Letter to Tom Rooney (FL-16) from his Brother
August 25th, 2008 at 12:15am Boru
My brother, Tom Rooney, one of three candidates running in the Republican primary for the District 16 House race to oppose Tim Mahoney, has faced quite a dilemma as of late as to how to get his message out that he is the most qualified to represent this particular part of Florida.
Tom’s campaign, in the waning days of this primary, and in the unenviable position of running behind his opponents monetarily, finds itself unable to parry some of the attacks his challengers have levied upon him.
That being established, and being of a completely biased opinion, I hope to be of some remedy.
Like myself, Tom and the rest of our six siblings had what might be termed a comfortable upbringing. My Grandfather, of course, was the legendary Art Rooney, founder of the Pittsburgh Steelers, himself one of eleven children from a lower class Irish immigrant family who eventually settled in Pittsburgh. His story has been told many times, so I won’t retrace it here. What I will say is that the legacy of my Grandfather is rooted in something that today seems incongruous with politics, that being humility.
We may have been surrounded, as children, by what my Grandfather surely would have termed trivial luxuries, but there was always a deeper purpose instilled by him, through my Father, Patrick and my Mother, Sandy as to what life really was about. That was, service to God, to your family, and to your country in that order.
It was because of the hard work of our Grandfather, and through him, the work of our Father, that Tom was able to go to college. He then had the opportunity to attend and complete graduate school. Ultimately, he would go on to finish law school.
I write this not to list my brother’s achievements, but to show how he used those achievements to honor the values and examples that previous generations of my family exhibited to inspire our generation.
Tom could have used his educational resume and family ties to secure an endless array of high paying jobs. Instead, in his late 20’s, he joined the US Army as a JAG officer. After serving his country, he joined the Florida State Attorney’s office under now Governor Charlie Crist investigating Medicare fraud. Finally, then Governor George Bush appointed him to run the Children’s Place at Home Safe, a care center for abused and neglected children here in Palm Beach County.
My Grandfather always said, God’s gift to you is your life, your gift to God is what you do with it. When I look over how Tom has lived his life thus far, I see that he took his words to heart.
Tom and I, honestly, never liked politics. We could never understand how one person, without sitting down and getting to know the other, could arbitrarily judge that person from a distance. As much as the both of us has wanted to lash out at one of our opponents at one time or another, we always found ourselves saying to one another, “I wonder if they’re really like this outside of politics?” And we demurred. It was never worth it. In the end, dignity was what mattered.
Again, this isn’t a plea to you to vote for my brother. You alone should decide whom you believe is best to serve this district. I only wanted to let you know that my brother, Tom, is an honorable person. And I wanted to let him know that I’m proud of, not only how he has conducted himself in this race, but how he has conducted himself in life.
Chris Rooney
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