The following letter is written by a 10-year-old Southern Illinois resident, addressed to President Obama. Note the letter’s wisdom and concern for future generations in Illinois, and beyond.
Dear Mr. President,
My name is Layla Wendt and I am 10 years old.
I know I am kind of young, but I you would like to talk to you about fracking. Life is like a chess game. If you don’t look at the whole picture you could make the wrong move and you will get check-mated.
Water is your King in this Chess game. Money is a knight. If you give up the King for a knight, you lose the game.
Fracking wastes about 50% of our water. Water gets used for fracking, which, get’s polluted and sent off to pipes in the earth. Say, in 50 years, how much water will there be left if everybody in the world would be fracking just for money?
Imagine how much water there will be left even in 10 years if fracking were to happen? Food would cost so much more, and because water would be so scarce, people would even struggle to grow their own vegetable gardens. But because the water would cost so much, you would not even be able to do that. If you think of all the places in the world where people are starving – imagine America like that!
If every part of America starts fracking, it’s going to start everywhere, too.
So, imagine every part of the world wasting water, just to get more, and more money. Think of the future of your children’s children.
I know you probably will never get this letter in person, but at least someone might read it.
I hope that the person who reads this letter will understand that one decision can change everything.
Respectfully,
Layla
P.S. Think of the future of the people, not the money! PTO – signatures of friends!