Dear Bernie,

I am writing to thank you for repeatedly taking a stand for basic human decency and against the toxic anti-Muslim hatred that has steadily seeped into the realm of public discourse and even acceptability. I welcomed your recent mosque visit, and was touched by the way you addressed one of our concerned sisters in Fairfax, VA. From your media appearances to your online presence, you and your campaign have consistently stood against bigotry and xenophobia in all its forms, including the rising tide of anti-Muslim sentiment.

Then again, I never expected less from you. I was born and raised in Vermont, and from childhood I watched you go from the mayor of my hometown, to congressman, to senator. In middle school, I volunteered to help work the phones for one of your campaigns because even then I knew that — as far as politicians went — you were the exception to the rule. You were a principled fighter for the working class and poor, an advocate of the marginalized, a sincere human being, and someone who couldn’t be bought. You were all of these things, even when it was unpopular, as it often was. You remain so today, and do every Vermonter proud.

In high school, I and many other students had the opportunity of speaking with you as part of a youth congressional town hall meeting. There, we presented various policy proposals that we thought would make the state, the country, and the world a better place in which to live. You listened carefully, and provided thoughtful, respectful, and critical feedback. I had the pleasure of running into you on a number of other occasions — all of which I’m sure wouldn’t be especially memorable to you, though they were to me — near your Church St. office and other places around town.

My point in saying this is that the relative weight of my collective experiences told me that you would be an incredible presidential candidate if you could ever be convinced to run someday. It would mean the end of business as usual, and a rare historical window for serious change. However, I also knew it was not the kind of responsibility you were after, and chalked it up to a pipe dream. Perhaps you can imagine how tickled I was when you actually threw your hat in the ring. Finally, a chance for the whole country to get to know you the way your constituents know you.

I firmly believe that, especially at this historical juncture in the United States, you are precisely who the working people of this country need: a fiercely principled individual who does what he knows in his heart to be right, not a candidate who cynically constructs and shifts their positions based on the results of focus groups and polling data, and who has been bought and paid for by Wall St. We need someone who is determined to bring basic human morality back to politics, and you are the person of the hour. Moreover, you clearly get it: it’s not about Bernie Sanders. It’s about building a real, sustained mass movement for radical change.

In light of all of this, I was particularly touched by the ways in which you have stood up for and engaged with the Muslim community. I realize that your job is to represent the most people possible, and that Muslims are only about 1% of the US population — not to mention an even more negligible percentage of the Vermont population. You didn’t have to take time out to speak on the issue of anti-Muslim hatred, but you did, because it was the right thing to do.

This brings me to the second reason I am writing to you: I am asking you to go one step farther. In 1988, you took a firm and principled position on the issue of Israel-Palestine, saying, among other things:

The sight of Israeli soldiers breaking the arms and legs of Arabs is reprehensible. The idea of Israel closing down towns and sealing them off is unacceptable. … You have the ability when you are the United States of America, which is supporting the armies of the Middle East, to demand that these people sit down and support a reasonable settlement. …Or else you cut off arms. If the United States goes into the Middle East and demands a reasonable, a responsible, and a peaceful solution to the conflict that has gone there because of its clout because of the tremendous amounts of money that it is pouring into that region I think we can do it.

Later that same year, you were even more explicit, saying:

The policy that Israelis shoot people is unacceptable. It is wrong that the United States provides arms to Israel. We are not going to be the arms merchant for Middle Eastern nations. We must guarantee the right of the State of Israel to exist, as well as the rights of the Palestinians to have their own homeland.

Since that time, your important voice on this issue has softened to the point of near-silence. Yes, on your Senate website, your site admin periodically posts links to stories about atrocities in the Occupied Territories. But many on the progressive left have subsequently concluded that you are no longer an advocate of Palestinian rights, or an opponent of the illegal and immoral actions by the Israeli government and armed forces. When you say, “It’s complicated, I don’t have a magic solution,” that’s fine — we don’t expect you to have a magic solution. We just expect you to take a clear stand on this like you have on so many other things. Still, some of my compatriots have given up, and feel you have simply taken a cynical or politically expedient position on Israel-Palestine.

I, however, cannot bring myself to believe that is true. A consistent fighter for human rights, for the oppressed, for the exploited, does not suddenly abandon a key plank of that battle while still hammering on the others. My own suspicion, as one of your constituents who knows you as well as any of your others, is that there have been two factors at play here: first, you have become increasingly focused on domestic affairs since you entered the Congress, and second (and indeed, related), it’s just not something about which your constituency is especially concerned.

I’m writing to say that I believe in you, and because I believe in you, neither of those reasons for radio silence on Israel-Palestine are good enough. When I was a teenager, you offered me constructive criticism on my policy proposal about increased income and wage regulations on the super wealthy. Now, I’m writing to offer you some constructive criticism of my own: when it comes to Israel-Palestine, you can do better. Not because it’s a great policy position, or because it’s popular, or because it might garner a little more support from progressive circles, but for the same reason that you make most of cast most of your decisions: it is the right, the just, the ethical thing to do, to take a clear stand on one of the most pressing moral human rights crises of our time.

You get that our world is upside down. Israel-Palestine is a big, big part of that. I know that you know that the world is facing the same test of its proclaimed commitments to human rights and fundamental human morality with Israel-Palestine today that it once faced with Apartheid South Africa. Please do the right thing. Please speak up. I don’t expect you to have all the answers. I don’t expect you to wave a magic wand and fix it. But I have come to expect you to do what’s right, because that’s the standard you’ve set for yourself, and for your supporters. You’ve nearly always been on the right side of history on virtually every issue. Please don’t let us down on this one.

Wishing you all the best,

Daniel