. One time I had to quit a high paying job because there was no other avenue to address the sexual assault perpetrated by my white boss. He was a lot like Donald Trump!
Too many legislators do not appreciate the exhausting fight it takes to overcome these obstacles to escape poverty in this country. They therefore have no understanding nor impetus to address the underlying reasons behind criminal behavior in high poverty areas. In addition, too many legislators do not appreciate the complications encountered in pregnancy. I have never had an abortion nor a miscarriage, but I have plenty of female friends and family members who have. Each situation was sad and difficult. I am a Christian who believes that life begins with breath (or the viability to breathe when born) as it says in Genesis that Adam became a living soul when God breathed into the body of Adam. I believe that this body is just a tent, an earth suit that is formed in the womb to possibly house a soul and so I don’t grieve early miscarriages and abortions as if a person was killed. Years ago, one of my Christian girlfriends gave birth to a baby without a brain. It had a heartbeat. It never breathed. The umbilical cord provided the oxygen and it was pronounced dead shortly after birth. I realized then that a heartbeat is just a mechanical mechanism. I recall when Republicans came into our church to sell the idea that life begins at conception as a political issue. Shame on Christians for buying into this political ploy that has no Biblical basis. And even if that is someone’s true religious belief, they have no right to force that belief onto others. Like my friend, they don’t have to get an abortion, but let others who believe differently do what they believe is right for them. God is ultimately the judge anyway. I’m hopeful that you are actually pro-life, and not just pro-birth.
I am staunchly pro-life in the sense that I want our government to protect the lives of the already born by making sure that the most vulnerable among us do not go hungry and have shelter, that all of us have access to healthcare, and that none of us are gunned down in the streets, grocery stores, churches, schools, concerts, bowling alleys, movie theaters, and dance halls because we fail to regulate access to guns.
I’m hopeful that you are a Speaker who acts on the purpose of our government: to provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and to secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity. In my mind, this means passing laws that actually deal with our border security, gun control, and our national security issues in the world including the middle east, Ukraine, and China. It means providing affordable healthcare, infrastructure, gun control, a worldclass education for our all our children, affordable childcare for working parents, and a safety net for the vulnerable. And finally, it means ensuring that all Americans enjoy the same civil rights regardless of their age, sexual orientation, gender, finances, or race. It should never be more difficult to vote because you live in a poor area.
I’m wealthy and I live in a wealthy area, and it has never taken me more than 10 minutes to cast a vote. However, I’ve seen people waiting in lines for more than nine hours to cast a ballot. That is voter suppression! And unfortunately, voter suppression happens mostly in Republican run states. As a leader of your Party, I’m hopeful that you will seek policies that meet the expectations and needs of the majority of the American people so that it is no longer necessary to enact schemes to either win or try to overturn elections to stay in power. I find your support of Trump’s 2020 election lies reprehensible, and you should apologize for your behavior to gain much needed trust.
And finally, as a Christian, I sincerely hope you end your support for Donald Trump. By every measure, he is a person of low moral character, flawed intellectual acumen, and unpatriotic in his actions and rhetoric. He is a horrible example to our children of what a human being should be and an embarrassment on the international stage. I hope you disavow all loyalty to him.
Sincerely,
Dr. Juanita Hall
I hope you, too, will take the opportunity to share your thoughts, experiences, and expectations with the man who has the power to ensure the lawful certification of the next election and to bring laws to the floor of the Congress to either protect or deny the civil liberties for all Americans. The address is:
Speaker Mike Johnson, H-232 The Capitol, Washington, DC 20515
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