Dear President Obama,

We want to thank you for the eight years you have dedicated to this country.
Thank you for signing the Affordable Care Act, covering 20 million uninsured Americans; authorizing the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, eliminating the person who was responsible for thousands of American lives lost in New York and Washington D.C; remedying the tension between the U.S. and Cuba, healing the wounds of the cold war; cutting the unemployment rate in half from 10.1% to 4.9%, creating 9.3 million more jobs for Americans; signing a momentous deal with other world leaders, preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons; joining the Paris Agreement, limiting greenhouse gas emissions and preserving our planet.
Back in 2008, many questioned your presence and potential as an African American man. However, throughout your presidency, you gained momentum and proved to make an impact that would resonate with us in the days, months, and years to come. In the past eight years, you fought with persistence, honor, and grace to keep this nation from turning back the clock on what this country has expensed innumerable lives and fought for.
In your eight years, you inspired us to dream beyond society’s limitations. You proved to us that no matter what race, political affiliation, religious identity, or upbringing that anything and everything is possible. You broke down the barriers between classes, races, sexualities and genders.
We heard you fight for women’s rights and you did, expanding funding for the Violence Against Women Act. We heard you fight for LGBT rights and you did, being the first sitting president to openly support gay marriage.
You stood for all of us: the environment, the auto industry, the Native Americans, the veterans, the immigrants and their children, the Muslims, the medical industry, the 9/11 families.
Many forget the high unemployment and uncertainty of our country in 2008, the worst economic period since the Great Depression. However, you were the epitome of what our country needed most at that time, after our country had lost its prestige across the world.
You came to us with genuine hope.
Hope that would make America great again.
Your hope was mocked then, but no one remembers how desperately it was needed then.
How much we need it now with our new President.
Sincerely,
The Tornado Times