Is This Real Life

Dear President Obama,

My name is Jackie Lane. I am a 26 year old, married mother of 1, and cosmetologist in Toms River, NJ. Perhaps you know that already, perhaps you've read any of my other letters. Last night I watched you on Jay Leno. I like your presence, I think you are funny. But why does it feel more like you are visiting your rich hollywood friends to get campaign contributions than focusing on what is really going on in this country? Who will be the first politician to stand up and say, "I will not take corporate campaign contributions!" So far it doesn't seem like it is going to be you. You are loosing the hope of the American people, some of my closest friends and even my mother were your biggest supporters in the 2008 election but so many of them now are defeated. It's impossible to keep defending someone who does not stand up and address us. We need someone to lead and to demand that the system change. You are always politically dancing around the issue when you need to just state, flat out what your intentions are, if you really intend to help us. Stand proudly and accept the 99% of people who will be your champions, if you will be ours. You will not need the corporations by your side if you can help us. How can you loose an election with 99% of the people behind you? It is foolish to wait too long to stand up and acknowledge us. If you can not be the one to lead us to change we will be looking for someone else, or just stay home on election day. I know I will not but only because I fear the alternative. We want you to say you will not take corporate money and you will no longer stand for the injustices being done to the American people. There is no time in history where the rich did not try and steal from the poor. In the time of kings, they called it a tax. Now the rich are spared letting go of tax money in lieu of campaign contributions. Stand up to these men or face loosing the 2012 election because the voters will not come out again without the change that was promised.

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Time To Tell My Story

Dear Barack Obama, 

My name is Jackie Lane. Today I feel inspired. Today is the day for my story. I am a 26 year old Cosmetologist from Toms River New Jersey. My Son was born 2 weeks after my 21st birthday. My mother has owned Abraxas Hair Salon for 22 years and so I have seen the struggles of small business for exactly as long as I can remember. I am proud to say I finally finished my vocational license last June. I started school in September as my mom's partner of 21 years, finally after an 8 year battle with colon cancer, took a turn for the worse. Gabriel Martino died on September 28th of 2010, 2 weeks before my wedding. I had known him my whole life. My mom had been paying insurance premiums over $800 a month even though she has never been to the Dr. and has taken approximately 10 sick days in 21 years, so that Gabe could keep his insurance since they were the entire "group", none of the other stylists could afford the premiums. I bought my husbands wedding band that month, I was at Zales. The woman insisted on looking up my Zales Account to sell me insurance for the ring, even though I knew we couldn't afford it. I gave her my information including my new address since I had moved. After she asked if I wanted to put it on my Zales account even though I didn't have the card on me I told her no and gave her my Mastercard because I knew the Zales card had a 22% interest rate. 6 months later I am trying to get a loan for my mom, the successful business owner of 22 years, to open a Deli.  I get my credit report and find out that Zales had charged that $100 on their credit account after all. They charged the account and they continued to send the bills to the old address I had told the store clerk to update in the system, later over the phone they told me the store system is not connected to the credit system and they never got the new address. So now the bill is $280 for a $100 ring. My credit which was in the 780s, because I had been working on it since I was 18 when my mother taught me how to act responsibly with my credit, has dropped 100-150 points. Now the $2000 engagement ring my husband and I paid off together, even though we had the money saved, to build our credit in the first place means nothing because for 6 months I have had a delinquent charge account. Zales started calling my work, suddenly they had access to all my information and could reach me about this $280. But at no time in those 6 months did they ever call the secondary number on the account (my cell phone) or email me which would have gone directly to my blackberry. Why didn't they get in touch with me the first month I didn't pay and they got no response and save my credit? The loan process was becoming more delayed and my mom worked 50-60 hours a week behind the chair and watching my 5 year old son 20 hours a week, so that the Salon would stay afloat and I could finish school and the Deli would still open until we got a loan. My mom has always taught me that if you play by the rules and work hard and you will be rewarded but she hasn't been. Her taxes climb higher and she can't hire new stylists. She pays very high insurance premiums for herself but does not offer it to the other 4 of us because we couldn't afford it out of our pay, and it would cost her more than we bring in to pay for it. I got a home equity loan with my 630-680 credit score, over a hundred points drop for 1 $100 purchase, and the Deli has opened. My uncle, step dad, 2 of my cousins, and my mom are all working 50-70 hour weeks to run the deli in the small town of Island Heights, and I think we will all survive. But good hardworking people are not being rewarded and someone who has the history of paying back her debts for 30 years like my mom should be a trusted patron of the banks. But at her bank she can't even get them to remember who she is, because she doesn't have enough money to be respected. And they are supposedly one of the "small" banks with only 15 branches. She deserves the American Jobs Act, and larger reforms. Someone has to stand up for people like us. Everyone I talk to has stories like this. Today I think it can happen because I know the American people will not bow down, we are a nation of hard workers and people who want desperately for their system to work for them.


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I Am Having A Hard Time

Dear President Obama,
My name is Jackie Lane. I am a 26 year old married cosmetologist in Toms River, New Jersey. I noticed lately I'm afraid to talk about politics, with anyone. Even with my closest friends who I've known for years and am reasonably confident I will agree with, I hesitate to start a discussion. There is so much hostility and so much propaganda in the media people don't know what to believe. But it is every American's right and duty to discuss politics. What is a vote if not your opinion on decisions being made? I don't know how it can be so blatantly obvious that the money being funneled into the Congress is effecting the quality of life for everyone, but we still ignore that there is a problem. Pollution of our air and water can not be avoided, even by the immeasurably wealthy. We have gotten rid of so many laws that protected our health and our safety all in the name of commerce and capitalism. Our government was designed to protect us from ourselves. Greed is the plight of every man. As people we feel good when we help others and are connected to community, that is what American life is all about. How can it be right to let CEOs make 1700 times their average worker? The worker is making the goods to be sold, or fixing the machines that make the goods to be sold, or performing the service, and the invisible figure at the top reaps the benefits. The world is not meant to work this way. Every unbalanced society will eventually come crashing down. America is a great nation because our system was set up to protect every man regardless of how much you have. Our system of checks and balances is no longer relevant because our world is being run by the rules of greed. A poor man who steals to feed his family can get years in prison while a business man who steals out of pure greed can use money to pay his debt to society. Lately when I talk about politics it seems more like the Prince and the Pauper or a Dickensian chapter. There is no work so vital, no job so hard that it is worth a million dollars for a day. We are suffering, we need help and emailing me every day asking for campaign contributions doesn't make me feel like you are a representative of me, it makes me feel like you are one of them. There should be no career politicians. I believe our politicians need to be active members of our community. I believe they should only be paid a reasonable wage and when their term is over so is the pay. Why did it ever seem like a good idea to pay people who are no longer performing their service? The only people being represented are wealthy. There is no such thing as a poor politician. Today there is no Hope. Today Change seems impossible. 

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This Won't Be Easy

Dear President Obama, 

My name is Jackie Lane. I am a 26 year old married cosmetologist in Toms River, New Jersey. I have made it my mission to write you an email every day for your remaining days as our president. Today should be my 5th letter to you, but yesterday I felt disheartened in my cause. It is hard to stay focused on Change when the people around you are so unwilling to see the light. It has been a long 2 days, Muammar Qaddafi has been killed and the troops are coming home. I should be filled with joy, our administration is finally fulfilling it's campaign promises. I cried that evening last summer when I saw you announce that the troops would be coming home from Iraq in 14 months. But the joy I should feel is being outweighed. The first thing I wondered as I realized these men and women of my generation would be home in just a few months was what are they going to do? With more than 9% of American's out of work, what jobs will there be for my fellow citizens who fought so hard to protect us? My one hope in this is that through your foreign policy accomplishments the men and women who oppose the civil rights of Americans in this country will have no choice but to back down. We need people who will educate society like teachers, and people who protect us like firefighters and policemen, and we need to put back to work the men and women who built this nation with their bare hands and forged it out of service and hard work. None of the corporations that make our goods would be where they are today without factory workers, foremen, and engineers. When we reform education in this country and every man and woman has a viable skill and contribution to our nation think of the things America will accomplish. It's not just about creating jobs, it's about creating a better world for our children to live in. I will think of all the hardships you will face in the coming months to remind myself why I am sending words of support and encouragement to our President.

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The Story of Megan

Dear President Obama,

My name is Jackie Lane. I am a 26 year old married cosmetologist in Toms River, New Jersey. This is my third email in a series of emails I plan on writing you every day until you are no longer in office. My personal story will come later because there are others who I feel need to be spoken for before myself. Every person I know has story behind their personal struggle and what the drastic income inequality in this country has meant to them. This story is the story of Megan. My closest friend Megan is one of the most well read brilliant minds I know. When we graduated our academically competitive Catholic High School she was in the top 11% with an A grade point average. While I stayed home at community college she went off to Philadelphia University with a clear plan in mind. She completed the program for her Bachelors of Science in Interior Design in the appropriate 4 years. She was wait listed for her Masters Program for a semester because only 3 colleges in the nation had a program for the degree she wished to obtain. In the meantime, instead of working with her degree she attended our local community college as a full time student even though she had a 4 year degree because she could not afford to loose her parents health insurance. Any interruption in school would have made her ineligible. Under the current plan she would have been covered until she was 26 without having to be a full time student. She then attended The Savannah College of Art and Design to complete her Masters of Fine Arts in Historic Preservation. While she was in that program she was one of a handful chosen to study abroad in France. Since graduation she has had 3 jobs. The first was in retail at the mall over Christmas time for $7.25, minimum wage, because she has started to receive letters that she would soon have to begin paying her one hundred thousand dollars in student loans back. The other two were as an assistant at a private Interior Design firm that paid her so little it cost more to travel to work than she was getting paid. And currently she makes $12.50 an hour at a part time temporary job in the field of preservation that will run out next week. Aren't there ways we could be utilizing her vast knowledge and education in the field of Historic Preservation to revitalize our nation? Her Health insurance has run out because she is 26 years old and her job does not offer it. She applies for every position in her field but the state of the nation means that no one is investing in rebuilding and renovation. If the economy was thriving she would have a necessary place. She is just one story that leads me to support the jobs act. We need to rebuild our nation and we have people out there who are eager to do it. 

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Letter To Obama

Dear President Obama,

My name is Jackie Lane. I am a 26 year old married cosmetologist in Toms River, New Jersey. This is my second in a series of emails to you. As I was discussing with my husband the message I sent you yesterday I realized a few things. I was telling him how excited I would be if I knew that you read an email from me. I told him of how I donated $5 and then $20 that we frankly did not have to your campaign in the hopes that I could actually win an hour of your time. I realized while I told my husband of the fact that it was 1 in a 1000 odds or worse that you would actually see what I said, at least it was possible. It offends me when people say things like, "Obama is like a celebrity" because I realized how exciting it is for the first time to actually be able to email your president and know that at least some one will read it. You are the first president in my lifetime to seem obtainable. I know it's unlikely I will ever get to personally convey my ideas to you. But the Hope is there that it is possible. We need to work towards our politicians having a better understanding of what people want and representing those things. There is too much money influencing social media and politics and not enough love. I will continue to write the stories of my family and friends to you for the rest of your time in office and my hopes for the future. Even if you never read a word I say I will Hope that someone who works for you might be inspired to persist on and fight well for the people you represent. 

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I Have An Idea

[I couldn't figure out what I might want to write and actually publish when I created this blog. But I have an idea now. I recently started sending the president emails that express how I feel about the way things are in this country. It seemed like a good way to get me to start writing again since nothing else makes me as passionate as the future of our children and the world we are going to leave them to when we are gone.]

My name is Jackie Lane. I am a married 26 year old Cosmetologist in Toms River, New Jersey. Firstly I would like to say that I am a very big supporter of the Obama family. I’ve been hoping since my son was born in 2006 that the world I live in would Change and I still haven’t lost my Hope. President Obama is the first politician in my lifetime who I feel represents my ideals. I want there to be more focus on the education of our citizens. I want there to be someone standing up for the rights of women. I want someone who represents me, and I felt like I found that. But how can someone remain themselves when they have to represent the ideas of all the corporations who have donated money to their campaign? My number one Hope is that this administration will acknowledge and Change that corporations are not people. How can our elected officials be on the side of the people and not the corporations when we can never hope to donate the kinds of funding that multi-billion dollar corporations can? I am very disappointed to hear that each candidate in this 2012 presidential election is estimated to raise about a billion dollars. Isn’t there something better we could be doing with 2 billion dollars than promoting the only 2 candidates we will have to choose from? I was very inspired by the  speech President Obama gave yesterday at the dedication of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial. I will hold onto my Hope for now and show my support and encouragement for Change. I believe great strides in civil rights will be made throughout my lifetime, I have faith President Obama will plant the seeds that will flower for years to come. I will be happy as long as we keep progressing towards the future instead of the stagnation of the past 10 years.

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