Email to Mike Kelly

Email to Mike Kelly Dear Mr. Kelly,

You’ve got a lot of nerve signing me up for your newsletter when I never subscribed. Particularly a newsletter trumpeting the good work you’re doing for education. I am a career educator; you might be good at selling cars and getting elected, but you’re out of your depth on education.

Actually, I’d like to address you, the intern or staffer who’s reading this. Mike has made a career spreading his ideology, and probably isn’t much interested in stepping back and reflecting. But you’ve got a future, a chance for a different life.

Mike’s newsletter claims a commitment to stopping terrorism and “stamping out every ideology that spreads hate and murder.” In fact, the most destructive such ideology in our country today is that which he embodies: a systematic effort to stop people from questioning racism, sexism, and other discrimination in this country. Its purpose is to disguise and preserve the advantages that Mike (and I) benefit from as white males. Watch any white person and black person interact on the street or in a business in this country. How can you deny this?

This ideology tries to tell people that their lived experiences of injustice are not real, and brands efforts to make our society more fair as unpatriotic. I believe it is rooted in an unwillingness or inability to think about how different life feels in somebody else’s shoes. It is a moral failure.

If you know any women, people of color, queer people, or people living in poverty, I implore you to think again about your support for Mike Kelly’s ideology. If you would like to discuss this further, I would look forward to a cordial conversation over the phone or via email.

Thanks, -Chris

2018-08-07