To Obama

by Jeanne Marie Laskas

  Please know that your example of strength and compassion, resolve and empathy, intellectual curiosity and sense of wonder, have inspired us throughout your presidency, and more importantly will resonate in your legacy, continuing to inspire us to persevere.

  Thank you Sir

  Rust Eddy and Sheryl Scales

  Charlotte Blome

  Crystal Lake, IL

  18 November 2016

  President Barack Obama

  The White House

  1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

  Washington, DC 20500

  Dear Mr. President,

  In this time of uncertainty, I would like to share with you a small, but bright spot that I am sure in not an isolated one.

  We are a mixed race family that lives in the reddest county in Chicagoland. I am white. My adopted son Noah is black. His school is overwhelmingly white. Last year, his 7th grade elected him the most likely to become President of the United States, in spite of the fact that he reminded them he is Ethiopian by birth. They did not care. This year, he ran for student council president and won.

  It may seem like a small thing on the surface, but I do not think that 20 years ago this would have happened at your typical 98% white school. Noah is likely the first black student council president at his Jr. High, but my impression is it is so normal for him and his fellow students, that it has not even been mentioned! He has experience quite a bit of racial bias in his 13 years, but never from his peers. Even in a conservative county like ours. I attribute this largely to you. (He gets some credit, too, for being a good, hard-working guy!)

  So, I thank you and the First Lady for setting us on the right course. We sure are going to miss you.

  With profound gratitude and respect,

  Charlotte Blome

  BARACK OBAMA

  May 4, 2017

  Ms. Charlotte Blome

  Crystal Lake, Illinois

  Dear Charlotte:

  Thanks for your note. It’s clear you’ve raised a wonderful young man, and I can tell how proud you are of Noah.

  Noah’s accomplishments reflect an idea at the heart of our nation’s promise: that in America, all people should be able to make of their lives what they will—no matter the color of their skin or the country they are from. The story you shared of his experience in school gives me tremendous hope for our country’s future.

  Thanks again. You and your family have my very best.

  Sincerely,

  Barack Obama

  BARACK OBAMA

  May 4, 2017

  Mr. Noah Blome

  Crystal Lake, Illinois

  Dear Noah:

  Your mother wrote to tell me about all you’ve achieved in school—congratulations on being elected Student Council President! It’s clear your mom is very proud of you, and I want you to know that I am, too.

  In the face of challenges, I hope you’ll remember that there are no limits to what you can achieve. As long as you hold on to the passion and determination that have brought you this far and keep dreaming big dreams, you can help effect positive change—in your school, across your community, and throughout our nation.

  Again, congratulations—and good luck with your new responsibilities. I’m rooting for you and wish you the very best.

  Sincerely,

  Barack Obama

  From: Mr. Joshua David Hofer

  Address: Bloomington, Nebraska

  Honorable President Barack Obama,

  Dear Mr. President I appreciate how hard you work and as a former veteran I understand how things you believe get twisted against you by the military. That most saddest thing I see is the hatred towards the Muslim world and the separation our country is going towards. I feel your President Abraham Lincoln and Im watching history repeat itself against color of skin. I served in the military at a young age and being from Nebraska I learned their is no such thing as race. The people who still look out for me today are of different color. I think america is sheltered and needs to see what veterans have seen since the war on Terrorism began. We need more commercials that teach lessons and give other point of views like South Korea does in order to maintain their social customs for their younger youth. I truly believe in what you do buy because I served I saw were the money went to support Pakistan (Terrorism) and Iran. I believe america when you do a presidential speech need to see what life is like when you live in a country that is at war. I have photos of a one girl who reminded me of my sister as I was losing my mind in 2003 in Iraq. I never will leave me but I wanted to change lives for them. Their country has oppressed them to where they were starving. I gave her chocolate and all kinds of stuff but I realized the error in my ways. As I would try to help her out predators because she was a female made an example. As we were leaving I saw that an older child saw what I have done. She cared for her younger brother as well. He was stomped to death and she was being dragged down the street. I care her picture with me to this day. I didnt see Muslim or Christian, I saw human. When you oppress someone and kill their family, they grow up in a world of hate. I believe I have many more things to offer my country then retired veteran but in this new world where your born into privilege it is hard for a veteran who cries from his nightmares to separate. This country is filled with so much hate it kills me. I dont see black and white I see my brothers. I have been wronged and you are the only one who could help me move on. Like people that are angry I feel I was wrong but by leaders in my military service.

  From: Mr. larry wright

  Submitted: 1/11/2017 7:17 AM EST

  Address: Greensboro, North Carolina

  Mr. President

  For 8 years you were loved, hated, mistreated and berated. For 8 years you sung, danced cried and amazing graced us when racism and hatred came knocking at God’s door. You was a Muslim, Terrorist, half bread, African but never American. You help two industries that were on the verge of collapse and pulled this country out of its worse recession in years. We seen you go from dark hair to gray hair, we seen your kids grow and become beautiful young ladies and your wife is the woman most admired by many women around the globe. I credit your wife for restoring pride in all women especially black women. You gave people the opportunity to be insured and feel safe when it came to the safety of this country. I’m sure there are things that you are not proud of and wish you could go back and fix them, but we all have things we would love to fix in our lives as well. In closing I would like to say this. There may never be another face like your in the white house, there may never be another family like your in the white house and there may never be a husband and wife team like you and your wife that lived a scandal free campaign in the white house. The one thing that will be missed when you close that door behind you will be Mr. Barack Obama our 44th President of the United States.

  From: Marjan Schneider Carasik

  Submitted: 12/24/2016 12:36 PM EST

  Address: Ithaca, New York

  Dear Mr. President,

  Thank you for standing up for the rights of Palestinians as well as Israelis. Answers to all questions lie somewhere in the middle.

  I am the child and grandchild of Jewish refugees who suffered greatly before coming to America. It causes me much pain to see Palestinians sometimes being mistreated as my family members were mistreated before arriving on these shores.

  I am grateful to you for your courage in standing where you do. This does not make you an anti-Semite, but rather pro-All Human Beings.

  With Much Admiration and Affection, and Thanks,

  Marjan S. Carasik

  Ithaca, N.Y.

  Mr. President and Mrs. Obama,

  I cannot tell you how much I have loved and appreciated your work in the White House for the last 8 years.

  As a daug
hter of immigrants and a woman of color, your actions in office have given me so much hope. Thank you for leading an America that was inclusive and that craved justice.

  I got to attend your inauguration in 2008. I still have a lot of the cheesy keepsakes Pepsi was handing out that week. I remember that it was freezing, and that it hurt to cry because of that. I remember being stranded at the Air and Space Museum for 4 hours while we waited for our charter bus. I was interviewed like 3 times that week by Latin American news stations. I cried in all three as I explained that your presidency validated my dreams.

  As you transition out of the presidency, I want you to know it was worth it. It was worth all the Fox news attacks. It was worth it to honor and respect Muslims. It was worth it to champion the rights of women. To cry out against injustice. To mourn the loss of black lives at the hands of law enforcement.

  Your courage and humility in leadership will be sorely missed. But not forgotten. All the voices you’ve pulled out of silence—we’re all in unison and ready to rally for justice, unity, and equality.

  So when you move out of the White House, go on vacation. Drink some margaritas for me. We’ll be here fighting the good fight till you get back.

  So much love,

  Mary-Beth Johnson

  Milwaukie, OR

  BARACK OBAMA

  June 14, 2017

  Mrs. Mary-Beth Johnson

  Milwaukie, Oregon

  Dear Mary-Beth:

  Thanks for sharing your reflections on the last eight years, including my first inauguration, in the letter you sent me—I agree; it was all worth it.

  I was moved by your kind words, and I am inspired by your commitment to continue stepping forward, speaking out, and working to defend the values that make us who we are. As you do, please know Michelle and I will be standing right alongside you, as we always have been, fighting for the America we both know is possible.

  Thanks again for writing—you, Benjamin, and Estel have my very best.

  Sincerely,

  Barack Obama

  President Barack + First Lady Michelle,

  This modest card probably will not get to you. I want to thank you for the last eight years. It has been a honor. You started out with a part of my heart, and you leave with the whole thing.

  Frank Heimbecker

  DeForest WI

  BARACK OBAMA

  June 19, 2017

  Mr. Frank Heimbecker

  DeForest, Wisconsin

  Dear Frank:

  On the final night of my Presidency, I read the handwritten card you sent me, and I wanted to reach out to thank you. Your kind words were deeply moving, and while I appreciate your thinking of me, please know the honor was all mine—it was the privilege of my life to serve as your President.

  There are certainly milestone moments we will always remember from the past eight years, but for me, it was hearing from people like you that kept me going every single day. My heart has been touched time and again by the daily acts of kindness that embody the American people at their core, and as I take some time now to rest and reflect on all we achieved together, know that your thoughtful gesture will stay with me.

  Sincerely,

  Barack Obama

  Epilogue

  Benjamin Durrett (this page), twenty-eight, is married and living in Oregon. He works as an office administrator for a water company, and is not registered with a political party.

  Despite their differing views of government, Richard Dexter (this page) treasured Obama’s response to his letter, and plans to pass it on to his daughters.

  Jeri Harris (this page) kept her promise to pray for Obama every day of his two terms. His letter hangs inside a frame on a wall in her living room. She wrote a letter to President Trump after the 2016 election, saying she would pray for him too.

  J. Martin Ball (this page) died in 2011. His daughter, Natasha, remembers the day her father wrote to Obama—it was her son’s eighteen-month birthday. Her father was overjoyed knowing that his grandson would grow up knowing a black president.

  Shailagh Murray (this page) is not writing as many letters as she believes she should. She thinks often of Bobby Ingram and the thousands of Americans whose stories lived in binders in her West Wing office, and whose voices and conviction were her guiding force.

  Every day at about three o’clock, Bobby Ingram (this page) watches his cat, Purdy, step out on the back porch, hop onto the railing, and begin nudging morsels of cat food off of it. The food drops into the yard below where BooHiss, the fat turtle, awaits with contentment. “Purdy is just fascinated by that,” Bobby reports.

  Linette Jones (this page) is glad she shot her angry email to Obama, and would do it again; his response was comforting. Her daughter Sophia, who was stationed in Kabul when Linette wrote to the president, is safely home, living close to her mom in Florida.

  Michael Powers (this page) allowed White House staff to share his letter publicly, along with Obama’s reply. The letters showed up on a conservative blog where Obama’s handwritten response earned a place as one of the top ten gaffes he made during his first six months in office. (He misspelled “advice,” or at least didn’t properly curve the “c.”)

  Kenny Jops (this page), twenty-two, graduated from Northwestern University in 2018 with a double major in math and environmental studies.

  Fiona Reeves (this page) works for a Democratic communications firm, and her husband, Chris Liddell-Westefeld, collects oral histories for the Barack Obama Presidential Library. Their daughter, Grace, has a letter from Obama framed on her bedroom wall. Her parents report that Grace goes canvassing with them every chance she gets.

  Yena Bae (this page) is pursuing a graduate degree in international security studies at Columbia University. She is a frequent host of wine nights, potlucks, and get-togethers where stories of #teamlittlepeople continue to be shared.

  Thomas and JoAnn Meehan’s (this page) son, Daryl, named one of his three daughters after Colleen.

  Pete Rouse (this page) delights in watching the young people who came of age under “the Obama experience” continue to contribute to civic engagement. He’s enjoying quality time with Buster, his Maine Coon cat, who now weighs twenty-seven pounds so Pete’s putting him on a diet.

  Mike Kelleher (this page) works in the United Nations liaison office at the World Bank in Washington, D.C. He also composes, arranges, and performs music professionally; his 2015 jazz album, Mélange, is a collaboration with his wife, Karin, a classical violinist.

  Laura King (this page) is now legally married to Lisa.

  Robert B. Trapp (this page) is still the managing editor of The Rio Grande Sun.

  Retired U.S. Air Force Staff Sergeant Robert Doran (this page) discovered that his fiancée, Jana’, had not been taking her blood pressure medication before she died; she was unable to afford it. SSgt Doran gave Obama’s reply to his letter to Jana’’s daughters.

  Chana Sangkagalo (this page) enjoys continued success at his popular hair salon in Rhode Island.

  Regina Bryant (this page) received a recipe from Michelle Obama for a vegetarian bean dip. “Some serious spices!” Her letter and the Obamas’ reply are saved in an album for her daughter, Caitlin.

  Jason Hernandez’s (this page) life sentence for a drug conviction was commuted by President Obama on December 19, 2013. He lives in Dallas, where he is writing a book about the justice system and where he assists federal inmates serving life sentences with clemency petitions.

  A campaign staffer was so moved by Sandy Swanson’s (this page) letter that she sent the family a pizza, and then President Obama called her from Air Force One to thank her.

  Bill Oliver (this page) and his wife, Sandra, host a weekly philosophy study group at their home. Quique plans to go to culinary school. Quique’s wife, Rebecca, is a premed student in college. Bill and Quique talk daily.

&
nbsp; In July 2016, Darin Konrad Brunstad’s (this page and this page) husband, Senior Master Sergeant and two-time Airman of the Year awardee David Lono Brunstad, retired from the military after twenty-two years of service. Darin and David rode on an F-15 fighter jet to celebrate. They are now foster parents.

  Marnie Hazelton (this page) is starting her fourth school year as superintendent of the Roosevelt Union Free School District. In 2018, she shared her letter to President Obama with a third-grade class to demonstrate the importance of writing well.

  Erv and Ross Uecker-Walker (this page) will celebrate sixty-one years together and four years of marriage on November 30, 2018.

  Jordan Garey (this page) lived in eleven foster homes before his two dads adopted him. He got invited to the White House for its 2015 Easter Egg Roll, and met the First Lady.

  In June 2014, Danny Garvin (this page) was invited to attend a White House reception celebrating LGBT Pride Month. Obama asked for a picture taken beside him. Danny died in 2015. He was honored by several publications for his activism and his demonstration at the Stonewall Inn.

  Tom Hoefner (this page) is a stay-at-home dad looking after his two girls. He works weekends at a residential facility for disabled people, and is drafting the second volume of a serialized adventure/comedy book series, The Unlikely Adventures of Race & Cookie McCloud. He is still looking for full-time work in his field.