Friday, March 22, 2013
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear President Barack Obama;
Hello, my name is Alexandra. I'm from the Birmingham area in Michigan. I currently go to Berkshire Middle School. In language arts class right now, we have been reading a book called "A Long Walk to Water" by Linda Sue Park. This novel is actually based on a true story. This book is about a girl named Nya who has to walk four hours to a pond to get water, and four hours back. The water isn't even very clean. It's muddy and dirty, which is unhealthy for you to drink. Then, the story switches to a boy named Salva, about my age, who is in school when he hears yelling and gunshots. There is war going on, so he runs away and hides. The problem is, he has no idea where he is or where he's going. He keeps getting abandoned by people that he is traveling with, but he eventually joins a group where they accept him. He meets a new friend and ends up finding his uncle. Then, sadly, they pass away, leaving him alone once again. He joins many refugee camps, and eventually gets the opportunity to travel to America for a better life. He comes to New York, learns better English and goes to college. He becomes aware of how bad things are in Sudan (where he's from), so he goes back to help. He raises money for wells to be installed so that villages could have clean water without walking so far. He helps Nya's village, too, and they are so grateful for his help. Can you consider funding money for wells in Africa, like in the book? I'd also like if you could try to enforce these rights.
This story just made me feel so lucky for what I have. I have a good home, my friends and family are supporting me, and I have food to eat and water to drink. It made me feel really sad to hear that people in the world are struggling this much. I think that something needs to be done about that. Nobody deserves to go hungry, or spend every night living in fear. We've also been learning about child soldiers, and how some kids are not receiving a good education. We've learned that This is why I believe that the Human Rights need to be enforced. I think that money needs to be raised for more things to be built in Sudan and everywhere in the world. There needs to be more wells for fresh water, and more medical clinics for people who are ill.
One Human Rights violation is having children be soldiers. We learned about how some children in the world are taken away from their families and homes and are forced to fight. They are being raised to enjoy fighting and killing. I don't think this is right at all. The idea of children fighting just makes me feel really scared, actually. It also makes me feel sad for them, and mad at the people who make them do these things. It makes me feel so grateful that I don't have to be a child soldier, but that's not the point. The point is that this just isn't right. When countries have a lack of soldiers, they need to bring in new ones. So they chose children because they thought that kids would have no fear.
Another Human Rights violation is how some people aren't allowed to go to school, or just can't go because it costs too much. School should be more affordable, and I think that everyone had the right to go to school. It's just rude how some people are discriminating people because they're a certain gender or race and not letting them go to school. Everyone needs a good education. Someone could be a total genius, but not allowed to go to school, so the person might not be able to reach their full potential. Everyone deserves a chance, and no one should be turned down.
One final Human Right that I would like to talk about is a right to food and water. A lot of people just go hungry because they either can't afford food, or they have to travel way too far to get it. Everybody needs to eat. It's just not fair that some people are feasting on tons of food and others have close to nothing. In the book "A Long Walk to Water," the girl named Nya, as I said before, has to walk eight hours a day (four hours there and four hours back) to get water. It was not even very clean water, once again, as I said before. I can't imagine walking that much every single day of your life to get water. I can't imagine ever being able to do that. Since Nya has to walk so much every day, she doesn't have time to go to school or to relax at home. She just goes to sleep, knowing that she'll have to repeat the cycle the next day, too. It's truly amazing that people are able to stand doing this, but I think that it needs to change.
Thank you so much for reading this letter. I really hope that more people begin to have more rights. I really hope that you reply to this letter, telling me what you think of these ideas. I just don't want people to be struggling anymore. Child soldiers shouldn't be child soldiers anymore, and they shouldn't have been taken away from their homes and families. Everyone deserves a good education so that they can learn and make friends at school. People need food to eat that is affordable and that they have access to. Thank you very much!
Sincerely,
Alexandra
10365 Unicorn Rd
Bacon City, Food Land, 99042
444-444-4444