Posted by
impact on Thursday, October 11, 2007 7:46:10 AM
Dear
Justice Thomas,
Your book is one I just had to read…in one sitting. As I read about your childhood, I might
almost have been reading about my own.
Oh, the similarities are not all that great, except the running around
barefoot all summer through woods and freshly plowed fields, abject poverty in
post-war Austria, six or seven people sleeping in the same room, no indoor
toilets, being an altar boy, and not knowing what I was missing. I sometimes think those were the happiest
times of my life. I was a free little
boy.
Of
course, there were other things that were quite different. I was white in a white village where my
parents had settled as refugees of German descent after escaping the slaughter
in Yugoslavia. With only a few negative
attitudes, we were generally accepted.
I
came to the US almost exactly 51 years ago; Oct. 29, 1956. We came with nothing except my parents’
willingness to work. We lived in a
rat-infested apartment in Chicago while my parents and older siblings worked
and every dime that wasn’t absolutely needed went into the bank. I went to Catholic Schools from 6th
grade to the middle of my Sophomore year in High School, when we moved to a
very wealthy suburb where my father had taken over a small business.
I
was the first to go to college, although I was a miserable student. That’s where my story differs from yours a
great deal. I preferred learning my way
instead of the school’s way. For
example, instead of studying for finals in the Spring of my Freshman year in
1963, I read Atlas Shrugged. I have
been an avid reader all my life, but I think AS was the most influential book
on me I ever read. During the later
High School years, I became a ‘lapsed Catholic.’ I made a stab at going back in college, but without success.
Over
the years, I came to love this country more than most anyone I have ever met. I love it not as a political entity or a
landmass with a certain boundary, or even it’s lifestyle. I love it as an idea. That is what I think it is first and
foremost. With all its missteps since
its beginning, or in spite of them, it has been a beacon to the world.
When
I read your writings, I see that same kind of love for this great country. I vacillate between anger and sadness at the
spectacles I often have to watch in the political arena. Your confirmation hearings, which I watched
“gavel to gavel,” including those wonderful, articulate women who testified on
your behalf, were a nadir…I thought.
Things have gotten worse.
I
have a great fear for this country.
Without it as it was originally conceived, I think the world may just
sink into a darkness it hasn’t known in centuries. At least that’s how I feel in my dark hours. There will come a time when Atlas may really
shrug and we’ll find out the world is made of cheap plaster. You are in a position to influence the
direction somewhat. I hope you continue
to have the wisdom and strength it will take.
With
great admiration and respect,