President Obama was the first sitting president to come up with a deliberate and explicit practice of responding to 10 letters he received daily from American citizens.
Long live snail mail! Did you know over eight years, through millions of letters, the staff of the White House mailroom read the unfiltered story of our nation?
At the beginning of his first term, President Obama said he wanted to read his mail. He said he would like to see 10 letters a day. After that, the 10LADs, as they came to be called, were put in a purple folder and added to the back of the briefing book he took with him to the residence on the second floor of the White House each night.
Believe it or not, there was a staff of 50+ and 36 interns who selected these 10 letters each day from the hundreds of thousands that were received. The amount of time and effort that went into connecting President Obama to the American people is really heartwarming. Read more on the “letter underground” from the New York Times here.
So, when’s the last time you took a few minutes to write a letter? If the president could take the time out daily to write 10, surely you can write one…
Stylishly yours,
