Letter to the Editor: Hope and Promise
I'm very pleased the Inquirer printed my letter addressing the Harris-Trump debate.
To the editor:
The pervasive question about Tuesday evening’s debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump: Could Kamala hold her own with a devious showman skilled in the use of invectives? A two-word response: Yes, brilliantly! For me this event awakened precious, hopeful, sleeping memories.
Dr. Mildred Otenasak, Maryland’s national committeewoman, was a devoted John F. Kennedy supporter who became my mentor and friend. She appointed me “page” to our Maryland delegation at the 1960 Democratic Convention. Otenasak introduced me to Sen. Kennedy; many of my college friends and I worked tirelessly for him. He urged me to begin working toward my master’s degree in social work. During my first year, he was assassinated.
Kennedy’s short time in office was filled with optimism, based on his deep belief that our brave experiment in democracy could and would succeed because — as Kamala Harris reminded us — we have far more in common than what divides us. Americans want the same things for our children, and what we hope and dream of is possible. It has been unsettling at best to see how so many wish to tarnish the positives that JFK and his brother Robert brought us. But I was there; I saw firsthand what both men believed about America’s potential.
Not long before the 1968 assassinations of each, Robert Kennedy heard these values put into words by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: “We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” At a time of debilitating division and hatred permeating America and the world, at Tuesday’s debate we, the people, became Harris’s jury — her professional training, experience, adversarial skill; authenticity and passion; and studious prep in perfect harmony. The vice-president’s argument that all we have in common and yearn for can be achieved together parallels the hope and promise of King’s words. Harris won handedly over a ruthless performer. And so did we.
Sincerely,
SaraKay Smullens
Published in The Philadelphia Inquirer September 13, 2024