Bushwick 6th grader Ciro Ortiz has been spending the last few Sundays with a stand at the Bedford Avenue L stop, giving straight talk advice to straphangers the way only an 11-year-old can.
Like any superhero, Ortiz has a tragic backstory, which in this case is that he’s bullied by asshole kids at his middle school. Even in the face of that though, Ortiz’s mother says that he takes his profits and buys food and snacks for kids who can’t afford them. Truly, this is a child too good for both middle school and this Earth
Be the change, Ciro. From one bullied kid to another, you are doing the exact right thing. I love seeing young POC doing things like this. Proud of you!
I have something verey important to tell you, well my mom had cancer and she went to my school to vote for you with a wheelchair because she wanted you to be President, and she was proud and happy that Day. She is in heaven now and prays for you to be safe and me to.
Your friend,
Emily
I am 7 years old like Sasha. by!!
President Obama’s Response
Emily —
Thanks for the wonderful letter. My mom died of cancer too, so I know how you feel. I am sure your mom and mine are both in heaven, and are both proud of you. I am too!
“ In August, 1968, the country was still reeling from the assassination of Martin Luther King four months earlier, and the race riots that followed on its heels. Nightly news showed burning cities, white flight, radicals and reactionaries snarling at each other across the cultural divide.
“A brand new children’s show out of Pittsburgh, which had gone national the previous year, took a different approach. Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood introduced Officer Clemmons, a black police officer who was a kindly, responsible authority figure, kept his neighborhood safe, and was Mr. Roger’s equal, colleague and neighbor.
“Around the first anniversary of Martin Luther King’s death, Mr. Rogers invited Officer Clemmons to join him in soaking their tired feet in a plastic wading pool. And there they were, brown feet and pasty white feet, side by side in the water. Silently, contemplatively, without comment.
“25 years later, when the actor playing Officer Clemmons retired, his last scene on the show revisited that same wading pool, this time reminiscing. Officer Clemmons asked Mr. Rogers what he’d been thinking during their silent interlude a quarter century before. Fred Rogers’ answer was that he’d been thinking of the many ways people say “I love you.”
“I come from Ghana. I’m always smiling. People ask me: ‘Isaac, why are you always smiling?’ I tell them: ‘What else can I do?’ I am so blessed to be in this country. I work in customer service at the CVS on 57th Street and I love it. CVS is the best place that I love so much. I help people with their needs and it makes me so happy. I help them with their coupons. I help them with their medication. People bring me their challenges and I solve their problems. You can say that I am their champion. I am not a citizen. But when I help people with their problems, that makes me part of the community. So I do feel like an American.”
In case you weren’t convinced that hating yourself is a learned behavior
Physical shame comes from parents, teachers, media, and peers. It’s not something you’re born with. You were born naked, wonderful, and gorgeous, and no one should make another being feel as if that wasn’t, and isn’t true.
Lovely story. I read the huff post article. The man was offered a job at a dialysis center because he was so good with the elderly and the company is paying his way through nursing school to be a dialysis nurse. He will be a credit to the profession.
326 Miles 