(NAME-MCE) Letter to Congressman Joe Wilson – by Helen Burleson

[Bill Howe]

*>>>>>>>>>> forwarded*
*Letter to Congressman Joe Wilson – by Helen Burleson*

This letter from an 80 year old woman, and likely it will mean little to Mr.
Wilson, but she expresses her outrage at his behavior in the USA Congress
during President’s Obama’s speech so aptly. Please take the time to read
this thoughtful letter written by Helen Burleson an 80 year old woman to
Congressman Joe Wilson.  It says it all:
------------------------------
                                                              56 Graymoor
Lane
                                                        Olympia Fields, IL
60461
                                                            September 10,
2009

Joe Wilson, Member
United States Congress
212 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, D. C 20515-4002

903 Port Republic Street
Beaufort, South Carolina 29902

 Mr. Wilson:

I am an 80 year old mother and my older child is 51 years old; but, if ever
I were to hear him call anyone a liar or rudely and obstreperously tell
someone they were telling a lie, I would slap his face.  My two children, 41
and 51 respectively, are very well reared as was I.  I can remember as a
little innocent child calling someone a liar.  I only did it one time
because the lecture in the form of a lesson in proper decorum sank in, and
to this day, I have never called anyone a liar.  My mother considered this
the ultimate in rudeness and disrespect, not only for the person I called a
liar, but for me, myself.

Having learned that lesson at such an early age, it made me cringe when you,
at age 62, and a former military man, yelled to the President of the United
States of America, “You lie.” As a military man, you know the chain of
command; and, you were addressing the Commander in Chief of the United
States of America.  Of course, President Obama who is a very refined
gentleman did not respond and he kept right on target delivering the most
brilliant speech I have ever heard.  I can say this with a degree of
authority because I have been witness to every presidency since Herbert
Hoover.  Never in the hallowed halls of Congress have I witnessed such
coarse, gross, despicable behavior.

I don’t know if your mother is alive or not, but if she is, I’m certain that
she hung her head in shame knowing that all over the world you have
disgraced her, yourself, your wife, your four sons, your office, your
constituency and your country.  Children of good breeding, who are properly
reared, carry the teachings of their parents throughout their lives.  At 80
everything I do is tested against, “what would my mother think of that?”  I
would never defame her precious memory by demonstrating lack of self control
and knowledge of the social graces that separate women from ladies and men
from gentlemen.

 My mother was a proper Southern genteel lady who commanded respect because
of the way she carried herself.  I would think that your being from the
South, you would have gotten some of that good ole Southern hospitality and
gentility that seems to be characteristic of intelligent people of the
South.

 I do so hope you will listen to the foreign media as I did late last
night.  You are an international disgrace because from Ireland to China and
England, your crudity was the main topic of conversation.

 I note that you have a law degree.  I wonder how proud your alma mater,
University of South Carolina Law School, was of you tonight as you showed to
the world that education without character is vacuous and meaningless.
There is a popular expression of people with degrees who lack common sense;
they are referred to as “educated fools.”

If you were playing to the media and to the camera for attention, you
succeeded because your worldwide legacy will be that you were the ill-suited
and ill-placed person who demeaned himself in the halls of Congress for the
first time in U.S. history.

 Written with embarrassment for my country,

 – *Helen L. Burleson, Doctor of Public Administration*