And I am ashamed that he wears his Kenyan heritage on his sleeve and uses generalizations like "typical white people". He's half white too. The man tans when he goes to the beach.
Posted on 04/23/2009 8:27:20 AM PDT by stan_sipple
Samir Al-Salimawi wore a suit to school Wednesday.
The second-grader called it his funeral suit because he wore it to his grandmother’s funeral.
That was a big day. This is a big day, too.
In November, Samir and some other children at Clinton Elementary School drew pictures and wrote letters to their new president.
Twelve of their submissions ended up in a book.
Wednesday, the book ended up at their school. One copy of “Dear President Obama: Letters of Hope from Children Across America” for each published grade-school author.
A copy came for the boss of Lincoln’s schools, Susan Gourley, too.
She stood in front of cameras and teachers and parents and told them how proud she was.
Everyone clapped.
Then, one by one, Samir and the others walked to the front of the gym.
They read their letters.
Taylor Lengel wore a nice yellow shirt and dress pants — his wedding clothes, he called them, because he wore them to his sister’s wedding.
“Dear President Barack Obama,” the freckled second-grader read, “I’m so happy you won! You should be on all the dimes in the world!”
That line has become the official slogan of the book, said co-author Bruce Kluger.
And the Clinton kids have become its de facto stars.
“These kids are unmistakably the epitome of the Obama era,” he said in an e-mail.
“Mixed race, multicultural, smart and funny, and incredibly patriotic. And really, really cute.”
The Clinton kids showed all that and more Wednesday.
Posing for pictures. Standing up straight for interviews.
Fourth-grader Judy Truong took the microphone, reading her letter by heart — “I want you to change the world by saving the poor cute animals” — while second-grade teacher Willie Banks videotaped her.
“I thought I wouldn’t be nervous,” the future veterinarian said afterward. “But I kind of was.”
Kluger and David Tabatsky, two journalists and fathers living in New York City, published letters and drawings from 179 children in 29 states.
Clinton was included when Trisha Hoppmann, a kindergarten teacher there, talked to a friend in New York who knew the authors.
He’s the benefactor who donated the books, she said, sitting in the audience, proud of her kids.
One of her kindergartners — Jason Phan, camera shy in red tennis shoes — drew a picture of a man with a big head and a brown face.
His picture ended up on the book’s cover.
Anthony Nguyen, still working on his B’s and D’s, drew a picture and wrote a letter.
“Dear President Barack Odama, I like you because you are a nice president. You are a beautiful president.”
Nyir Kuek read his letter softly, his mother and baby sister behind him.
“I am proud because there has never been an African American president. I am proud because you are the same color as me.”
Only DEAD people appear on our nation's money and our stamps.
And the Democrats in Congress oppose Ronald Reagan getting HIS due.
BULLSTALIN, them and their parents loathed America, the White House, et al when Bush was president. They are NOT incredibly patriotic. They support a man who jeered at flag pins until he became President.
And I am ashamed that he wears his Kenyan heritage on his sleeve and uses generalizations like "typical white people". He's half white too. The man tans when he goes to the beach.
It is a unfair to claim that the parents hate America. You have no way to know that. The kids wrote the letters to the president from school. This is just a school project. It has nothing to do with the parents or the performance of the president.
this school is in a “diverse” neighborhood. The teachers take over the parents’ involvement.
Not necessarily. I live in a very diverse neighborhood, and the parents are very involved. Not every diverse neighborhood is a ghetto.
true, this school’s is not thecase
we have outstanding students from diverse backgrounds, trouble is i think the teachers take over and do activities like this and also make children stand for songs other than the national anthem
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