President Barack Obama (Google/Creative Commons)
Middle schoolers often feel that no one listens to them and their voice is rarely heard. Sixth graders at Saline Middle School learned that speaking out really helps. Students in Ms.Hamada’s and Mrs. Abdelbaky science class sent an essay to the White House regarding environmental issues.
As I interviewed Marwa Farooq a middle school student at Salina, I asked her “Did you know that President Obama would send you a letter back?” Marwa responded, “No, the whole point of sending the letter was to get the word out there, but to our surprise we received a thank you card it was the greatest moment in the world!”
In the fall of 2013, these students were studying the effects of pollution on the environment. Thats when they decided to write a letter to the President Of The United States about their concerns. Their big concern was the amount of smog in their area. Salina school is near factories. They used information they learned in their science unit on how humans affect the Earth. They also wrote a proper letter of concern to The City of Dearborn public officials.
Saleh Aljahmi, spoke on the moment he received the letter. “I felt important, the fact that President Obama stopped everything he did just to send a letter back meant the world to me.”
The lesson is that we should take time out to care about our community like these Salina students.They showed us no matter how small you think your voice is, it can still be heard.
Rodwan Elbeshir
Middle School Jpornalism
I’m glad that President Obama actually responded to these students from Salina. People should try to make themselves successful without polluting the Earth because one day when everything is gone, we will have no more trees to breath from and no pure water to drink from because some people don’t care about anything but their business. Hopefully one day people will come up with ways to create things without polluting the Earth.
Just like the person said, it’s great knowing that someone so high up in the country has time for such a small district in Michigan. If gives other a chance to say what they want, sure he might not always have time to answer back, but it’s great knowing that he at least read it.