Ebook: To Obama: with love, joy, anger, and hope

"Every evening for 8 years, at his request, President Obama received a binder containing ten handpicked letters from ordinary American citizens -- the unfiltered voice of a nation -- from his Office of Presidential Correspondence. He was the first to President to save constituent mail, and this is the story of how those letters affected not only the President and his policies, but also the deeply committed people who were tasked with opening the millions of pleas, rants, thank yous, and apologies that landed in the White House mailroom. Based on the popular New York Times article, 'To Obama,' Laskas now interviews the letter writers themselves and the White House staff who sifted through the powerful, moving, and incredibly intimate narrative of America during the Obama years emerges: There is Kelli, who saw her grandfathers finally marry -- legally -- after 35 years together; Bill, a lifelong Republican whose attitude toward immigration reform was transformed when he met a boy escaping M-16 gang leaders in El Salvador; Heba, a Syrian refugee who wants to forget the day the tanks rolled into her village; Marjorie, who grappled with disturbing feelings of racial bias lurking within her during the George Zimmerman trial; and Vicki, whose family was torn apart by those who voted for Trump and those who did not. They wrote to Obama out of gratitude and desperation, in their darkest times of need, in search of connection. They wrote with anger and respect. And together, this chorus of voices achieves a kind of beautiful harmony: here is a diary of a nation. To Obama is an intimate look at one man's relationship to the American people, and the the intersection of politics and empathy in the White House"--;The letters -- Bobby Ingram, Oxford, Mississippi -- The mail room -- Thomas and Joann Meehan, Toms River, New Jersey -- The idea -- Bill Oliver, undisclosed location -- Fiona picks the 10 lads -- Marnie Hazelton, Freeport, New York -- Barack Obama, the White House -- Marjorie McKinney, Boone, North Carolina -- Red dot -- Friends of the mail -- Shane Darby, Killen, Alabama -- The writing team -- Donna Coltharp and Billy Ennis, San Antonio, Texas -- Election day -- Vicki Shearer, Renton, Washington -- Obama in jeans.