Tara Vrooman Greene writes:

Subject: Your book and your father

Dear Daniel,

I was one of the first student's your father ever had at Letchworth high school...actually his second class. His lasting impressions, unusual classroom style of teaching and high expectations of his students still remain with me today as lessons for all of the young people who pass through my doors. The imagination you must have developed just from his inspiration as a father, to write this book and then having the belief in yourself to get it published does not surprise me. Your father inspired many to believe in themselves and to reach for the stars in their lives when he was still just a very young man himself. I still have the paper that he graded with a %100...that I did in his class on the conspiracy theory of the Kennedy assassination. I still have the memory of the day he decided...out of the blue...to have a mock trial and he chose me as the defense attorney. I was rocked by the moment as I am good on the spot at age 50, but at age 16 I liked a little planning time. Needless to say, I lost the case, according to your father, the judge. But to this day...I feel I won. What's more important here is that he taught me to question motives and to appreciate justice and truth and fairness for the rest of my life. To this day I do not actively enter a campaign headquarters without thinking of his training in making me a vigorous, diplomatic and ambitious campaign assistant. I lose some...but never without using the fairest of tactics and never without fighting my heart out for the less fortunate and the uninformed.

Daniel, though raised in NY I have lived in Tennessee now for over 25 years. It's a very difficult environment for a strong-minded New York girl like myself to endure...especially during this last historical election. But I would like to say, it is because of your father and the reflections that remain embedded in my mind of his take on history, that are one of the reasons today that I remain so active in making a difference politically, even though every campaign here truly is an uphill climb.

Now, most importantly, congratulations on your book. That is quite an accomplishment dear sir, after enduring your deployments to Iraq...and under circumstances that I am aware of, and am against. My son-in-law too served three deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq. He served with the 101st. I know only too well how it feels to worry and yet find hope to sustain the family until the soldier returns finally and safely. God Bless you for your service.

Best of luck in the success of your book...one of which will be on my shelves along with the other couple of thousand that line the already too smothered bookshelves in our house.

And tell your Dad one thing for me. That law degree that I always felt he yearned for in his heart (I may be wrong...but I have the same yearning)...it's never too late to get it. His success is amazing and the differences he has made in many students' lives is to be praised highly. But I'm seeing lawyer, Senator...or at least Congressman for NY State. It's time for a change...tell him I challenge him to jump into the next election and go for the win...the same way he tried to make me go for the win 30-some years ago.

Best wishes for your future Sincerely, Tara J. Vrooman Bailey Greene