Governor Pillen: Fundraising plea, right back at you

Dear Jim Pillen, 

I got a letter from you last month in which you made a lot of assumptions about me, including that I am your friend, and I just want to clear those assumptions up, if I may. 

     

You said that serving as my governor has been a privilege. I want to think you feel that way about all your constituents. If that’s the case, why have you resorted to name calling and disrespect of some Nebraska residents? Also, by privilege, do you mean it’s an honor and you are grateful to serve as my (and their) governor, or do you mean that you think you have a special unearned advantage or immunity as the governor, and can do what you want and treat people any way you want? 

You wrote to update me on what “we’ve” accomplished. You told me you’ve been proud to work side-by-side with Donald Trump on important issues facing Nebraska and “America.” (Did you mean the United States? There are several countries in North America, including Canada and Mexico. But I digress.) You say that Trump is endorsing your re-election. 

 

I am a registered non-partisan voter. I believe it is a detriment to your re-election campaign that Trump has endorsed you. He appears to be dismantling our democracy and installing an autocratic form of government in its stead. Why are you proud to work side-by-side with a man who vilifies women? Who shares a glaringly racist video of Barack and Michelle Obama on his social media, depicting them as apes? Who is continuing to harass the city of Minneapolis with ICE and Border Patrol agents, despite their shooting and killing two American citizens exercising their constitutional rights? I could go on. 

The man you are so proud to work side-by-side with has hired as his deputy chief of staff for policy, hardline immigrant hater Stephen Miller. Common Cause, an organization that describes itself as upholding the core values of American democracy, says Miller is a white nationalist who subscribes to cruelty-as-policy tactics. He constantly denigrates immigrants, even though he is a descendant of Jewish immigrants who fled persecution abroad to build a successful life for themselves. He is the chief architect of an immigration policy that pulled a 5-year-old boy from a car and used him to lure his father, an asylum seeker, from their home. 

Your grandfather, Mr. Pillen, is said to have immigrated to the United States from Germany, yet you have decided to carry out the Trump administration’s anti-immigration agenda in these ways: using the Nebraska National Guard to assist ICE, designating the Work Ethic Camp in McCook as a new detention center for immigrants, and directing the Nebraska State Patrol to pursue an agreement that essentially makes local law enforcement tools of ICE.

You insinuate in your letter that your values are mine. They are not. You have signed laws to criminalize sex changes for minors and take away the rights of women to decide what happens with their bodies.

You have defended gun rights via constitutional carry, but support a president who has said people should not be allowed to carry a gun at a protest (a legally protected Second Amendment right). You have prohibited “America’s enemies (?)” from owning Nebraska farmland.

You want to do more, you said, so you want me to send you money so you can be re-elected. You say you work hard, play by the rules and stand up for what you believe in. Me, too. But your rules and beliefs and Trump’s and his appointees are not mine. By the way, you were not appointed by Donald Trump. You were elected by the people of Nebraska to represent all the state’s residents.

     

Along with my money, you would like to know my legislative priorities. If I am not your friend, will you still take them seriously? 

     

PARENTAL RIGHTS Last year, House and Senate Republicans introduced a bill to protect parental rights from government actions affecting upbringing, education, and health care of their children. Do you understand the hypocrisy of signing bills in Nebraska that take away those health care rights? 

     

VALUES You want me to support your plan to rid our universities and schools of using diverse pronouns, diversity, equity and inclusion programs, and teaching about race and racism. I do not. I believe in education for all, in preschools, K-12 schools, colleges and universities. Educating our young people, teaching them true history, and showing them we care for all our residents are the only ways we come together and survive as a state. I believe in giving all families what they need, by public assistance or otherwise, to become self sufficient.

     

IMMIGRATION We also have a problem with brain drain, with young people moving out of Nebraska to states that better match their values, that support funding for higher education. Your politics and policies are hurting the state. 

     

You say in your letter to me: “You know that I’m not a politician.” You would like me to send you money “to fight for Nebraska and America’s future.” Right back at you, Governor Pillen. I am not a politician and would like you to send me money to fight for Nebraska and America’s future. 

At the top of this letter you will find my request for a donation of $174,000, which is the U.S. Senate salary of Pete Ricketts, whom you appointed to the position as the result of a rather underhanded deal. I believe you should feel lucky I am not asking for the salaries of all the Trump appointees Ricketts then voted for. 

     

Please make the check payable to 5 Women Mayhem and we will distribute the money to people of Nebraska who are suffering as a result of Ricketts’ vote for the Trump budget bill. 

 

Yours truly, 

JoAnne Young

Not a Politician, for real