I faxed these letters today to Senator Kerry and to Howard Dean. Interesting things are happening, for example: my daughter in MD belongs to an online writers' group and they are planning to set up a LiveJournal for political writing, to learn to write a message that will work for us Democrats in the future.


read Lucy's letters


Senator John Kerry
304 Russell Bldg.
Third Floor
Washington D.C. 20510
(202) 224-2742 - Phone
(202) 224-8525 - Fax

Nov. 4, 2004

Dear Senator Kerry:

I know your staff will receive this and I expect that they will give it to you to read. It is very important that you personally read this letter, and I expect a reply. You owe me a reading and a reply. What I have to say is very important.
Many of us here in NH worked very hard to elect you President. Most of us had never worked on a campaign before. I have to tell you we feel completely abandoned right now. Not so much by you, although there is some of that, but by the Democratic Party. For many of us, you were not our first choice, Howard Dean was our choice, but we were told that you were “electable.” It turns out that that was not the case.
Why did we lose? We lost because we did not have a consistent message. The Republicans have a consistent message. It is a lie, they do not tell what they really intend to do, but it is consistent. Given the quality of education in this country today, and the frantic nature of most people’s lives, all they can absorb is a consistent message.
I am challenging you, because you have left us at the mercy of the Republican Party’s right wing agenda, to help us find a consistent message. You owe us that, over the next two years, so we can at least take back Congress. We can and will do the work, we are already beginning to organize, but we demand that you help us.

I have no idea how to write this line, so I will just sign my name,




Howard Dean
Democracy for America
PO Box 8313
Burlington, VT 05402

Nov. 4, 2004

Dear Howard:
I am enclosing a letter I have faxed to Senator Kerry. As I told him, I expect a reply and I hope you will encourage him to reply to me. None of us feel like taking this lying down, but we have a real problem with the Democratic Party in this country, and we need to take it back so it works for the half of Americans who voted for Kerry this year. Being left at the mercy of the right wing is not acceptable.

Because you inspired me and most of the people I have been working with in the past year and a half, I am asking for your help. We want you to take the lead in bringing the Democratic Party back to the people who need it. This is a matter of life and death for many Americans. If the Republicans have their way, our sons and daughters will continue to die in Iraq and elsewhere, people will starve, people will die because they do not get the healthcare they need, women will die getting illegal abortions, This is not acceptable.

We are here, we are organizing and reorganizing, we have the skills you taught us, but we need leadership. We need you..

With immense gratitude,