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Morganton Day School letters to Obama

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8th graders headed to inauguration

Morganton Day School

Published: January 6, 2009

The eighth graders at Morganton Day School are heading to Washington, D.C. just in time for the Presidential Inauguration. In preparation for their upcoming trip, Jan. 18 to 21, the students wrote letters to President-Elect Barack Obama. To read about their trip follow the link to the right.

Dear President-Elect Barrack Obama,
Congratulations on your victory! I'm sure you are enjoying all the news coverage and historical publicity you must be getting. I'm sure you know this country has a few problems that need to be addressed, so I will be quick. I am a 14-year-old living in Morganton, North Carolina. I am writing to confirm your stance on an issue. One mistake that president Bush has made for the past 8 years is continuing President Bill Clinton's worst mistake, Free Trade. This issue is important to me because it just makes it easier to give away our biggest export, money.
Because of our current economic state our family has had to cut back on things we wouldn't thought twice on otherwise. Jobs are leaving for Mexico to take advantage of cheap labor and no taxes. Right now the plague on our economy continues. The trade laws allow our neighboring countries to move around our borders. Something that I wish to ask you is, how is that different from an invasion when you have countries moving in and out of your borders without regulation?
Regards,
Eric McSwain Antley

Dear President-elect Barack Obama:
Congratulations on being elected! My name is Matt Corn, and I would like to ask you a few questions about your opinion on the Middle Eastern War. I know you plan to pull out within 16 months but what are you going to do if huge problems break out again? I am in favor of pulling out but it also seems a little risky. What if their government isn't able to gain stability and the terrorist gangs take over, what will you do? Would you send troops back to the Middle East to help or would you just let them deal with it?
In Conclusion I am glad about all of our troops coming home, but I do think you should consider withdrawing them over a longer period of time. Congratulations again President-elect Obama!
Sincerely,
Matt Corn

Dear President-elect Obama,
Congratulations on the election and welcome to the White House. I have some ideas to help in the growing issue of the environment. I have some ideas for alternative energy because our main fuel sources are oil and coal, which produce CO2, a harmful green house gas.
We can start by using solar panels on top of every building in the USA. That would not be enough to produce all the energy, but it would be enough to heat the water and the house. Still it would save us tons of oil.
We can even use the wind. Our windmills these days don't really reach the very strong winds that are hundreds of feet up. So we could something that floats hundreds of feet up and spins turbines to produce energy if we put one of these at every power plant we can make tons of energy.
If all that doesn't produces enough energy, we can use water turbines, which would work a lot like the air turbines but under the water and with the strong ocean currents. If we do all of this we could power America and, eventually, the world.
Thank you for your time
Sincerely,
Henry David William Johnson

Dear President-elect Obama:
Though you were not my choice for the presidency, I would like to welcome you to office. I am writing to you to express my concern on a particular issue, this issue being abortion.
As you well know, there are two sides to the abortion issue: pro-life those who believe that abortion is wrong and it should be restricted, and pro-choice, people who believe that it is the women's choice to have an abortion because it is her body.
I believe that abortion should be banned past a certain stage of pregnancy, therefore if the mother so choose, may rid of the child at an early stage, a far less cruel notion. I would think that this would satisfy both sides of the issue to some extent, there would be plenty of time to decide on an abortion, and the procedure would not come as late as some we have today, where the child may live from a few minutes to a couple of hours.
The reasons for my beliefs on this issue are simple. I can not fathom the thought of someone extinguishing the life of something that can not even live on its own, better yet have a say in whether it lives or dies. People kill millions of unborn children for the simple reason that they were not wanted (excluding certain situations). That, to me, is the biggest unacceptable idea regarding the entire issue. People fail to see that the things they are killing are humans, just like you or me.
Every human on this earth has started out just the same, a small indistinctive form, relying only on its mother for protection. To me, as soon as the small indistinctive form is formed, life begins. Abortion, by definition is murder, the killing of another human being. Therefore, ethically, and socially it should be just as wrong as murdering a full grown adult.
Sincerely,
Elizabeth Fisher

Dear President-elect Obama:
I have seen many problems for our great nation, and one of them is what I want to point out. We have the right to own and bear arms. I have some interesting tips to having guns for the good citizens and no guns for the criminals.
The first thing we need to have is a better license. Second, is to have our license, checked twice a year, so that the government knows that we are following the law. Third, is that when someone wants his first gun and needs a license he will need to take a gun coerce for one entire year in order to pass. Last when a store wants to sell guns, the group of sellers must take a two-year test that is hard (and helps in one way.) It will limit sellers who sell to the bad people and who cause crimes. That is what my ideas for stopping the bad and helping the good.
The negative side to my ideas is that people who are criminals will use the guns that they already have and break into gun stores. Also, some people who are not criminals could sell guns to the criminals who cause problems. Those are the backfiring images of my idea.
The positive side to our tips is a decrease in crime rate in big cities. Next is our break-ins will less happen in our homes and decrease in gangs and shootouts. When this happens the good citizens will have the honor to own a weapon and the bad do not own a gun.
In other words this is what the US should do for 2009.
Sincerely,
Thomas Chimiak

Dear President-elect Obama:
I am writing to you asking about your plans about the Iraq War. From several sources I have read that you plan to withdraw all combat brigades from Iraq in 16 months. I do enjoy the prospect of the troops coming home. I have an uncle who's a Naval Officer, and I have to wonder if the new Iraqi government is ready to stand alone. There has been much conflict in Iraq, and I worry that Iraqi forces may not be able to respond to the attacks as well as they would if they had Americans backing them.
I believe that America should withdraw from Iraq. However, I believe that troops should be withdrawn over a longer period of time. In other words, we should slowly wean Iraq off of its dependence on American troops. If we do this, then over time Iraq would have learned to stand on its feet and will be, able to respond to bigger conflict in the future.
Sincerely,
Jared Christopher Dembski

Dear President elect Obama:
I'm happy that you made it to the White House. You were the one I was pulling for. I have selected an issue I'm concerned about and would like you to focus for the next four years; it's about the endangered species. Some other issues that are an interest to me are the environment, energy, pollution, coast control and federal lands, but I'm focusing more on the endangered species in this letter. I think this issue is important because I don't want to lose any animals that maybe endangered. One thing that Burke County has done is to post endangered peregrine falcon signs at Table Rock. I think this has made some people in Morganton, North Carolina think about the issue.
Some facts that I have gotten about some of your history on endangered species and banning killing different animals are that you voted for the horse slaughter commandment to stop the export of horse slaughtering. You co-sponsored the animal fighting prohibition act to criminalize dog fighting and cock fighting. Obama did not Co-Sponsor the horse slaughtering act to ban slaughtering horses for human consumption.
Some other endangered species in North Carolina are the american alligator, bald eagle, hawksbill turtle, and the north carolina, flying squirrel. We could improve the caution for endangered species by telling people how to help.
Michael Brazinski