John Steven McGroarty Letter to a Constituent In describing some of the pressures which discourage political courage among Congressmen and Senators, then Senator John F. Kennedy wrote (Profiles in Courage, 1956, page 8) — All of us occasionally have the urge to follow the example of Congressman John Steven McGroarty of California, who wrote a constituent in 1934: One of the countless drawbacks of being in Congress is that I am compelled to receive impertinent letters from a jackass like you in which you say I promised to have the Sierra Madre mountains reforested and I have been in Congress two months and haven't done it. Will you please take two running jumps and go to hell. This letter was actually written on the Congressman's behalf by my father, George Stephan, McGroarty's legislative aide.