A couple of weeks ago, I sent the following e-mail to Senator Elizabeth Warren via her Senate webpage. I just finished watching her discussion with Thomas Piketty, moderated by Ryan Grim, and it's just made me even more convinced in what I wrote in my message to her. If you feel the same way, leave a tip -- :) -- and, much more importantly, write her yourself and let her know!
Senator Warren:
I pray that this message actually reaches you. I have been an admirer of yours since first hearing you interviewed by Diane Rehm about a decade ago. Although I am no longer a Massachusetts resident, I did my master's there, and later returned as a professor to my alma mater (a Greek Orthodox seminary in Brookline). More importantly, I am a concerned and politically-knowledgeable American.
I know that you are not planning to run for president: I believe you. However, there is a very important reason why so many people (aside from self-serving journalists and professional pundits) continue to question you about this. Our country NEEDS you DESPERATELY. You have a remarkable combination of qualities that is rarely found among people in general, and virtually never among politicians: intelligence, knowledge, analytical thinking, problem-solving ability, passion, drive, and populist ideology, combined with a down-to-earth articulateness, firm convictions, and a refusal to back down or stay silent in the face of wealth and power (what we in theology call "speaking truth to power").
I understand why you don't want to run for president, and I don't blame you. However, I beg you to make the sacrifice of your time, freedom, privacy, and good sense for the sake of the American people. Your economic populism enables you to reach across the current political divide among voters, and we desperately need someone with your knowledge, ideas, and FIRMNESS in the White House to reverse the steady erosion of our middle class which has led us to a second Gilded Age.
Again, I know that you do not want to run for president. However, given the current state of our economy and of our country in general, your refusal to run ultimately is an act of selfishness rather than one of humility and honesty. There is, quite literally, no one else on the horizon who would be nearly as capable and productive as you would be. As an Orthodox theologian, I do not believe in fate or predestination, yet I cannot help but see the hand of God in the way that the mortgage crisis helped bring to the attention of the American public the very person who is most capable of restructuring our financial sector and economy so that the nation's economic growth benefits the public at large and not just the top one percent.
P.S. I have no money, but I have my own intelligence, education, drive, and commitment, which I will be happy to put at your disposal if/when you decide to run.