An Open Letter to Mr. Romney

Dear Mr. Romney:

Your advisors have obviously told you that the best strategy now is to issue a mea culpa, or as my students would say, a “my bad” statement about your 47 percent comment. "Just tell them that you are for 100 percent of Americans now," your handlers have said. 

Mr. Romney, do you really think that Americans are stupid or naïve enough to believe that you are sincere? You have added insult to injury. As you said in the first debate, “Look, I’ve got five boys. I’m used to people saying something that’s not always true but just keep repeating it and ultimately hoping I’ll believe it. But that is not the case.”  So Mr. Romney, you can repeat your strategic admission that you were "completely wrong," or proclaim that you are now suddenly for 100 percent of Americans.  You can deny your initial statement that nearly half of Americans were "victims” and that you needn't worry about them. You can lie until Big Bird comes home to roost, until “cuando las ranas críen pelo” (until frogs grow hair), or pigs fly, but Big Bird, frogs, pigs, and most importantly, 47 percent of Americans will never believe you.

What makes me most angry as an adult is that you insulted many of the students I work with every day.  I teach at an inner-city school where close to 90 percent of the students "depend" on the government's Free/Reduced Lunch Program.  I wish you could have seen how disappointed and discouraged my students were by your 47 percent comment, how upset they were in class.  When some of our young people deal with issues of poverty at home on a daily basis, when they are demoralized and disavowed by a presidential candidate who tells them that 53 percent of the population is more important than they are, when they are lumped en masse as self-promulgating “victims” and scoffed at for depending on free lunch in a public education system that has been decimated by massive cuts in funding, and when that same 47 percent is additionally slighted by an inauthentic retraction, how can you feel good about yourself?  I’m sure you are a loving father.  Your children, it seems to me, are forthright young men.  But when you are president of the United States, or any person of leadership in the public sphere, you need to think deeply about all children and should be acutely aware that your inappropriate words can hurt immensely.

Mr. Romney, I wish you had been in my class the day after your 47 percent comment was released.  You would have observed outrage and sadness in the students before you.  But you would have heard, too, the eloquent defense of their dignity.  You would have seen the pride on the faces of my students as they spoke about their families.  You would have witnessed the character, kindness, and innate goodness of that 47 percent of Americans who have the strength and the will to depend upon themselves.

What our children need most is an America that stands by its promise of equity for all, with strong leaders who are committed to helping every child. We need leaders who open their hearts so that all children have the opportunity to enrich their minds in a society that believes every individual is worth fighting for, instead of leaders who spew words that demonize, disparage, and disenfranchise. We need leaders who are authentically in touch with people.  We need leaders who stand by their words, right or wrong, who demonstrate integrity and honesty, and the courage to say how they feel, whether we agree with them or not. We need leaders who support all children, all Americans, all human beings, regardless of their socioeconomic status, 100 percent of the time. 

James Mulhern