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A Reply from Zip Code 10021 to John McCain's Desperate Letter

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Message Sherman Yellen
John McCain must be in deep trouble, or why would he be begging me for money? He sent me a letter last Tuesday morning calling me friend twice and crying out that he needs “men and women like you…to help our Party…working beside me. Later he warns me that if the ”Obama Democrats have their way, government spending will skyrocket as they implement government run health care and resurrect their entire portfolio of the failed welfare state programs.”

I think I figured out why I got that letter. I live in the rarified 10021 zip-code in NYC, the setting of Gossip Girl and many Woody Allen movies, and the Republicans must figure that anyone living on the Upper East Side with its great concentration of wealth must be one of them and for them. Well, I’ve lived in my apartment building for many years, well before the real estate bubble brought billionaires to my door, and I have learned that living in a luxury building disproves all the Republican economic theories. There is no such thing as trickle down economics. If there was such a thing, some of the great wealth of the people in the penthouse and the floors above me would have leaked into my apartment by now. Alas, all I ever got from the rich folks above was a flood from my neighbor’s badly installed washing machine, destroying my ceiling. No folks, living among the super rich doesn’t do a damned thing for one’s economic condition or one’s ceilings.  

A lot of the McCain letter had to do with tax cuts. He promises my wealthy 10021ers that he will make all tax cuts permanent and work to cut additional taxes. His letter has a Marxian tone as it raises the banner of class struggle. Behind his words I hear the anguished cry “Arise, you prisoners of Gucci shoes, Louis Vuiton luggage, and Hermes scarves, and stand beside your fellow billionaires John and Cindy, protecting the country from the evils of universal health care and the premature ending of wars – something McCain obviously views as akin to premature ejaculation - to be avoided at all costs.  

And now we have Ms. Palin for Vice President. Mother of five, beauty queen, sharpshooter, and Polar bear adversary – the lady who will drill us back to $1.12 per gallon gas at the pump. A lady with a great story. Oh, how tired I am of all these men and women with great stories – and that covers the Dems as well. Enough with the life stories. It’s time for the programs that are going to repair this seriously damaged country where McCain and Bush stood side by side as they systematically destroyed the middle class and the constitution. A short reply to the Senator. I’m afraid that I must. I am actually older than McCain and I come from a generation that always answers its mail. Hell, I even answer email – something the Senator has yet to master.

Dear Senator McCain,

Yes, you have a great story. POW for five years – enough to cover with glory a lifetime of political pandering, serial adultery, and warmongering. Ms. Palin has a great story too. How many small town mayors and Miss Congenialities are chosen to be a Vice Presidential Candidate? We all know the great stories of Obama and Biden, yes, they are my candidates Senator – you see it’s possible to be a progressive and live in the hallowed 10021 zip code. Frankly, Senator, I am sick to death of great stories. I want great programs, great action, and great possibilities for my sons and my granddaughters. And yes, my friend, you don’t have a clue as to how this country can be redeemed from the Bush years and make a better world.  

I am glad you are so pleased with your choice of a woman who can kill a moose; one who pleases the conservative base; a woman who isn’t worried about climate change in the state that has seen so many breaking ice-caps. Your choice like yourself is a harbinger of more, if not worse policies that threaten the life of the earth we share, and the lives of those I love. So I will not be contributing to your campaign. As far as Ms. Palin goes – the fact that she is a woman means nothing to me, and if that is the reason you put her on the ticket, to attract disaffected women, I assure you it was a mistake. Women are not the fools you take them for. Most of them are a helluva lot smarter than you and me. My friend, I like women and respect them so much that I don’t judge them by their sex but by their accomplishments. The women I love include a mother, sister, and wife of 55 years. I have known and loved the best of them and none of them ever shot a moose or worried about taxes to pay for the general welfare and the freedoms we enjoy.  

As one who has lived mainly in the twentieth century, as you have, but who now happily if uneasily enjoys his later life in the 21st, I look at you and your choice of running mate and see nothing of a true respect for women – just 19th century contempt for women as convenient objects to exploit, and a failure to understand the needs of working families, many of whom are headed by women. So I won’t be making out my check to you. And I suspect that you won’t be hearing from most of my wealthy neighbors. Many of them understand that the general welfare affects them, their children and their lives – and you have nothing to offer but tax cuts and slogans. Unlike Obama’s claim about your candidacy, I don’t think you and Ms. Palin offer more of the same Bush years. Our country is in such a critical state that your Presidency with its self-destructive tax cuts and your hair-trigger temper tantrums may well be far worse than what we have known these past eight Bush/Cheney years. When you are not busy dragging up the POW story you and the supine press call you a maverick. As far as I am concerned Maverick was a TV show that has been relegated to history, and you, as a so called maverick belong in the same place. My friend, at best you are a re-run, at worst a disaster. You want to know if you can count on me? Yes you can trust that I will be voting for Obama/Biden and praying for my country, which means praying for your defeat.  

Sincerely, 

Sherman Yellen
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SHERMAN YELLEN, screenwriter, playwright, and lyricist was nominated for a Tony Award for his book for the musical, The Rothschilds. His screenwriting has won him two Emmy Awards and a Peabody Award, for his drama John Adams, Lawyer - in the PBS series The Adams (more...)
 
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A Reply from Zip Code 10021 to John McCain's Desperate Letter

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