Dear Mr. President,

I probably have no idea how difficult your job is, but I'm sure it's pretty tough sleeping at night. Lord knows I have trouble sleeping if there's a thousand things in my head. But anyway, I wanted to write to tell you that I watched your State of the Union Address the other night. In order to keep my focus on what you were saying I had to focus my attention to the television which I sometimes have great difficulty doing. So I decided to draw the Speaker of the House, John Boehner, who sat behind you the entire time. You have no idea how bored he looked and fidgety he was as you spoke. But I think my drawing came out okay. What do you think?

Speaker of the House, John Boehner

graphite

Anyway, I did want to say that I was very impressed with what you had to say during your talk. Firstly, thank you for taking care of the credit card companies with their outrageous behavior. You have no idea how much money you saved me in the long run. Secondly, thank you for putting a new spin on the two parties and mixing it up a bit in the seating arrangement. I think because of that, you didn't have any outbursts like you did last year. I want to say, however, that as much as I agree that we should excel our children in math and science as well as give our teachers a mountain of respect for doing what they do, you CANNOT forget about arts education. The arts, whether its fine art, writing, theater or music makes us who we are; human. Without it we'd be nothing but a bunch of army ants just going through the motions. Art education will keep young minds open. Also please understand that not all students are going to excel in math & science. (Speaking from my own history I HATED math!) I watch my two nephews right now and one is excellent in math, the other, well.... But I believe that not all children learn the same way. Please let the teachers and parents know about this and try to help them as they are struggling to keep up.

Also, Mr. President, today is my mother's birthday. I did a card for her which you can see here:

Sammy done in watercolor & ink

My mother turns 67 today. She is still working at her job because she needs her health insurance for both her and my father. I would love to see the day when my mum can retire (my father was forced to because of his Rheumatoid Arthritis) and enjoy the latter years of her life. She's still goes bowling, plays golf and is a huge Patriots fan. I know that you are working hard at making health insurance affordable for everyone. I just wish you could make it happen quicker. Let me know what I can do to help.

Thanks for listening.

Your friend,

Christine