Did a Fourth Grade Teacher “Slam” President Obama in a Letter?

Did a 4th grade teacher from Missouri “slam” President Obama in a widely-circulated letter in 2009?

The letter is genuine but has been misattributed.

The letter first appeared in April 2009, and was apparently mistakenly attributed to a teacher named Kathleen Lyday at some point during the early days of its circulation. Let’s take a look at the letter in question:

Subject: Teacher Slams Obama

April 17, 2009
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Mr. Obama:

I have had it with you and your administration, sir. Your conduct on your recent trip overseas has convinced me that you are not an adequate representative of the United States of America collectively or of me personally.

You are so obsessed with appeasing the Europeans and the Muslim world that you have abdicated the responsibilities of the President of the United States of America . You are responsible to the citizens of the United States … You are not responsible to the peoples of any other country on earth.

I personally resent that you go around the world apologizing for the United States telling Europeans that we are arrogant and do not care about their status in the world. Sir, what do you think the First World War and the Second World War were all about if not the consideration of the peoples of Europe ? Are you brain dead? What do you think the Marshall Plan was all about? Do you not understand or know the history of the 20th century?

Where do you get off telling a Muslim country that the United States does not consider itself a Christian country? Have you not read the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution of the United States ? This country was founded on Judeo-Christian ethics and the principles governing this country, at least until you came along, come directly from this heritage. Do you not understand this?

Your bowing to the king of Saudi Arabia is an affront to all Americans. Our President does not bow down to anyone, let alone the king of Saudi Arabia . You don’t show Great Britain , our best and one of our oldest allies, the respect they deserve yet you bow down to the king of Saudi Arabia . How dare you, sir! How dare you!

You can’t find the time to visit the graves of our greatest generation because you don’t want to offend the Germans but make time to visit a mosque in Turkey . You offended our dead and every veteran when you give the Germans more respect than the people who saved the German people from themselves. What’s the matter with you?

I am convinced that you and the members of your administration have the h istorical and intellectual depth of a mud puddle and should be ashamed of yourselves, all of you.

You are so self-righteously offended by the big bankers and the American automobile manufacturers yet do nothing about the real thieves in this situation, Mr. Dodd, Mr. Frank, Franklin Raines, Jamie Gorelic, the Fannie Mae bonuses, and the Freddie Mac bonuses. What do you intend to do about them? Anything? I seriously doubt it.

What about the U.S. House members passing out $9.1 million in bonuses to their staff members – on top of the $2.5 million in automatic pay raises that lawmakers gave themselves? I understand the average House aide got a 17% bonus. I took a 5% cut in my pay to save jobs with my employer. You haven’t said anything about that. Who authorized that? I surely didn’t!

Executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be receiving $210 million in bonuses over an eighteen-month period, that’s $45 million more than the AIG bonuses. In fact, Fannie and Freddie executives have already been awarded $51 million – not a bad take. Who authorized that and why haven’t you expressed your outrage at this group who are largely responsible for the economic mess we have right now.

I resent that you take me and my fellow citizens as brain-dead and not caring about what you idiots do.

We are watching what you are doing and we are getting increasingly fed up with all of you. I also want you to know that I personally find just about everything you do and say to be offensive to every one of my sensibilities.

I promise you that I will work tirelessly to see that you do not get a chance to spend two terms destroying my beautiful country.
Sincerely,

Every real American

P .S. I rarely ask that emails be ‘passed around’…PLEASE SEND THIS TO YOUR EMAIL LIST…it’s past time for all Americans to wake up!

Ms Kathleen Lyday
Fourth Grade Teacher
Grandview Elementary School
11470 Hwy. C
Hillsboro , MO 63050

Ms Lyday has told several sources that she did not write the letter. It’s possible that she forward the letter and her name was mistakenly attributed to its authorship. The question, then becomes who actually wrote it?

The letter’s date of April 2009 is corroborated by the fact that it first appeared on several websites during that month, and there is no record of it existing prior to that date. It has been suggested that it first appeared on April 9, 2009 on redpills.org, reproduced by Gary Shumway, who stated he received permission from Franklin T. Bell to reproduce the letter. A Frank Bell has also posted in various forums that he did write the letter, and no one else has claimed authorship.

The writer has been attributed to Every real American, Franklin T. Bell, Kathleen Lyday, and Douglas M. Casamer.

Bottom Line

A fourth grade teacher did not write the letter. It is most likely that the letter was penned by Franklin T. Bell.

Additional Sources

• “Letter to the President” Being Forwarded Around in E-mails (Freedom’s Phoenix: April 21, 2009)