To Obama by Jeanne Marie Laskas

I read several memoir type books lately and the best of the group is TO OBAMA by Jeanne Marie Laskas, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh who has written seven books including Concussion and Hidden America.  In TO OBAMA, Laskas shares the story of how President Obama read ten letters per day, an attempt to stay connected with average citizens he served.  

In describing this book, the publisher (Random House) points out that Obama was the first president to interact daily with constituent mail and to archive it in its entirety. Roughly ten thousand letters a day arrived at the White House filled with emotion and “love, joy, anger, and hope,” as Laskas’ subtitle says.  The letters are a wonderful, historical insight into the country as citizens looked for jobs and tried to recover from the Great Recession, or attempted to get health insurance with the Affordable Care Act, or simply wanted to praise a student’s good grades or ask for homework help.  You, too, can see samples of the letters and hear a few being read in this recent article which appeared in The Guardian. I was amazed and happy to learn that a DAILY word cloud was created based on the letters’ content and then shared with White House policy makers, reminding them of the issues and ideas most on the minds of constituents.  It is truly refreshing to think about how all of the professional and volunteer readers cared and followed up on correspondence – in our school library we have exhibited the letter our students received from President Obama. This is an inspirational book reminding us of the power of servant leadership, compassion and empathy.