Dianne Feinstein helped my 12-year-old son with a school project: ‘We are truly grateful’

Dear Dianne Feinstein,

Thank you for your years of dedication and public service to the state of California.

You worked tirelessly to protect the environment and women’s access to abortion.

You introduced legislation to ban assault weapons and voted repeatedly for measures that improved healthcare.

You served as a beacon for countless women to follow in your political footsteps.

You also took time to help my young son.

When Nick was in sixth grade, he was given an assignment: select a topic of interest to research, interview an expert on that topic and write a research paper about the findings.

He’d always been fascinated by economics.

He routinely talked about investing with his stock broker dad, and he’d heard the country was running a massive deficit.

So he decided to write about the national debt.

The national debt is confusing under any circumstances.

Few adults fully understand what it entails. For a 12-year-old student, the subject can be even more daunting.

Still, Nick headed into his research.

He wanted to answer two basic questions: How big was the national debt? And how quickly was it growing? He planned to expand that information into a full report.

Since this was years before the internet, he began his search with a trip to the public library.

He poured through books from all sources, but found nothing that gave him what he needed, much less information that was relevant to a sixth grader.

Our trip to the library dragged on for hours. Fatigue and frustration set in.

At one point, Nick even broke down in tears, sobbing, “This is too hard! I can’t do this!”

That’s when the lightbulb went off in my head.

Why not contact one of our elected government officials? They could provide the statistics he wanted, plus serve as the required interviewee.

We went home and Nick made a few calls.

My son started at the top. He phoned California’s two senators at the time, you and Barbara Boxer.

You answered his call.

“I was shocked to get a response!” Nick says. “I don’t remember how prepared I was but I couldn’t have been amazing.”

He asked you about the national debt, noting you didn’t seem too concerned.

He also remembers that you talked about your political agenda and were especially interested in the state deficit.

“I was surprised at how generous she was with her time,” Nick recalled.

Your phone call with my son lasted 30 minutes.

Ms. Feinstein, I know you couldn’t possibly remember that call. It must have been one of thousands you took during your decades in office.

But that conversation was monumental to my son. He went on to a career in finance and is now a portfolio manager for a Fortune 500 financial services organization.

Even more impressive is the kindness and patience you demonstrated to an unknown student. You never knew the impact your actions would have, but our family was the direct recipient.

For that, we are truly grateful.

Rest in peace,

Linda Lewis Griffith