Get a phone call at work from my 8 year-old son Luke yesterday.
"Hey, Dad, guess what I'm doing with my spending money?"
"Getting a videogame?"
"Nope, I'm giving it to Barack Obama."
The whole story and the letter Luke wrote to Obama below.
Some background. We talk politics and news in our house -- a lot. So it's not surprising that Luke is pretty aware of current affairs. In fact, Luke was the first member of our family to 'choose' Obama as his candidate (the rest of us were for Edwards).
Re Luke's spending money: He gets $8 allowance every Saturday. $4 goes into his savings. $4 goes to his spending. Generally, he uses his spending money on video games, baseball cards, or Legos. In fact, on Sunday night, he counted all his money to see if he had enough to buy this new videogame that's coming out. When he finished adding up all his cash and coins, and found he had $53, where we left things was, yep, he was going to get that videogame.
Then the phone call yesterday announcing he was giving his money to Obama.
What happened in between?
He and his mother were out running errands yesterday, listening to NPR, and of course, the news reports were all about the collapse of the Paulson bailout deal. From what my wife tells me, their conversation went something like this:
"Mom, this economy stuff is scaring me."
"Yes, Luke, it's a bit scary right now."
Pause
"Would Obama fix the economy?"
"Well, we think his ideas are a lot better than McCain, so hopefully, yes, but it will take a while. "
That led to a discussion about Wall Street and how stocks work. Luke joked maybe he could buy some stock in Nintendo. But then he got quiet and said:
"Can I buy stock in the Obama company?"
"Well, Obama doesn't have a company, but he has a campaign.
"Then can I give my money to his campaign?"
"That's a great idea. How much do you want to give?"
"All of it. All. Of. It!"
Which led to Luke writing this letter:
September 29, 2008
Dear Senator (soon to be President) Obama,
Hi. My name is Luke Myers and I’m 8 years old. I am sending you all of my spending money ($53) because I think you would be a much better President than John McCain because: a) you will get our troops out of Iraq as soon as possible; b) you will not allow torture; c) you have better ideas to solve the economic crisis; d) you will track down Osama Bin Laden as fast as possible; e) you will obey the law and protect our constitution; f) you will work to restore America’s good name in the world; and g) you will work to make people more free and America better. Finally I would feel very proud to have a President who is not a white man.
Even though we are fighting two wars, I hope that once you are President you will not reinstitute the draft because I have a 17 year old brother who is the most important person in the world to me. I do not ever want to see him in the military although he would be happy to do community service.
I don’t know if this letter will help convince more people to vote for you but I sure hope it does. Because I can’t vote yet I’m sending money instead.
Sincerely,
Luke Myers
And just so you know, my wife gave Luke the idea for the a), b), c) list thing, but Luke composed this letter by himself. These are his ideas and his words.
Please join Luke in donating money to the Obama campaign.
Donate to Obama
$53 sounds like a good amount, doesn't it?
UPDATE: Thanks to everyone, especially those who were inspired by Luke to contribute to the Obama campaign. Shared the thread of responses with Luke. He's proud of himself. Quite a civics lessons for a young American. Now he's off with Mom to visit the local Obama field office to give them cash and coins - and his letter.