Dear Representative Kennedy:

The celebration of Independence Day in this year 2020 almost seemed to be on a glide path—with only a momentary pause—rather than being a time of intense reflection.

To some of us, however, it did call for an even stronger look than usual. To this traditionalist citizen taxpayer in the 4th Congressional District in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, it accented the fact that our Congressman is remiss in demonstrating the qualities expected for that office. Recent actions, and inactivity regarding important issues, have not demonstrated the core principles in the Founders’ first formal document which we profoundly admire—and the price in human life which has been paid.

We are witnessing no less than stage play from you, Joseph Kennedy. It is not the profound statesmanship which is so needed in today’s political environment. In fact, much of what we see could be called namesmanship.

Our Founding Fathers deemed it fit to begin the Constitution with a Preamble, one which is both clear and precise:

We are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights and among them are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. These rights are also deemed to be self-evident.

An element in our society almost visibly shrink from the Preamble’s words because these rights are clearly stated as not being given by legislators, but Creator-endowed. How, also, could one possibly enjoy liberty and pursue happiness without first being assured of what sustains his or her life? Human life was paramount over 200 years ago, still is, and we are free today only because a price had to be paid – by some not forgotten by us.

The current global pandemic has been amply covered by the media, but unfortunately it is also being exploited by our three elected Congressional officials in Washington. That is what has led to the need for this open letter to our U.S. Representative in the House. With Sen. Joseph Markey up for re-election, and being contested by our own U.S. Representative Joseph P. Kennedy III, both are essentially canceling each other out. We 4th Congressional District constituents are paying a heavy price with a virtual vacuum now existing.

U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, our third supposed Washington voice, has been totally pre-occupied with capturing one of the top two executive positions in our government. Her emails to us are completely boilerplate political jargon and mainly concerned with soliciting contributions. Our fundamental socio/religious issues of concern are totally alien, and being able to get action on any of those on a high moral plane has been totally impossible.

A major problem a short while back was when the IRS had done an audit and literally sought to extract a 4-figure amount from this retiree. Their action resulted in zero assistance from any of our three elected officials in Washington. All three hid behind a federal law which they said required that we give a power of attorney to their staff, giving them access to all of our past federal filings. Based on principle alone, we refused to do that.

After an extensive personal review of all our records, combined with a plethora of phone calls and direct IRS contacts, I ultimately discovered it was an IRS computer processing error. Their system failed to input over $5000 which had been received by the IRS, that had been deducted from my retirement checks. It had been paid to the IRS throughout the tax year.

Dealing with the IRS involved countless hours, fruitless conversations with personnel unable to extract computer data, and their attempts to get us to pay the IRS assessments, which they warned were accruing interest. The most blatant affront to us as taxpayers was having been cut off at times, after holding on the telephone for over an hour. The feeling one gets is indescribable. Our elected national representation in Washington was of no assistance with this problem, whatsoever.

The amount of time involved in doing battle with your own government-paid entities is virtually incalculable. It has to make one ponder just how we reached the state of affairs in which we are mired today. The IRS ended up owing us money, which they eventually sent without comment relating to THEIR major error.

We are unabashedly much more concerned with the deeper moral issues of our day, as compared to those which would be considered on the dollar plane. Having retired from careers in education and medicine, the lives and wellbeing of humans were and are our prime concern.

May I interject here that you are well aware in Massachusetts even religious services have been considerably altered because of the pandemic. Abortion services, however, such as those performed at Planned Parenthood at 1055 Commonwealth Avenue in Boston, have not been curtailed and are going on as usual.

Before getting to the issue of human life itself, Representative Kennedy, you have spent considerable time involved with transgender rights. In a world preoccupied with a laboratory-created deadly virus in Wuhan, China, how is it that this possible outcome did not occupy your time long before it ever happened? Our government was helping to subsidize the World Health Organization—seemingly with little surveillance. The WHO, we are now well aware, proved also to be seriously remiss in their role.

Now Joseph Robinette Biden, the Presidential nominee of the Democrats, has made a statement that “Transgender equality is the civil rights issue of our time.” One can only presume that your joining his deep concern with this issue is because of desire to appease your Stanford roommate. The fact that this element constitutes only .06 per cent of our society raises the question of why so much time was spent by you in this regard, rather than with China’s chemical threat.

Let me, however, get to the pressing issue which has now cost this nation over 61 million of our progeny. Inability to get any cooperation from your office relative to your recent actions is what has essentially precipitated the need for this open letter to you.

Unalienable rights is not a concept difficult to understand. These permeate our human spirit with every breath.

We are unabashed supporters of the Right To Life, and all that it entails to preserve it. I have been willing to put my life on the line to defend this treasure of human existence, and our family roots go back a couple of centuries in defense of it. Your votes to use our hard-earned tax dollars in the practice of feticide within the human family go beyond the pale.

It was brought to my attention that your office had sponsored a video presentation, involving a discussion you taped with 3 MDs in scrubs, identified as OB-GYN doctors who performed abortions. Their views were a far cry from ours, and I made a call to your office without success to contact you and present the opposing position to you.

Multiple calls to your Washington office since then have thwarted my attempts, as a constituent desirous of obtaining a full copy of the interview. What I have seen and read of it, however, certainly called for you doing an alternate 3-person interview, involving an exchange of views that differ from these abortion providers.

Let me state what I saw and heard you say about those you termed as “three spectacular doctors” who provide what is called “comprehensive reproductive health care”. Concern was expressed by all for “reproductive justice”, and this concept was seen as being threatened by tax-paying citizens such as we are. We favor the “reproduction” of our species; it is the post-conception “DESTRUCTION” of him or her that we oppose!

In the video portion, I was able to view and hear you stating “We are seeing anti-abortion groups and Republicans trying to exploit the crisis to deny access to abortion services.” (May I interject here that the current pandemic has nothing to do with our desire to end abortion completely—and go back to the pre-Roe v Wade correct interpretation of personhood in our U.S. Constitution. Also, we are “anti-abortion,” only because we are members of Right To Life groups and share this thinking in the value of each and every human life . We are also registered Independents politically.)

As a point of information, may I inform you that “Miss Norma” McCorvey, who used the pseudonym “Roe” as plaintiff in the Roe v Wade decision, dined in our home with us in the Fourth District you now represent. She expressed clearly her disappointment as to what had ensued afterwards—in terms of completely innocent human beings destroyed in the womb as a result.

What kept coming to mind, understandably, during the viewing of your interchange was the notification you made to constituents in July 2015 that there would be a third member added to your family. Your wife would be giving birth to a daughter in December.

Naturally, among the feelings of elation was the marvel of science which produced the ultrasound, combined with the ability to determine the biological gender of this beautiful addition to your lives—and our human family. Thank God for our medical advances.

I am at a loss to comprehend how you can support “reproductive justice” that sanctions these OB/GYNs willfully terminating the life in utero of another new member of our human family. We are talking of a distinct human with a unique DNA, a beating heart, and needing only some more time to join all of us. Are you not aware that there are more couples unable to conceive and wanting to adopt than there are children whose existence is aborted annually in this country?

With your Harvard Law degree, I will leave legal arguments right here, because with my travel to 5 continents on this planet, faces of people keep coming to the fore rather than any legal precedents. This brings me to what seems to be natural proposal in our socio/political world.

Not being able to obtain any response from your office, this correspondence should be sufficient for your staff to arrange a video involving you and three of us voicing the Right To Life view of what you refer to as “reproductive justice.”

It was quite natural that Dr. Anthony Levatino came immediately to mind. He too is an OB/GYN who performed abortions in his early career. The doctor, admittedly, did not spend much time pondering the morality of this activity.

Tragically, when his own daughter was killed by an auto in front of his house, this brought home to him the true value of each and every human life. In a short period of time, it developed into deeper thinking and a completely new perspective.

Dr. Levatino changed to the Right To Life view, and he ended the practice of terminating human life in utero. His conscience also drove him to become a spokesman for the Pro-life position, rather than for the legal right to terminate a developing human in utero prior to birth.

Just a few years ago, he spoke to a large group locally, answering all questions, and Dr. Levatino has addressed Congress, as well. His is a moving story, and from your commentary, one you certainly need to hear.

Of course, you would be familiar with Eleanor McCullen, the lead plaintiff in the 9-0 McCullen v Coakley Supreme Court decision in 2014 which abolished the 35-foot “buffer zone” in front of Planned Parenthood. This zone deprived peaceful Pro-Life protesters and sidewalk counselors of their U.S. Constitutional right of free speech in advancing abortion alternatives.

Less known about Newton resident Eleanor McCullen is that, as a counselor in front of 1055 Commonwealth Ave., she is responsible for over 100 children being saved from being terminated in this so-called “reproductive rights facility.”

Some of us have placed our hands on and prayed over the heads of twin children, who were saved from being aborted. Representative Kennedy, the feeling is difficult to describe—intensely spiritual.

Abby Johnson, who once was a much-lauded Director of a Planned Parenthood abortion facility in Texas, left her position and joined the Right To Life movement. She travels the country, testifies to legislative bodies, and has spoken in the Boston area.

Another interesting participant might be someone such as Gianna Jessen, who actually was the victim of an abortion and survived it after having 31 weeks of gestation in the womb. She, too, has told her gripping story to a group of us locally. There are numerous others in the movement, also, who would be willing to participate.

With this array of individuals, who will differ with the views of your previous participants, the Right To Life, as expressed in the Preamble of the cherished Declaration Of Independence, can be examined in its much broader original intent.

This alternate 3-member panel, in our great American tradition, would be made available for public viewing.

I shall be awaiting your reply.

Respectfully,

R. T. Neary