Someday

November 5, 2012
Dear Mr. President and First Lady Obama,

As the election approaches the final stretch, I am fairly certain you will remain in the White House for another term. As a Democrat, a Christian, and a woman, I hope I’m correct in this assumption, as I remain convinced that your plan for our nation is the one that perpetuates the most good.

While I have many of the popular issues in mind as I vote, I also have come to realize that I am still looking for a future where the issues closest to my heart can be recognized and dealt with; not merely on the national level, but in our global community. I write with the hope that I can place one of these issues on your hearts, so that as you decide how to create your personal legacy as the President or First Lady this final term, you might consider this issue worth tackling.

November is National Adoption Awareness Month. While our country remains fraught with our own struggles and concerns, we are still a nation that is able to provide so much for our own children. While imperfect, we seek to provide protection to our littlest, most vulnerable children, through a series of agencies, programs, and professionals. So much can be done to improve conditions for neglected and abandoned children on our own soil, but when one looks at the conditions in other countries around the globe, it quickly becomes clear that there is a horrifying and disgraceful international depravity concerning our neediest of orphans.

There are institutions where children are still warehoused in rows upon rows of beds, unable to move, and denied the simplest human bond. Children are drugged, restrained and starved. They live in cribs, banging their heads against the wall for self-stimulation, covered in bed sores from lack of movement and fresh clothing. There are six year olds weighing nine pounds and teenagers living like infants.

As a mother, and a teacher, this makes me sick with grief. How I wish I could go and hold these children and give them the love they have been denied!

I know there are many compassionate men and women who would feel the same way upon viewing the photographs and videos from these institutions. However, families who would open their homes to children in need are discouraged by exorbitant adoption fees and red tape. Many hopeful parents, whom could easily afford to care for a child, can’t afford to adopt the child.

I wish to someday see leaders around the globe call for a movement towards the greater good for all orphans. What can our leaders do to create and enforce transparency in the way each nation treats its unwanted children? How can our leaders communicate that our global community, though we have our differences, all agree on this one thing? Children need loving homes.

Millions of children are living in abysmal conditions around our world. What can our world leaders do to recognize these children, protect them, and pave the way for loving families to open their arms to them without going bankrupt and getting their hearts broken in the process? While I care about national debt, the economy, and, of course, education, they all pale in comparison to this very real tragedy unfolding all around us. When all is said and done, I feel that our nation, along with our leaders, should be judged by how effectively we respond to “the least” among us. If we are willing to step outside our borders in acts of war and conquest, I feel that we should also step out in love and compassion.

Best wishes to you and your lovely family as you embark on your second term. You have been examples of integrity and grace under fire. I admire how you are raising your daughters and particularly appreciate your model as I raise my own.
Sincerely,
Rachae xxxx xxxxxx