A Letter to President Obama from Juvenile Hall

-Young D, Solano

Dear President Obama,

Thank you. I personally feel like I am saying goodbye to a family member. You have touched so many of us during your administration. As a child, when you historically came into office eight years ago, you brought so much hope to my community, to my friends, to the world. Everyone was repping you. Posters, t-shirts, buttons, bumper stickers everywhere! I remember the excitement in my grandmother’s voice the day you won the presidency. The cheering from my mother to my brothers and sisters, to the banging of pots and pans, horns honking, people cheering all over, like it was New Year’s Day or the Fourth of July, when YOU, our first African American president, entered office.

Thank you for your great work and making America a better place for all. Thank you for looking out for “ALL” people. Thank you for giving us youth of color the chance to believe we too could be great-great leaders in our communities, if not the world! You, President Obama will always be an inspiration to all of us. Your leadership is like no other and for that I am grateful.

I don’t know what it was like for you to deal with the conservatives who did everything in their power to make your choices for change challenging. We can only imagine if you had a senate, a congress that supported your vision. I know our country would not be in the position it is today, with the hateful Trump regime taking over, but it is what it is and we must not rest!

I am sorry, as our most good thinking Americans, that your legacy will be stained by the arrogant and hateful Trump. I hope, like I am sure you do too, that “the people” will be heard with every controversial move this new administration makes in its attempt to tarnish your dedicated work. I personally am ready to hit the ground running, starting with this letter to you and when I am free I will continue to push my peers and my community to fight the power.

Thank you, President Obama, you are truly a class act. I will miss you and your family. I know in time, we all will look back, given the times, and agree you were one, if not the greatest, American president ever!!

I’ll be following you and looking to hear more from you once you leave office. You are my idol and inspiration.

With love and respect to you and your family. We Americans who believe, will continue the good fight in your name.

-Young D