Laskas Jeanne Marie - To Obama: with love, joy, anger, and hope

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In order to improve legibility on all screen sizes, most of the letters in this ebook are presented twice: first as an image, followed by the plain text of the letter content.

Copyright 2018 by Jeanne Marie Laskas

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Random House, an imprint and division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.

R ANDOM H OUSE and the H OUSE colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

All of the letters to President Obama contained within this work are reprinted by permission, and permission credits appear beginning on . However, adhering to the wishes of our contributors, not all letters have formal acknowledgments in this section.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Laskas, Jeanne Marie, author.

Title: To Obama : with love, joy, anger, and hope / by Jeanne Marie Laskas.

Description: New York : Random House, [2019]

Identifiers: LCCN 2018023502| ISBN 9780525509387 (Hardback) | ISBN 9780525509400 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Obama, Barack. | PresidentsUnited StatesCorrespondence. | American letters. | United StatesPolitics and government20092017Sources.

Classification: LCC E907 .L35 2019 | DDC 973.932dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018023502

Hardback ISBN9780525509387

Ebook ISBN9780525509400

randomhousebooks.com

Cover design: Anna Bauer Carr, based on the original design by David Mann

Cover photograph: Callie Shell/Aurora Photos

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Gold Hill, OR

November 10, 2008

President-Elect Barack Obama

United States Senate

713 Hart Senate Office Building

Washington DC 20510

Dear President-Elect Obama,

My name is Benjamin Durrett. I am 18 years old. This was my first time voting, and let me tell you it was not a fun experience. I fought with my father over this election so much that I didnt get my ballot filled out till the morning of the election. It was not until that night when the Democrats had a chance to get sixty chairs that I saw some of the things my father was talking about. He showed me how the Democratic Party now has majority control over all branches of the government. He even went as far as to say that we may not have an election in 2012. After he had finished his rant he looked at me, and said I pray that you are right and I am wrong. Voting for you in this election was truly the first time I have done something that went against my father. I feel that this has been a big step in becoming the person I am meant to become. I truly believe that you are the man who can make this place we call home a great one again. If we are doomed to collapse then so be it, I will look like a fool along with all of my friends, and my father will tell me its okay and that I never could have predicted this. I dont know what you have to do to fix this place we live in. I dont even know if you can. All I ask is that you give it everything you have. If you do that I will know that I made the right choice.

Sincerely,

Benjamin Durrett

June 3, 2009

Dear President Obama,

I saw a report that you take 10 randomly selected letters each day to prepare a response. I hope mine is one of them. I really need to hear from you.

The country I once knew and deeply cared about is disappearing. The capital that I and other generations before me built is being squandered. I have played by the rules thinking my family and I would be secure and that the preparation for old age would be safe in a country that would continue to honor the values of integrity (being a person of your word), fairness (you reap what you sew), self reliance, and discipline (forgoing short term reward for long term gain). All this is crumbling. It started before your watch but is accelerating during your administration. I am saddened.

Let me tell you why I think this way. Like you, I was raised by a single mom of very modest means. My Dad was killed in a plane accident when I was 11. My mom had saved enough to start me in college. I paid for most of it and for all of my MBA which I earned after serving as a US Army Officer. I worked for AT&T/Lucent for 28 years and through a lot of discipline (see definition above) I paid for 2 daughters undergraduate degrees and helped them with their Masters in Social Work. I have been married for 40 years. I carry no debt except a mortgage. I have served as a church officer, been president of my national fraternity and now tutor, run a business, provide SCORE counseling and serve on a non- profit board. In short I have done my part as a patriotic American and have saved for my retirement without being a burden to my fellow countrymen. I have done all this without government help except for the little I received from the GI bill.

Unfortunately, it appears I have been a sucker. I could be getting transfer payments for being irresponsible i.e. borrowing beyond my means to buy creature comforts, taking extravagant vacations and manipulating the weak to enter agreements they could not afford. I could have avoided the Army. I could have spent all my kids college money on myself. Instead, I am rewarding this behavior today through my tax dollars and your decisions. Not only that, but I believe the dollar will fail under your wasteful spending and transfer payments to the least productive among us. My savings will be worthless. All my hard work and sacrifice to no avail. All that American capital (moral and physical) from generations past will be spent.

Whats more, you make all these decisions knowing that you and your family will never be affected by them. You will always be protected when social unrest and collapse destroys the rest of us.

Here is my request. Reward integrity (people who keep their word), let people reap what they sew (the good and the painful), recognize citizens who have been self reliant and preserve the system that allowed them to become that way, show discipline and demand it of others.

Also, on a personal note, fight against hubris. To be human is to be prone to that condition. I see signs that it is affecting you on the Brian Williams White House report and in your decision to go to NYC on a personal trip using my tax dollars. I think you are probably a decent man but even you can be destroyed by hubris.

I remain a loyal American who at least wrote a letter,

Richard A. Dexter

Dover, NH

THE WHITE HOUSE

WASHINGTON

Richard

Thanks for your letter, and for your service to our country. I applaud your life of responsibility, but frankly am puzzled as to why you think I dont share in those values. The only transfer payments we have initiated were to states to prevent wholesale cuts in teachers, police officers, firefighters etc. in the wake of the financial crisis, and short term measures to prevent the banking and auto sectors from collapsing. (over)