My Letters to Obama

By Mateus Greenleaf

I was visiting my friends’ parents in Oakland, California one evening, and they are gay parents. On the ride home, I was asking my mom questions about gay marriage.  She started explaining to me that gay marriage was not treated equally because gay people could not get married. I asked my mom why. Then she told me why gay people could not get married. I asked, “What can I do?” She said,

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By Mateus Greenleaf

I was visiting my friends’ parents in Oakland, California one evening, and they are gay parents. On the ride home, I was asking my mom questions about gay marriage.  She started explaining to me that gay marriage was not treated equally because gay people could not get married. I asked my mom why. Then she told me why gay people could not get married. I asked, “What can I do?” She said, “You can write to the president.” I agreed that this was a pretty good idea.

Here is my first letter:

“Dear President Obama,

I want gay marriage to be okay. My friends’ parents are gay and they are nice parents! I think gay rights are important.

From,

Mateus

I am 6”

(June 2013)

I received a letter from Obama saying that the best thing for the country would be to keep writing letters to the president. The president said it would also be good to study hard in school. He also said that he was working to make gay rights possible.

This is my second letter to Obama:

“Dear President Obama,

I want peace. I want war to stop. Please work as hard as you can to stop this! Innocent people are getting hurt.

I wrote this letter with my heart.

Love,

Mateus

to Obama”

(February 2014)

I wrote this letter because I wanted to stop war. I can’t go to war because it would hurt my brother’s heart if I died in war. And Cole can’t go to war because it would hurt my heart too much if my brother died.

Now you can tell your children that it would be good to write to Obama. 

Now I am eight and I would like to write another letter to Obama about orcas being in captivity.

Mateus Greenleaf (shown with his brother Cole) lives in Novato, California. His favorite subjects in school are P.E., Math, and Mandarin. He attends the Families in Nature Sangha.

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Thich Nhat Hanh January 15, 2020

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