Letter of invitation

January 21, 2009

President Barack Obama
The White House
The United States of America

Dear President Barack Obama:

We are students of the San Vicente Elementary School of the Public School System of the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands. Now, isn’t that a mouthful? We wanted to catch your attention, since you are just starting your new job and pretty soon, the whole world will be in your In-basket. So we want to be at the head of the line.

To the point: you and your family are hereby cordially, officially and enthusiastically invited to come visit our island. You can come to our school for lunch. Miss Miller, our Vice Principal, will make sure you get a nutritious plate at our new cafetoreum; Ms. Salas, our Principal, will walk you through our hallways. She’ll show you our new Kindergarten room, which we are very proud of since we are one of the few schools on island that has a kindergarten program. She’ll probably tell you that we need another one and that happily the Legislature has identified and allocated funds for that purpose. You think if our PSS can get that built soon, you’ll find some program funds for all the schools? Deal?

We’ll give Ma’am Michelle a class period to teach us anything she wants, and we will teach Malia Ann and Natasha how to giggle the island way! And you can sit with our Social Studies teachers to make sure they got it right on government and democracy.

We are “Where America’s Day Begins.” Our cousins in Guam south of us coined the phrase but we think we are slightly further east longitudinally than they are so we have since joined them in that claim. So far, federal officials have only stopped over Guam on their way somewhere. It would be a great demonstration of your pledge to be President to all of us—Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, and the CNMI—if sometime, you can physically and officially visit any of us. Of course, we would be honored if you keep us on top of your list.

Mr. President, we are tired of getting our mail sent to Spain, or Mauritius (because of the MP in our address), or Taiwan since it rhymes with Saipan, or, unable to trade in the Internet because there is no designation for us in the USA category unless we log in on the foreign country column, so your visit could get us into the global map in a hurry.

We just sent Representive Gregorio “Kilili” Sablan to the U.S. Congress, our first since we started electing an official Rep to the august body last November. We will send him a copy of this letter so he can help your Air Force One pilot locate us in the Western Pacific.

Oh, one of our former schoolmates and our current district legislator, Tina Sablan, attended your inauguration festivities. Like you, she has pushed for transparency and openness in government, so you might exchange notes in that department. (One of our teachers wrote in one of our local papers that she would do well to run for the presidential office in 2016.) Your example has been an inspiration for us to focus on our possibilities even as we remain clear and keep an eye on our limits. And in your and our new America, you have shown that the sky is the limit!

OK, this letter has gotten to be too long, but we are serious. MarshaRose Joyner, a long-time civil rights activist from Hawaii was at our school today as part of our Martin Luther King Jr. Day commemorative celebration (we also thought she was your mother since she came from Hawaii where you lived when you were young) and she has great faith that coming over would be something you would seriously consider. So, will you come visit us?

We, too, are your new Americans!

Respectfully yours,

Vanessa Gramlich (5th Grade)
William Davis (1st Grade)
[I]Co-Presidents, The SVES Student Council[/I]

P.S. The names and signatures of our school family follow.