Four questions away from a million dollars. No lifelines left.
She was at the end of her rope.
She needed the money. She needed to make rent. She was an unemployed single mom in a tangerine blouse, a nation builder with no nation to build.
* * *
—
The night when she got the news in the mail about budget cuts, about her position being eliminated—that was probably the lowest point in her life. She needed to do something. She decided what she needed to do was write a letter of complaint to the president. That was who she needed to tell. It takes a certain amount of fury. Sorrow. The world caving in. Everything you believe in. An entire identity you had carved for yourself. It takes a couple swigs of vodka. Calling your mom, crying your eyes out.
She poured another drink. She called her mom again. She called friends. Crying. Another drink. Look, she’s not going to deny she had a lot to drink. “Dear Mr. President.”
This was about more than soothing her own ego. This was about soothing cries that went back centuries. The great-grandfathers who had served. The courage and the fight. A great-great-great-grandmother.
April 5, 2011
Dear Mr. President,
My parents represent the very best of America….
My father went on to serve…
My mother answered John F. Kennedy’s call to serve….
My parents’ maternal grandfathers fought together in World War I….My maternal grandfather and great-uncle both fought in World War II….
I followed in my mother’s footsteps to become a teacher….
“A nation builder.”
Mr. President, I have committed myself to educating America’s future and helping them give back to the world when some of them went home at night to homeless shelters. I spent this past February in the Langa Township in South Africa with my five-year-old son, giving school suppl[i]es to students in the township schools.
Mr. President…I am sure you receive thousands of letters with the woes of the unemployed and there is very little you can do on an individual basis. But I felt compelled to reach out to you….
I lost my job because the stimulus money to schools has ended and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo took an ax to school aid. My question to you is, if I have dedicated the last eleven years of my life to nation building and educating America’s children, how do I now go about providing for my family…when the education job market is flooded with thousands of teachers dismissed due to budget cuts?
Carpe diem,
Marnie Hazelton
She was stunned when she got a letter back from the president. She stared at that thing. The official White House stationery. His handwriting is more like drawing. He doesn’t cross all his Ts. She stared at that thing for what felt like hours.
“I’m rooting for you.”
* * *
—
No lifelines left. Four questions away from a million dollars. The lights. The makeup. Were her bangs too long? Look, she’d be fine if she didn’t win a million dollars. Fine. She was thinking a hundred thousand dollars. Walk out with a hundred thousand dollars. A game show. Whatever it takes. Solve the problem. All the résumés she sent out. All the interviews. Nothing. Countless interviews. Nothing happening. Nobody calling back.
Here’s your question for one hundred thousand dollars.
[Tense music, blue laser lights beaming in an upward circular motion]
Canada’s Simon Fraser University made headlines in 2009 by introducing what educational innovation?
An educational innovation! Well, surely she’d know this one, as an educator two years into a PhD. It was a multiple-choice question, and there were four choices:
A. A major in “everything”
B. A library with no books
C. An all-female football team
D. A grade worse than “F”
Think. A game show is built on the principle that the contestant can disregard these lights and this makeup and think. (Or maybe it’s not.) On game shows they want you to think out loud so the audience can feel a part of things.
If I think about innovation, I’m thinking, “Library with no books.” Football team, an all-female football team is not innovative. A major in everything…Innovation versus motivation…I wouldn’t say motivation for…a grade worse than F.
Well, here’s the deal. You do have forty thousand six hundred dollars. You could walk with that, if you choose to, um, but if you get this right, it’s worth a hundred thousand dollars. If you were to miss it, you go down to twenty-five thousand dollars.
I came here with nothing.
Heh heh.
[Tense drum music]
All right, Meredith, like I said yesterday, I came to win; I’ll go with my gut feeling, and…I’m going to say a library with no books, B, my final answer.
[Blue laser lights beaming in a downward circular motion]
It made sense to me, but it was D, a grade worse than F.
[Sorrowful sounds from audience]
Meredith explained that the correct answer had something to do with a grade for kids who got caught cheating. Something. Something. Something. Her heart. Her stomach. The thud you feel, in your gut. Letting everyone down. Her mom. Her kid. The ancestors. No lifelines. No million dollars. No $100,000. No $40,600. She would be sent home with a consolation prize, $25,000.
All right, well, I had a wonderful time. I had a wonderful time.
The grade is “FD.” It stands for “failed for academic dishonesty.”
Oh, a grade worse than F. Okay.
But you know what? As the president said, we are all rooting for you.
[Applause]
Okay.
Meredith leaned in for a kiss, and Marnie obliged and then sauntered off the stage, carrying the letter she had read to the audience, the blue laser lights going around and around.
She got home and took off that stupid jacket and that stupid tangerine shirt and poured some wine and climbed into bed. It took her a moment or two to get it together. To grasp hold of reality. Wait, I just got handed a check for twenty-five thousand dollars. It took her a few beats to embrace how lucky a person would be if the clouds suddenly coughed up that kind of cash. But of course she did grasp it.
“I’m rooting for you.”
I am Marnie Hazelton!
In the months that followed, she went to more job interviews, and for good luck she carried Obama’s letter (the photocopy) with her. She kept it in her purse. It became her talisman. She would pull it out at lunch and after dinner and before breakfast.
Thirteen months after she got laid off, she got a call from the Roosevelt Union Free School District.
They wanted her back. They needed her. They needed Marnie Hazelton.
Reinvigorated, reinvented, when she got back into the classroom, she showed her students the note she got from President Obama; it was a teachable moment. She told the kids, she said, “I’m rooting for you.” At parent-teacher nights she told the parents she was rooting for them. She told the bigwigs on the school board, teachers, and coaches; she told business leaders in the community (who needed to get it together and help that school); she told everybody, “I’m rooting for you!”
She got promoted, she got her PhD, she got promoted a few more times, and then one day in early 2016 she was named superintendent of the Roosevelt Union Free School District.
Superintendent of the school district that had once laid her off.
No longer will you find it on the New York State watch list for fiscal and academic concern. The “Roosevelt Renaissance from Good to Great!” has begun, with the goal of a 100 percent graduation rate by 2020, and Marnie Hazelton, nation builder, is in charge.
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
Marnie—
Thanks for your dedication to education. I know that things seem discouraging now, but demand for educators and persons with your skills will grow as the economy and state budgets rebound.
In the meantime, I’m rooting for you!
Barack Obama
July 16, 2016
Dear Mr. President,
…The sincerest thanks I can convey to you is a quote by the late Maya Angelou:
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Carpe diem,
Marnie Hazelton
Contact Us—Other
Submitted: April 20, 2013 02:10
From: Susan Patterson
Dear Mr. President,
I’ve written and complained about a lot of your policies. I got a response to my opinion on gun control. The response I received I think changed my mind. My concern, one of them, was that mental health seemed over looked. If you do, all you said in the letter, I will support your gun control bills. I also would like to say, I felt very good about the speech you gave last night after the second Boston bomber was captured. I still HATE Obama care, the entire thing. But, the gun stuff could work.
Thank you for the response letter, Susan Patterson
From: Erv and Ross Uecker-Walker
Submitted: 11/17/2014 6:35 PM EST
Address: Milwaukee, Wisconsin
We offer our sincere thanks to President Obama and his Administration for their consistent support of civil rights for the LGBT Community and especially for marriage equality. As a result of your efforts, after being in a committed relationship for 57 years, we will be able to be legally married on November 30th at our church, Pilgrim United Church of Christ, Grafton, Wisconsin. It is particularly significant as November 30th is our 57th anniversary. We never thought it would happen. Thank you for the bottom of our hearts.
From: Ms. Melina S
Submitted: 7/15/2013 5:16 PM EDT
Dear Mr. Presdient,
Today I went to my Kaiser pharmacy to refill my birth control prescription. Automatically I gave my Kaiser ID card and credit card. The pharmacy said to me ‘no co-pay’ and gave me back my credit card. I slid it back over the counter to the pharmacist and said, ‘It’s 30 dollars’. She slid it back and said ‘you don’t have to pay co-pay’. I asked ‘why? Since when?’ I was puzzled and sure this was a new employee and she was doing something wrong. She said ‘it’s the new health care provision’. When she said that, it clicked. I have been hearing about it. I knew about it. But here it was in action, and I could not believe it. I kid you not, I felt ‘emotional’ right away. I felt something. Like an injustice, was turned. Like a wrong was, made right. Like when you hear an apology, you know you deserved’ I suppose can’t describe it very well in an e-mail. But I felt something so strong, that I had to write you right away and say THANK YOU. Thank you for standing up for women. THANK YOU FOR STANDING UP FOR WOMEN! I know it’s a small thing’ but it’s so big to little old me. What it means, and what it stands for; there is a hope. Things can change. Women do have a friend in politics. And I appreciate you so much for doing the right thing. Really, truly’ thank you so much!
Sincerely and respectfully,
Melina S
Dear Mr. Obama,
“We are true to our creed when a little girl born into the bleakest poverty knows that she has the same chance to succeed as anybody else, because she is an American, she is free, and she is equal, not just in the eyes of God but also in our own.”
Do you recognize this? You said this in your presidential inauguration in January, right around my eighteenth birthday. I wanted you to know how much this impacted me, it made me want to succeed more than ever. I don’t want to tell you my whole life’s story, but I do want you to know that I was one of those little girls. I was born into horrible poverty, and my parents didn’t think that I had much of a chance at a future because of our financial circumstances. I proved them wrong. Every statistic said that I didn’t have good chances of getting into a good college. I proved them wrong. I met your wife once, she came to my high school, ——, and I was one of the lucky few that got to shake her hand. I thought that was the coolest thing that had ever happened to me in my entire life, and it made me realize that I had just as much of a chance getting into a good college as anyone else. I worked harder after that, and when senior year came around I started doubting my future as a college student, through becoming homeless and finding out that I am a lesbian, I got through all of it and here I am. A soon-to-be high school graduate going to — in the fall, and I am telling you all of this so that you know that you had a hand in helping me get where I am today. I heard your inaugural address at school and when you said what you said, I started crying, because I had never had anybody in my entire life tell me that I could succeed just as much as anyone else just because I am an American. People told me that I was crazy, that someone else wrote that speech for you, but I didn’t care, I chose to believe your words and I’m happy I did. I just wanted to thank you for saying that, and I wanted to thank your wife for helping me realize that I am equal to everyone else, regardless of how much money I have.
A Hopeful Future College Student,
—
P.S.: I’m glad you got re-elected
From: Matthew Tyrone Pointer
South Gate, California
December 23, 2013
My name is Matthew Tyrone Pointer and I am a varsity basketball player for South Gate high school, located in South Gate, California
This is my first year at South Gate high school. I recently transferred from our town rivals, The South East Jaguars. The reason I transferred was because of basketball. It keeps my grades up and in the long run I know it’ll make me a better person as I grow. The basketball program is great here, we go to many gyms located in many different cities and sometimes even in different counties. I can say the most amazing school/gym I visited was Beverly hills high school, when my team and I were walking around the campus looking for the gym, we all happen to notice this one classroom. The reason for that was because the classroom was filled with ipads, for the students of course. All of us basketball players coming from South Gate high school, were very shocked and just amazed. While we were stuck on talking about how we wished we had the supplies these Beverly Hills students have, a Beverly Hills student walked by and looked at us, we were all in our South Gate attire so that led up to him asking us where South Gate was located, we all replied “by South Central, on Firestone and State St.” the student had no idea what we had just said but we all understood why. He just proceeded to wherever he was going.
Well now to express the way I feel on being treated unfairly with equal access of school resources/supplies. Schools like Beverly Hills high school and Redondo Union have great electronic resources and pretty neat school supplies, that us lower class schools like South East, South Gate, and Huntington Park don’t have.
I dont know if its because we’re a minority as a community or maybe because of our location, but I really feel that school supplies such as computers, classrooms, even pencil and paper should be equally distributed to all schools no matter the district or location. What makes those schools like Beverly Hills and Redondo union better than us? Is it the students? I hope you get the point I’m trying to make Mr. Obama, I just want equality within every community and imm only talking about school wise. To some kids, school is the only thing that can help them make it out of where their stuck in. You want change? well give us a chance and we’ll do our part by doing our job in school. I dont really care if l get a response back after writing this letter, as long as somebody hears me out and understands im trying to do better for our community.
THE WHITE
HOUSE
WASHINGTON
February 11, 2015
Mr. Matthew Tyrone Pointer
Los Angeles, California
Dear Matthew:
I’ve been meaning to write since I read the letter you sent some time ago. Playing basketball in high school taught me about who I was and what I could do, and I’m glad it’s played a positive role in your life as well.
You’re right—education is the key to success, and whether students live in Beverly Hills or South Gate, they all should have a world-class education with access to the resources they need to reach for their dreams. Your generation deserves a system worthy of your potential, and every day I’m fighting to make that vision a reality.
Thank you for your message—your passion to lift up your community is admirable. Keep up the hard work, both on and off the court, and know I expect big things from you.
Sincerely,
Barack Obama
Dear Mr. President,
My name is — and I’m from —— a suburb —— of Boston. I’m a retired Union Ironworker ——.
Enclosed please find my still valid NRA card. I will not be renewing my membership after today’s’ disappointing Senate vote.
Reasonable people expect reasonable action to be taken by their elected officials. That did not happen today. Evidently the NRA’s influence is too intimidating for many people. I no longer feel properly represented by the NRA and I would be very surprised if there weren’t a lot more who share my opinion.
If you tell the citizens of this country of my actions, I think you’d wind up with a mailbox full of NRA cards. Background checks are the very least we can do in light of Sandy Hook, Aurora, and Arizona, to name a few. Reasonable people can accept reasonable laws.
To Obama Page 13