Obama writes thank-you note to Longview girl

06:27 AM PDT on Saturday, September 26, 2009



LONGVIEW, Wash. -- A Longview girl received a special letter from the White House recently. "Dear Katherine, thank you for taking the time to share your personal story with me..." begins the letter, from President Barack Obama's office. "I am so sorry to hear about the loss of your family member and I want you to know how much I admire your strength."





White House, Washington, D.C.

The letter is a response to an essay about "Three Things Important to Me" Katherine Bautista Lopez penned last March, when she was a St. Helens Elementary School fifth-grader.

In the essay, Katherine, 11, writes about losing her father to a car accident when she was 5 and the importance of education stressed upon her by her mother, a Mexican immigrant who speaks limited English.

Someday, Katherine wants to be a lawyer and the first Hispanic president of the United States, she wrote.

Fred Hanson, Katherine's teacher at St. Helens last year, said he was so impressed by Katherine's emotion and honesty that he shared her essay with a couple of colleagues.

"No one helped her with that. She just sat there and wrote it herself," he said. "Usually, (students write) 'I like to play with my X-Box.' She really wrote from the heart. I guess that's why it caught our attention."

Cynthia Hanson, Fred's wife and the community liaison for St. Helens, cried when she read Katherine's essay.

"What stuck is that she was dreaming, she could see a future and she was predicting it. She said, 'I had terrible things go on in life and my mother still believes in me.' After I read this, I thought, 'I'm going to send it to the White House' ... I figured, the worst thing that could happen is nothing."

Cynthia Hanson helped put the essay in a large manila envelope and addressed it with a Sharpie pen to make it stand out.

An entire summer passed before Cynthia Hanson discovered an envelope from Washington, D.C., sitting in the St. Helens office.

Inside was a generic thank you letter and what appears to be a signed picture of President Obama. Both items were presented to Katherine at a Longview School Board meeting.

The response thrilled Katherine. The Monticello Middle School sixth-grader likes Obama because "he understands being different."

A bigger surprise arrived at her home: A letter from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue -- the White House address.

This time, the letter addressed her by name and went on to encourage her to "draw on the power of hope, determination, perseverance and faith to overcome adversity. I hope you find comfort in these principles, as I have.

"Many young people like you face difficult challenges, and I want you to know that you are not alone. Please know that I will keep you and your loved ones in my thoughts and prayers."

A White House spokesman said Tuesday he did not know how to confirm if the letters or picture were actually signed or dictated by the President. It appears the two letters were stamped with Obama's signature, but the picture includes a signature with subtle differences hinting that it could be handwritten.

Regardless, Katherine said he was "surprised and excited" to receive the letters from Obama's office. She wants to hang the picture of Obama in her bedroom.

"I'm going to keep them forever," she said. "My mom said to take good care of them because they're treasures."

that's pretty cool. one day she'll grow up to learn to hate America, though. She's just too young to realize yet. It's a heart warming story.

WHY WOULDSHE HATE AMERICA . ITS NOT AMERICA THAT REFUSES to create work for there country men . its not the usa that makes her leave her home to eat , its mexico . its not her familys that are suffering because we are in mexico takeing jobs from them . its not use that just walks into her home without someone asking . you have a country , you could start making jobs for your self s . you can start your own factories and businesses and hire your people . . in case you can't under stand we print our own money .. you can to . if you were back in mexico ..
and I hope she is a smart girl and can under stand we don't hate her . we aren't trying hurt her but this is our country . we fought you for it we have a treaty to show for it . we didn't start it your ancestors did because we were white the guys your ancestors didn't like living around us . thats why I don't under stand why are you here ?
but we being the bigger person have allowed a lot of mexicans to move here and made them legal citizens . can't you under stand 24 million and another 1 million sence that count is to much . to dam much . by by bless some one else . we do our own work .

Paragraphs would be nice

tl;dr.

how's it "your" country cashu? you're not a native american. i guess next you'll tell me to go back to Palestine. Sorry but majority of you are stupid and lazy , if it wasn't for exported labor like us that came here legally or illegally, the country would be far much worse than it currently is.
You have no right to ask someone why they are in America. They're here for teh same reason everyone came here for, that didn't kill people for their land.Europe is your home country , so the day you go back to your native land you can tell someone to go back to theirs.

sweet

Why will she learn to hate America?

The majority of us are stupid and lazy?

I agree with him. The majority of us are LAZY. I dunno about stupid. It depends what he actually defines as being stupid. Although definitely not worldly by any means. Americans live in a bubble and have no awareness of what goes on in the rest of the world. (for the most part).

Sorry but I don't know very many lazy people. Most of the people that I know work hard. My next door neighbor has two jobs and the lady next to that house has two jobs too. The house on the other side of me - the man has two jobs. When I talk about two jobs, I'm talking about working full time and having a second job too. My ex works 12 hour days and quite often he works 6 days a week. My brother works long hours too. I could go on but you got the idea.

Shall we go on to include 'stupid' in that phrase? It's not the American's that don't know much about what goes on around the rest of the world, it's because of the media that exposes people here in the U.S. to what they want to see. It's that thing called, "big media" where the media is showing us what they want us to see. People aren't being lazy nor are they living in a bubble. I can guarantee you that there are plenty of people do pay attention to the world around them through using the internet, which is a vital source of information. Not one person is lazy or "bubbled" just misrepresented.

if someone was born here (from legal citizens) this is their native country (just the fact of the matter) and constitutionally it matters not if their parents are legal or not

this country belongs to those who are legal citizens

it has nothing to do with being native american

this country never belonged solely to the native american

they themselves said no one can own the land (that was their mistake i guess)

getting tired of the centuries old (what if) history lessons

it is what it is and it is not what it is not

None of that explains why, when the war in Iraq started.. many fellow Americans who I asked what they thought of it.. DIDNT EVEN KNOW THERE WAS A WAR GOING ON!!!!!

was it supposed to




i have to agree most americans are lazy and ignorant (not stupid)

there is a difference

if this were not so the country would not be in the condition it is in

everyone wants to blame a president (how much power do you think they really have)

a president can not do ANYTHING without congresional support (eventually)

they can do short term projects but nothing of any lasting time frame can be done without congressional approval

just like a quarterback can not run a play very long without the offensive line (yes congress is the OFFENSIVE line)