Bautista 1

Stephanie Bautista
AASP-100
Nichols
August 3, 2017

Dear President Donald Trump,

I would firstly like to introduce myself before I start off this opinionated letter, as you

might not know much of me. My name is Anne Moody, I was born in Mississippi during the

1940s on a southern plantation. Once I was born my mother, Toosweet, and father split up

because he was having an affair with a mulatto, an African American woman of lighter skin.

After that my momma started getting into various relationships with men resulting in the birth of

my siblings. Mr. Trump, when I was younger I was very foolish, I use to question why my

mother's belly kept getting bigger and bigger until one day a little baby came and her big belly

disappeared. But as I grew older, I became wiser. One of the things I remember from high school

is the Emmett Till case, that young boy who got killed for speaking to a white woman. After that,

I started becoming more politically aware and eventually joined boycotts and other events that

supported my beliefs. After I graduated from college I left Mississippi to Washington DC to

become part of the Civil Rights Movement. I'm writing to you in regards to your policies since

youve become president, I have some opinions on them and would like to share them with you.

To start off this letter I would firstly like to mention your education policies. Education is

something I care about a lot because being born black in a segregated United States meant that

my education was seen as a privilege and not a right. On your political website, you stated,

Establish the national goal of providing school choice to every one of the 11 million school

aged children living in poverty. (Trump) as one of the education policies, you want to push for

during your presidency. I do believe that education for those in poverty is very important, one

thing I've always wanted was for African Americans to live an enriching life. But one thing I
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disagree with is using part of the 11 million dollars to expand the creation of charter, religious,

and private schools (Brown, Strauss, Douglas-Gabriel). I believe most of this money should go

to schools that need it the most in low-income areas, in these low-income areas there is a high

presence of African Americans, so they would be affected the most by your policies. Also, your

new policy gives states the power to navigate where the federal education money goes to, this

will cause poverty stricken schools to receive less Title I money (Brown, Strauss, Douglas-

Gabriel). But your opposite party, the Democrats, are against school choice as they want to better

the education of African American and Latino children in the United States (The Leader). I agree

with the Democratic position in regards to education policies.

The main factor why I disagree with your partys, the Republicans party, view on

education policies is due to my childhood. Growing up in Mississippi my mother kept our family

afloat from paycheck to paycheck, poverty was something I experienced heavily. Poverty and

living in a segregated community caused my education growing up to not be up to par compared

to the whites in Mississippi. One thing I vividly recall from my childhood in regards to my

education was that my school that lacked funding was not sufficient enough for me to learn,

instead, I used help from others like Miss Ola, She had taught me lots of words and showed me

how to spell and write them too. Because of Miss Olas help, I made all As in reading and

spelling. (Moody, 38) with her help, it would allow me to get good grades in my education

which would lead to my basketball scholarship in college. I believe your education policy

towards the African American race has failed, although you claim that it will help low-income

schools it will still put elite schools ahead, in these elite schools there is a higher presence of

whites than blacks.

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I also looked into your family policies, and I agreed with them. Some family policies you

stated you want to put in action during your presidency was first to provide 6 weeks of paid leave

to mothers who have just given birth or adopted a child. According to the Times- Money article,

The White House estimates that 1.3 million people would benefit from the proposed program.

(Renzulli) I believe that if this policy was created when I was younger, my mother would have

benefited from it also. This would also help the way the US is seen compared to other countries

as, The US is the only developed country that does not guarantee any paid leave to new

parents. (Renzulli) I think it is time that the US gives new parents leave. One thing I did find

very interesting about this is how the topic of paid parental leave is something both the

Democratic and Republican party have agreed on since a long time. Both parties do agree on

allowing new parents to have paid leave for a certain amount of time, there are some factors

which are different. The Democratic party believes that all working Americans should benefit

from paid leave, while the Republican party believes this policy should be more minimalist by

being more towards low income working families (Mathur and Sawhill). I agree with both

parties views on the policies as they both allow low-income families to benefit from paid

parental leave.

Growing up I first hand saw my mother suffer emotionally from having to immediately

go back to work after giving birth, this is why I believe that paid parental leave should be

necessary for the US. During my childhood growing up in Mississippi my mother kept having

children with Raymond, but she was not able to take long amounts of time off of work to stay

with the babies. I remember when James was born, She [mother] didn't stop working until a

week before the baby was born, and she was out of work only three weeks. She went right back

to the cafe. (Moody, 26) so my mother did get some parental leave my due to his short amount
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of time it would cause James to be taken from us. I remember how devastated my mother was

when James was taken from us, Miss Pearl turned to Mama and said, You can't work and feed

them other children and keep this baby too. Then she and the soldier took him and drove

away in their car. (Moody, 26-27) I wonder if my mother had a more extended time of parental

leave than James wouldn't have been taken away. Seeing how difficult it was for my mother to

not have James with her due to work was emotionally eye opening because my mother had to

pick her child or monetary income. I do not want other mothers or fathers to suffer what my

mother did to keep my family fed, I believe that it is necessary for new parents to have at least 6

weeks of paid leave.

Lastly, another policy that grabbed my attention was in regards to health, specifically

your push to defund Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood is a government funding

organization which provides STI testing, abortions, and other health care services to Americans.

Getting rid of Planned Parenthood would heavily impact low-income women and men as they

take advantage of the provided health care (Dias). I noticed that your Republican position on

Planned Parenthood is very different compared to the Democratic position. For example, the

Republican party strongly believe that government funding should not go towards Planned

Parenthood while the Democratic party believes that government funding should go towards this

organization as millions of Americans can benefit from it (Gray). I personally believe that you

should not defund Planned Parenthood as not everyone can afford to have a child. My mother for

example, She always chose the wrong time to have babies (Moody, 118) this caused us to have

a limited supply of food and always struggle to have money. Even as a child I felt that having 7

siblings was a burden for my family, it made me feel that We were doomed to poverty and more

unhappiness than we had faced before. (Moody, 118) if my mother had the knowledge and
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access to organizations like Planned Parenthood perhaps we would not have struggled as much

financially. Overall, I believed that organizations like Planned Parenthood should be funding as

they can help low-income families which may not be able to afford to have a lot of children.

Mr. Trump, these are a few policies you have stated that have grabbed my attention. The

struggles I faced during my adolescent life have influenced my political opinions as an adult. I

believe that the next administration should take more actions to help people of color. The

policies which your administration is pushing for somewhat helps people of color, who typically

make up the low-income population, but they benefit more the high-income community. Your

policies regarding education and health do not give people of color the same advantages as

people who are not of color. I believe that there should be more government funding towards

programs that help low-income families. I also believe that there should be an increase in focus

towards schools that have a large low-income population. The government should not prioritize

one community over the other, I grew up experiencing segregation with blacks and whites and

have fought to end this. The U.S. should keep going forward instead of creating backward

policies. Please take my opinions into consideration.

Sincerely,

Anne Moody
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Work Cited

Moody, Anne. Coming of age in Mississippi. New York: Dell Pub., 1976. Print. Trump Pence.
Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. , n.d. Web. 01 Aug. 2017.
<https://www.donaldjtrump.com/>.

Brown, Emma, Valerie Strauss, and Danielle Douglas-Gabriel. "Trump's first full education
budget: Deep cuts to public school programs in pursuit of school choice." The
Washington Post. WP Company, 17 May 2017. Web. 01 Aug. 2017.
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/trumps-first-full-education-budget-
deep-cuts-to-public-school-programs-in-pursuit-of-school-choice/2017/05/17/2a25a2cc-
3a41-11e7-8854-21f359183e8c_story.html?utm_term=.229a6fab8ff5>.

Dias, Elizabeth. "Defund Planned Parenthood Plan Moves Forward in Congress." Time. Time,
07 Jan. 2017. Web. 02 Aug. 2017. <http://time.com/4626516/planned-parenthood-
defund-republicans/>.

"Donald Trump's Policies." PolitiPlatform. Disqus, n.d. Web. 01 Aug. 2017.

<https://www.politiplatform.com/trump>.

Gray, Kali Joy. "How Do The GOP and Democratic Party Platforms Compare On Women's
Health? (Hint: Terribly)." Planned Parenthood . Planned Parenthood Action Fund, Inc.,
28 July 2016. Web. 02 Aug. 2017. <https://www.plannedparenthoodaction.org/blog/how-
do-the-gop-and-democratic-party-platforms-compare-womens-health-hint-terribly>

Mathur, Aparna, and Isabel V. Sawhill. "A paid parental leave policy Republicans and
Democrats might agree on." Brookings. Brookings, 06 June 2017. Web. 02 Aug. 2017.
<https://www.brookings.edu/blog/social-mobility-memos/2017/06/06/a-paid-parental-
leave-policy-republicans-and-democrats-might-agree-on/>

"President Trump On The Issues: Education." The Leader . The Leader Digital Magazine, 28
Jan. 2017. Web. 01 Aug. 2017. <http://theleader.us/trump-issues/education/>.

Renzulli, Kerri Anne. "Trump Budget to Include Paid Family Leave for New Parents | Money."
Time. Time, n.d. Web. 01 Aug. 2017. <http://time.com/money/4786114/not-just-for-
moms-trumps-budget-proposal-includes-paid-family-leave-for-all-new-parents/>.