Dear Dude,
I get it. My mom is pretty awesome. I understand why you'd like to spend time with her. You and I may not have met, but I thought you should know a few things before you date my mom.
1. She's my mom. You have one. You know what I mean. She's that woman who brought me home and fed me and changed me and took care of me when I was sick. Sometimes she still does those things. She doesn't tolerate backtalk and lying from me anymore than your mom tolerated it from you. You will respect her the way you respect your own mother.
2. I'm her kid. She may care for you. She may even love you. But no one will ever matter to her heart the way that I do. You might be in her life for a day or a few months or even the next thirty years. I was here before you, and I will be here no...
Lifestyle
Dear Mr. Grant,
I am a new father and am just as hopeful to raise a good and moral child as your readers. When I look forward to her future I dream of a life full of compassion, hope, and kindness toward others. I am glad that so many readers resonated with your article, "Raising a Moral Child," published in The New York Times. It quickly became the number one emailed article in the Times. It seems you have touched on something deep within folks. It appears that we want to know, as The Who sing, "The kids are alright." Or at least that they will be. I share that sentiment and enjoy reading intelligent and well-researched writing on how to be a better parent because sometimes I mess up with the best of 'em. Your piece provides some good insight into parenting and raising kids with...
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Dear Mr. President,
Job well-done on your penultimate State of the Union address, your leadership and persistent pursuit to ensure that all Americans have access to the American dream should be commended. The policies and administrative actions that you have shepherded over the last six years have moved our country's economy in a very positive direction. Most Americans believe that the quality of our lives continues to improve, but as you noted, there is more work to do. We must work together to ensure that every citizen, no matter their zip code, sexual orientation, gender identity, or their family background, has an opportunity to work and receive a decent living wage to provide for their family.
I simply have one plea -- please, Mr. President, do not forget our children!
I...
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Eight years ago, Charlie Rangel and I worked with our House Democratic colleagues to co-author what became known as the "May 10th Agreement" on labor and environmental standards in trade agreements. For the first time, fully enforceable labor and environmental standards would be placed into our trade agreements on equal footing with every other commercial provision. May 10th also included important provisions on medicines, investment, and government procurement. U.S. trade agreements with Peru, Panama, Colombia, and Korea were re-negotiated to include May 10th.
After decades of leading the fight to include worker rights provisions in trade agreements, I considered at the time, and still do today, May 10th to be a major breakthrough. House Democrats brought about these historic changes...
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Dear Ms. Davis,
I respectfully wonder if you have considered the following:
Every job has a job description that enumerates the tasks the job holder is obligated to perform. Your County Clerk job is no exception. You choose to do that job; it is not compulsory. When you choose to take a job, whether you are elected or simply hired, you are obliged to perform all of its tasks. If you cannot do so, whether by reason of conscience or physical limitation, you are permitted to refrain from taking the job.
There is a precedent for exempting people from compulsory jobs, like that of soldier, even in time of war, if their religious or philosophical beliefs prevent them from performing the duties of that job. We say, "We will not make you do the job of soldier if the dictates of your...
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Dear Colleague,
If you are a therapist who has ever had a client who was contemplating divorce, smack in the middle of a divorce, or still reeling from post-divorce issues, please answer these important questions:
1. Do you believe that if you "help" couples get divorced, that constitutes "aiding and abetting" them to break up their family?
2. Do you think you are "helping" clients by working to keep them together when it's obvious that their relationship is irreparable?
3. Do you believe that if you learn more about divorce, that means you condone divorce?
4. Have you ever seen a course offered specifically on the subject of divorce and thought, "I don't need to take a class on that?!"
If you answered "yes" to any of these questions (even if you'd never admit it to...
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Dear Ariel,
Many thanks for writing to me, adding to my growing knowledge of the inner lives of the "happily ever after" folk, and giving me a chance to comment on your situation. First let me say that while I appreciate your desire to "get in on this open letter thing," that you heard your friends Cinderella and Snow White discussing and I'm happy to provide advice on your imminent divorce, I fear you may not be happy about what I'm going to say. Still, yours is a situation that will potentially be informative for others, so here goes.
As you wrote in your letter, after two decades of marriage to Prince Eric, you've decided you want to divorce him. However, the facts of your life together may make it difficult for you to get what you feel you deserve, in terms of division of...
2,602
Dear Bob (may I call you Bob?),
Having spent some time over the past few weeks watching the Winter Olympics, I wanted to tell you that you're a paragon of journalists. Not for a moment have you revealed even the tiniest hint of emotion on your face. Few others have lived and breathed the Society of Professional of Journalists' Code of Ethics as righteously as you do. Surely Edward R. Murrow would have respected enormously how you're gallantly carrying on the long-standing and proud tradition of professional integrity.
Mr. Murrow also might have been just a wee bit astounded at how little you appear to have aged over the last several years, which probably goes hand-in-hand with the lack of expression on your face. And that brings me to the real purpose of this letter: Michael Jackson...
2,254
Dear Family,
I call each of you family for that is precisely who we are as the united human race, dependent upon each other in this journey of life. We are children of the Divine, called to love one another wastefully and see in each other the beautiful, mystical, and perfected image of God.
We now find ourselves in a time of unprecedented opportunity to honor our fellow brothers and sisters in this country and we each must step up to the task. It is our divine mandate to pave the way for all human beings to be treated with the same dignity, respect, opportunities, and benefits regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity. The time, the day, the very hour has arrived for national marriage equality to no longer be the hope but the reality!
Perhaps you already support...
2,574
Dear Mom,
I have recently read a lot of heart breaking letters on The Huffington Post. They reminded me a lot of my past and my biological family. Those letters also reminded me of how much you have positively influenced my life.
We are about to graduate from college. I say "we" because you have been my inspiration and have pushed me towards greatness. Who would have known that I would make it up from the gutter of life to receive a college degree, to be accepted to law school and to have a bright future ahead of me?
Apparently you did.
My vision has been clouded by forty foster homes, three groups homes, adopted parents who passed away and a biological family that hated me from infancy. I never knew the meaning of "me and you against the world" until you brought me into your...
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