Letter From Aaron

Dear Kevin, I’d like to introduce you to Mike Derrick.  If you haven’t met him yet, he’s running for Congress here in NY-21… something I know a thing or two about. Mike grew up and went to school in Peru, NY – a few exits up the Northway from us in Elizabethtown.  After graduating from West Point in 1985, he spent 28 years in the U.S. Army, serving as a combat infantry officer, senior commander, West Point professor, and diplomat. During that time, he left the active Army for five years to become a stay-at-home-dad of four children while his wife, Kathy, finished her Army career. Mike has lived in three foreign countries, ten U.S. states, and now has returned home to the North Country to serve again. I’ve gotten to know Mike Derrick over the last year. We have talked at length about our shared hopes for the country and for this place we call home.  We have hiked in the wilderness together and agreed about the ways that protecting our environment will help grow and nurture our local economies; we have talked about our parents and our children and lamented the ways that the American dream has become more out of reach for so many; and we have commiserated about the process of our politics. As I see Mike’s name get dragged into the kind of name-calling and mischaracterizations we’ve become accustomed to in today’s campaigns, I reflect again about the culture and strategies that lie behind all this. Everywhere, it seems, the politics of divisiveness holds sway. Mike’s character couldn't stand in bolder contrast. He is a man of integrity and sound competence. His approach is thoughtful, inclusive and cognizant of history.  When Mike speaks about foreign policy, and the decisions we’ve made to put American lives at risk, he does so with direct knowledge of the consequences of our choices. And when he speaks about our home in the North Country, he does so with the kind of passion that comes from a lifelong connection. Carolyn, Eloise, and I have spent time at his home with his family and he has visited us in E’town. We know his sister and her family in nearby Keene, and have met his mother, who lives in Saranac Lake.  I call him my friend, and I couldn’t be happier to see him running for this seat. That’s why I’m endorsing Mike.  In this difficult year of hard choices, I cannot think of a better candidate who embodies what we need in a proven public servant.   Please take a few minutes to visit his website.  Learn more about his background and his vision for the North Country.  He’s been tirelessly traveling this district, so next time he’s in your area, meet him and get to know him.  Join his campaign, lend your voice, and support him however you can.  Thank you, Aaron Aaron G Woolf Elizabethtown NY Yes, I'm aware that I'm not the only one who received it. Susan Spieth may have as well.