January 27, 2010
Dear Mr President,
I am writting you this letter after hearing your State of The Union last night. My husband and I are just two of those millions of people that are trying to keep our heads afloat. I want to soooo desparately want to believe int he Government again. My faith in the government has been damaged due to my husband loosing his job and has been out of work for over a year. I am a substitute teacher for one of the many counties that are loosing GREAT teachers and other personel due to cutbacks. We have been trying to provide for our two growing boys but at this time it is getting harder and harder. My youngest sons birthday was just on Sunday the 24 of January and we could not provide a party or cake or presents for him. When my son looked at me and said why with tears in his eyes I said because mommy does not have any money. You can't expect an 8yr old child to understand the concept of money but I am not a parent who lies to my kids. My husband and I have been trying to refinance our home for the past 4years so that we can pay off some of our debts. Unfortunately we are unable to because we live in a manufactured home (double-wide). Not even the company that we have our current mortgage through will refinance us. So figure that one out for me. Right now we can't even get a loan modification either. So we will probablly loose our home. We have nowhere to go. We feel like we are being discriminated against because of the type of home we live in. We owe only 152,000 on our home. Our home through the county that we live assested at 255,000. That is 100,000 worth of equity that we have but cannot touch because no one will hep us. I am at the point that I dont know what else to do. We have cut out all other expenses. We have no television we have no internet we have no house phone. The only reason we have cell phones is for the school to get ahold of us incase of an emergency. The only way that we have food is from having food stamps. So i'll have all the food we can eat but no house to put it in. My family is on medicaid only because my husband is out of work and I make less than $400 a month. I am going to have surgery on the 2 of February. My husband will have to stop looking for a job to take care of me for the next 6 weeks. What am I as a parent and as an American supposed to believe? What am I supposed to tell my boys? We are a good family, hard working, faith driven. Right now its hard to be all those things. I am asking for help from you because YOU sir are the PRESIDENT of the United States. YOU sir are the one person that IS supposed to HELP the LITTLE PEOPLE like my family and others like us. We are the ones that make this country what it is. You say that jobs are up and spending is up. YOU sir need to come to my neck of the woods and see how wrong that is. Because here in Spotsylvania County its not. I live in Partlow a rural community of Spotsylvania and I tell you what...jobs are few and far between. My husband and I just want to be able to live and be able to buy a cake or a present for our kids when its their birthday or for Christmas. Thats another thing my boys didn't even have a Christmas because we did not have money to buy them presents. Have YOU ever had to tell your girls that Santa isn't coming to your house? It was the worst feeling in the world. YOU say that you feel for the people that are in bad situations but do YOU really? I want to believe Mr. President that you are a good man and that you truely want what is best for this country, but right now I'm not sure that I can. Please Mr. President help me. Help me help my family. Help me save my home and help my husband find a job. Come see my community. Come see my family. Come others here that also need your help. Help me regain my faith in the government again. Help me be able to tell my boys that we can stay in our home and that we don't have to move. YOU sir have the power to help. Make the choice. Make a CHANGE in my family's life. Thank You for taking the time to read my letter.
Sincerly,
Bethany Kern
*Please sir, tell these beautiful 2 boys that they can stay in their own home with all their stuff and be with their mom + dad. Thank you.