For example, during Secretary of Energy Steven Chu’s entire four-year term, many of the major anti-nuclear power groups could not obtain a meeting with him. There are many other potential benefits of sending letters to presidents. (Incidentally, the first annual review of the White House press corps and its interaction with the president appears in the current issue (March/April 2015) of the Columbia Journalism Review funded by the Helen Thomas Fund. Letters can be very valuable by asking questions that offer you an opportunity to respond on matters or issues not ordinarily addressed by the press corps or officials or members of Congress. Those few words alone will stimulate a public discussion in an era of low voter turnout, including the pros and cons of having a None of the Above (NOTA) option for voters. Just the other day, when you were visiting Ohio, a chance question to you from a person in the audience elicited your view that mandatory voting would “be transformative” and exists in a number of other democracies, such as Australia. Letters from citizens also convey ideas and observations that alert you to conditions, issues, and urgencies at hand and occasionally provide you with an opportunity to publically discuss the point raised by an ordinary citizen who penned such a letter.

the ten letters from citizens you read each evening).

For presidents, letters help, as you have said, escape “the bubble” (e.g. For the citizens, it is an opportunity to circumvent the barriers presented by the media and governmental institutions to directly access the White House. He did not.Ĭitizen correspondence is important both for you as President and them. I raised this issue early in your first term with the Director of the Office of Presidential Correspondence, Mike Kelleher, who said there was no specific policy regarding responses, but that he would get back to me after the Office of Presidential Correspondence considered the matter. One of these letters asked you about the White House’s policies regarding letters it receives.

Return to Sender by Ralph Nader