Letter to a Congresswoman

Congresswoman Murphy,

As the elected voice of Florida’s 7th District in Washington, your service to the nation on January 6th, under looming, unprecedented threats against the Capitol, will forever be marked as courageous. I am not an elected official, but I do represent a classroom of young, enthusiastic voices, 5th Graders who each shared their thoughts, their concerns, and their questions today about the events you experienced. And as I did my best to help honestly and yet impartially clarify all the many gaps in their understanding, I wanted them to see how the process of government is supposed to work.

Going through our social studies unit on Tuesday, a bunch of my students actually memorized the preamble to the US Constitution, start to finish. You’d be proud. They even know the meaning of tranquility, which is ironic, considering the moment we’re in. My plan on Thursday was to introduce the three branches of government and then close on a simple activity, but in light of Wednesday’s tragedy so near to your office, I decided to introduce them to you and your work on our behalf. We spent the last twenty minutes of the day writing letters and messages, questions and wishes, personal notes that were meant for you. As you can imagine, they’re a little scattered, but then maybe that’s just America. At the very least, I’m hoping you can find some solace in knowing that their generation will be better than ours. That is, if we, the teachers, have anything to say about it.

“Where I live we have a forest and these workers keep destroying more and more of our trees. Every single tree that gets destroyed makes me wanna cry… Please do something to help our environment.”

“My mom and me saw what happened on tv and I hope nothing like that ever happens again.”

“I want COVID to end because part of my family and family friends have gotten it.”

“Is it hard to represent us?”

“Please stay strong for all of us.”

“We appreciate all that you do.”

“I wanted to talk to you a little about what it was like to be a representative… Do you still have time to do what you like to do? Are you still connected to your family? Do you see them a lot? I really like reading and writing and wondered if that is also something you like to do.”

“All I want in this country by next month hopefully is peace.”

“My mom normally doesn’t watch the news, but she did… I am so sorry for what happened and what people did. I hope you are safe. And I want to say thank you.”

“Is it stressful having to work somewhere where everyone’s counting on you to do the right thing? I just wanted to tell you that you should keep doing what you’re doing.”

“Thank you for representing our district.”

Our blessings to you in the New Year.

Sincerely,

Jeremy D. Lucas & the Prairie Dogs