August 4, 2006
Jeremiah Jaspon
Candidate for Florida State Senate, District 22
PO Box 2801, Sanford FL 32772
Dear Jeremiah,
As we were taking our leave at Lorelle's the other night after meeting you & hearing you speak you asked me, “So then, have I got your vote?” At the time that struck me as unnecessarily solicitous if not altogether odd. Of course, friend. What other choice is there? Given our two-party system, if you're brave enough to take on the incumbents then you must be the one, right?
Your unbounding energy is contagious, besides; the uphill race ahead against an entrenched state senate republican majority seems only to spur you on. Your hard-hitting platform is relevant and finely focused on education, health care, and alternative energy. Is that it, then?
I'm having thoughts. Not exactly second thoughts but new & altogether unexpected promptings. Before we heard you raise the banner that night, whatever civic yearnings we might still have had were altogether wrapped in despair. It had been a long, long time . . .
Permit me a little review. The push for Kerry had taken everything. We knocked on doors. We talked to everyone we knew. We watched polls. We biked around town with signs. We gave money. We simply couldn't afford to do less, not with so much riding on the election. That the worst happened anyway, the thing who could dare imagine, brought us to our knees. I can tell you this much: when I came-to the Sunday after and could no longer ignore all the "W" stickers on the back of cars in the parish parking lot it blew me right out of that place. I haven't been back to church since. Needless to add, neither have we had much inclination to further involve ourselves with such a political process.
AMERICA, HOW COULD WE !
So why go into all this by now ancient history? Because there can be little doubt anymore: politics as usual just will not do. These days it surely can no longer be enough to simply run an effective, hard-hitting campaign.
I hope you can hear these concerns of a fellow citizen too old to forget all he's seen, too troubled not to remember an America he once believed in. This country's in deep trouble. Jeremiah, where's the outrage for our ignoring the family of man, our killing people everywhere, our devastating the planet, our bringing us all to our knees, our tolerating these crooks at the helm?
In other times in state elections maybe we could get away with the belief that there were concerns in our own part of the world fully distinct from any other. Do you imagine that’s still the case? I believe that what’s called for in today’s fouled political climate is a degree of candor and authenticity about what’s going on in the country like we haven't seen for a long time in America. Jeremiah, whoever gets my vote and keeps it is the one who first steps up and tells it like it is, damn the polls and all other expedient considerations. I need at last to hear the voice of conscience.
Your name intrigues; I just looked up the prophet; you must know his reputation better than anyone. Seems it was also a trying time to say the least, the end of a land he called his own. You have much to live up to! I wish your campaign every success in this pivotal time.
best regards,
Jim Rucquoi
simplysanford.com
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