This is an open letter to the Pennsylvania Republicans.

After reading the New York Times article about our U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, I must speak up. I will start with a few questions.

How many of you have doctorates? Have any of you spent any time at all in Sen. John Fetterman’s presence? I have personally spoken to Fetterman and found him to be smart, funny, and open to thoughts and ideas. A man willing to listen to the problem, then work at solving it.

I also have a similar word associative problem. If I understood the New York Times article correctly, many of you think the man is handicapped and unable to perform his duties as required. My father was in the Navy back in World War II, and he taught me many things as I was growing up. The one thing that he taught me was, “you never look down your nose at any living being, for any reason. They were put in your path for a reason. There is no ‘handicapped’, there is only ‘handi-capable’.”

I’m appalled and stunned at the treatment of one of your own. Sen. Fetterman is taking his health seriously, just as all of us should. My condition is what it is, and I’m not letting it stop me or stand in my way. Sen. Fetterman is apparently of the same mindset. Do what you can, when you can, and if you should falter along the way, be confident that someone will be there to pick up the torch and carry on.

Those of you who would bad-mouth, attempt to defame, or otherwise try to have Sen. Fetterman removed from a seat he heartily won from Dr. Mehmet Oz, adding one more Democrat to the list.

Well, darn! What do we do now? Let’s make the gentle giant of a man look weak. No such thing, folks. Weakness is not in Senator Fetterman’s forte. The power of a man is standing up and doing the right thing. Weakness is exposed when those who ‘think’ they have power abuse their power to try to make someone look weak. It also makes them look and act like they’re two, makes them look like a buffoon, and makes them look and sound uneducated.

Let’s get down to brass tacks and get on with governing our state and nation. We have enough to fret about. My father used to say, “The only easy day, was yesterday.”

Q.L. McKenna is a Warren resident.