Love Letter #5, President Obama
Dear President Obama,
Happy Birthday! I hope your day has been full of all of the things that make you happy. You deserve it.
I have to tell you something… I turned my car on just last week and there was your voice, eulogizing Rep. John Lewis. Tears started rolling down my cheeks. In part because of the man you were honoring. Who will be the conscience of the Congress now? We need that now more than ever. And, part because I miss you. I miss your voice, your kindness, your ability to reflect the best in us, your steadiness, your hope. I asked my son, 8, if he knew who was speaking. He said, “Momma, of course, that’s Obama.”. Thank God he knows you.
Seeing you and Michelle back in the spotlight has been like a balm for me. After the past four years of gaslighting and galloping insanity, it is jarring to hear your coherence, your steady leadership.
I’ll never forget the night that you were elected to be our 44th President. It is the most proud I have ever felt of this country. I naively believed that we had healed some of our most egregious and shameful sins by choosing you. It would take longer than I would like to admit to realize that wasn’t true.
You were the President when both of my kids were born, when my wife and I finally got to be legally married.
My love letter to you is going to be in action, though. I am going to work for the next 90 days to get folks to vote. To make sure they are registered. To get the most people and do my part to make sure that we can deliver our democracy. Then, come January, we can get back to the good work that you started, the work of improving this country and this union that will never end. There is no top to that mountain.
Today you are 59. There is so much more to come for you. For us. I am grateful for the gifts of your leadership, you family, your service. Thank you doesn’t cut it, but that is what I have in words, the rest I will put into action.
My friend Shellie calls you “her forever President”. I’m going to borrow that. I think it is true for a lot of us.
Love,
Martha
PS Thank you for all of those Texas endorsements! It is a helluva good list.
PPS If you are reading this… are you registered to vote? https://www.vote.org/am-i-registered-to-vote/
