The letters that make Obama long for his community-organizing days

[jaxx]

The letters that make Obama long for his community-organizing days

By Eli Saslow, Published: October 14

It had become one of President Obama’s signature routines in the White House, a habit he mentioned in dozens of meetings and hundreds of speeches: Every night just before bed, he read 10 letters pulled from the 20,000 that Americans sent to him each day. The notes reminded him of why he wanted to be president, he liked to say. He called them his most intimate link to the people he governed.

But by the time I visited the president in the Oval Office earlier this year to talk about the letters, some of his aides had begun to wonder if Obama’s affection for the mail had outworn its usefulness. Gone were the post-inaugural thank you notes. Instead, Obama sometimes received letters addressed to “Dear Jackass,” “Dear Moron” or “Dear Socialist.” People wrote because they had lost their jobs, their homes or their relatives in the wars. Each day’s mail brought another deluge of hard luck and personal struggle, a wave of desperation capable of overwhelming the senses.

<..> Later that night, he would sit down on his couch, open the folder and find missives from rural Arkansas and downtown Detroit, notes of inspiration and devastation. He would read all 10 letters and reply to one or two. Sending a response still allowed him to provide one thing immediate and concrete.

“It lets them know I am listening,” he said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/t...story.html

Nice article. They guy who wrote it reads the mail and has written a book.

[Brainwreck]

President Obama should read the letter I sent because it is so full of admiration it should be posted on his bathroom mirror to remind him every morning why we really voted for him and will again. Thanks jaxx for reminding us that he has a horrendous job and we are so lucky he is hanging in.