Mayor Menino's open letter to the Rolling Stone

After analyzing “An open letter to Emmet Burns” by Chris Kluwe in class and discussing what an open letter is, I found a separate example of an open letter, which I found intriguing for several reasons. The example I found and chose to analyze was a letter from the Mayor of Boston, Thomas Menino, to the publisher of the Rolling Stone magazine, Jann Wenner on July 17, 2013. The letter was written in regard to the magazine’s choice of cover art for that issue, which presented the face of the Boston bomber in a highly glamorous and positively connoted light. Initially, I was stunned and appalled. This letter is something I find very personal to my life; not only am I an avid reader of the Rolling Stone but I also live and study in Boston and the bombings took place very close to where I live.

Mayor Menino, who shared the same opinion of the magazine cover as many other ‘Bostonians’ wrote a short, yet powerful open letter to the magazine’s publisher noting his calm and concise view on the countless negatives of the cover. He went on to focus on more of the positive efforts surrounding the bombings and the magazine’s lack of interest in those efforts.

There is a very large and active audience to this open letter. Firstly, it almost automatically serves the opinion of every Boston resident or visitor affected by the bombings. I believe that these people don’t serve as an audience as much as they serve as the indirect writers of the open letter. They may not have physically written the letter, however, their views coincide perfectly with those of the mayor and therefore, I feel that they can be considered a moving force behind the letter that is as significant as the mayor himself. This letter beautifully upholds the idea of ‘One Boston’ and ‘Boston Strong’. Other groups of people that can be considered audiences of this open letter are: politically active readers, readers of the Rolling Stone and most importantly, the publisher and the team behind the magazine cover.

The mayor uses simple but bold sentences to empower accusations made towards the publisher, such as “Your August 3 cover rewards a terrorist with celebrity treatment”. I love how he also maintains his cool by directing his anger away from the cover (as he openly states in the first sentence of the second paragraph) and focuses on how the magazine could have presented the survivors, volunteers and first responders, etc. in a positive light. He does a wonderful job of closing the short letter by blatantly ‘sticking’ it to the magazine and telling them they no longer “deserve” to talk about the survivors of the bombings. Not only does he perfectly embody the rowdy and aggressive stereotype of the people of Boston, but he also creates a brand new topic of discussion into the power of overcoming traumatic events graciously and formidably like the city of Boston has done so over the last few months.