Senator Mark Dayton
123 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington , DC 20510
Dear Senator,
Hi. I'm not a Minnesota voter, so there's really no reason you should be interested in anything I have to say, but since you're not running for re-election, I figure things must be pretty quiet around the office these days and I would be able to find an open ear.
It's been a long six years, but I don't need to tell you that. To your credit, you've been very
candid about you're time in the Senate. But hey, don't feel bad. I'm sure you made some interesting friends and had a few good meals - and at least you get to leave Washington with a lifetime membership to the Congressional gymnasium (and I hear they have one helluva weight room).
But I'm not writing to see how much you can bench press or to find out what the soup de jour is at the Oval Room. Nope. I'm here to tell you what you can do to leave DC with honor and maybe even a little immortality. That's right, I've come to deliver your legacy, which even you have admitted is a bit thin, on a silver platter.
I couldn't help but notice in Jonathan Alter's piece in Newsweek that you are planning on supporting the flag-burning amendment that the Senate will be voting on soon. Word is that the amendment just needs one more vote for passage and referral to states.
We both know this amendment is a sham. Flag-burning doesn't happen all that often here. It's a counter productive activity. You see, what's happened is that we as a collective society have placed such a stigma on burning the American flag that no one really does it. Chances are that last time you saw a flag being burned it was happening in a place like Pakistan and, try as we may, our constitutional jurisdiction has yet to extend to Jalabad.
Senator, you are in a perfect position to prevent the creation of the first exception to the Bill of Rights in our nation's history. You have no voters to appease, no political pressure to succumb to, just the perfect opportunity to take a principled stand. Trust me on this one, the history books will treat you kindly in the future. Who knows, in the future you may be known as the "Senator who saved the constitution," which has a lot better ring to it than "one of Time magazine's 5 worst members of the Senate."
So give it some thought.
Respectfully,
Earwicker