Open Letter to JD Vance

There are a few things I always wanted to say to him

Dear JD —

In 2016 I picked up a book. I do not know who recommended it or if I learned about it from a podcast. It was your book “Hillbilly Elegy”. It made me cry. So much of the story reminded me of my own upbringing even though my parents were married and no-one in my family was a drug addict. Yet, we were poor and for the first year of my existence we were on well fare. My father and mother both worked two jobs to advance us to the middle class. Which we eventually did in my late teens.

I have to note that I am not from here. Not from the US. I lived for 24 years in Germany. Then moved to South Africa for my master degree at the University of Cape Town — Chemical Engineering. And eventually ended up in the United States. I was able to travel the world and have worked in countries like South Korea, Brazil, Italy, Spain, France and the UK.

All of this enabled by an ambition that wanted me to escape my childhood and not end up where I grew up. The family dynamics that made it hard and easy to leave my home town are very telling. Anyone who went to university was arrogant and out of touch with reality. According to my family. Everyone consumed too much alcohol and smoked too much. People will be in shock to learn how many of my peers died through drunk driving, suicide, or by drugs. For several years after high school me and my friends attended a funeral annually, sometimes multiple. It was normal. I only learned years later in my 30s that it was just not… normal. And most middle class friends had a very different upbringing than I.

My family did not want me to go to university. My last two high school years were framed with screaming and yelling until I forced myself into college. My father did not talk to me for three months straight then. It was draining and still marks me to this day. I was always good in school with top grades, so I felt it was my duty to better myself. I was just tired of fighting and I have had a hard time to forgive my parents for the roadblocks they put in my way. I am not sure I ever really forgave them. This is why it was so easy for me to leave my home town and I did it right after high school. First to go to college, then further to get a masters in South Africa. And then … I moved forever to the States.

I recognized the anger you described. The overreaction and the inability to control the rage that builds up. It took me a divorce (long ugly story) and finally stopping to rely on others for recognition and … love. I found a great husband once I learned to be on my own and things are much better now. Self regulation is a skill that is not taught in certain families and communities.

I have to admit that until this year, I thought the word was Hillybilly and not Hillbilly. I just never really paid that much attention to the word. Color me surprised when this year I tried to recommend your book to a friend and I just could not find it initially. My sweet husband laughed when I told him and said: “Damn it, I always thought it was so cute when you said Hillybilly, and I just could not get myself to correct you.”

I have to say congratulations on your campaign with Donald J. Trump. You accomplished something that I wish more politicians would do. Bringing intelligence and accomplishment back to the office. You have likely no idea how void the German political scene is of accomplishment and credentials. It is so refreshing to see someone with a college degree and the mental capacity to be effective actually holding an office.

Thank you also for your ability to speak eloquently and in understandable, followable ways. And for stating the obvious clearly and calmly. I wish more people had your skill. I am so tired of the constant blame gaming and the inability to live with opposite opinions or disagreements. We used to be able to fight politically without calling everyone Nazi or Fascist, right? Maybe not. But it is extra difficult this election season to even hold a conversation with someone of the opposite believe system.

I just became a citizen last year. I applied for citizenship having lived 20 years in this country; married with kids. I never thought I cared enough to actually become a citizen. But after seeing the decline in Germany thanks to leftist politics with a significant influx in immigration from primarily middle eastern countries, I decided it was time to make the US my real home and to start fighting for how I wanted my kids to live their lives.

In 2016 I was convinced that the US citizens needed help voting. I — of course — in my old naive ways thought this meant to vote Trump out of office. I made a plan to become a US citizen then, but waited a few more years. A few more years seeing Germany sink deeper into both gender hysteria and immigration led safety issues and drain to the social security funds, I started to think differently until this year I pleaded with myself and forced myself to open my eyes wider. I will vote for yours and Trump’s ticket. I am a first time voter in the US and would have never guessed that this is where I would end up. But here I am. When I grew up, Germany was very safe to walk around at night, even for a girl, that is no longer the case. At all. Knife fights, rapes, and other assaults are becoming more common.

I just cannot have my new home country go down the same path my old home country went down. Immigration alone is a problem that has to be solved. We cannot led everyone from the Third World in without becoming a Third World ourselves.

My first impression driving from the airport to the city Cape Town made me wonder how Third World and First World can live so closely together. It was 1998. Living in this country to get my degree showed me that the two worlds indeed bleed into each other and it is not a very easy transition between the two worlds. It is even harder for a young naive girl from Europe whose understanding of violence basically does not exist and if only consists of very limited exposure when two drunks crashed into each other at German parties. I saw the tent villages under bridges often built from other people’s trash. I saw the influx of people migrating from rural areas to the city with … hopes, dreams, and ambition (hahaha, got ya), but I also saw the high crime rates. South Africa is unique that way. But I have to admit I have not been there since my college years and all I know is that it has gotten worse.

I am in shock when I see the same tent villages and trash side walks in Californian cities or other cities in the US. It is a decline that has already started. A decline I have witnessed before. Like a slowly spreading cancer that metastasizes slowly but surely without intervention. We need intervention. A drastic one. An intelligent one.

Thank you for being this intervention.

And thank you for your book. It helped me to read about someone also jumping classes and understanding what it means to leave “working poor” behind. It is the emotional work that most people do not understand or see.

Good luck on November 5! You have my vote.