Dear Mr. or Madam President,

The weekend of September 17th, my mother and I went to New York City. We had such an amazing time seeing friends, dining out, and seeing The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway. The play was incredible and the singing was mesmerizing. Humming and skipping, we left the play choosing the subway as the most logical transportation to return to our hotel. However, once on the subway our insouciant demeanor began to switch. The train had been commanded to stay at a specific stop for an extended period of time, resulting in conversations of concern and confusion. My mom, having grown up not far from the city, quickly saw this as a suspicious situation, and we left the train to seek alternative travel options. Quickly, we realized that something significant had happened. In a cab, the explosion in Chelsea filled the radio. We were only able to stay in the cab for ten blocks. The traffic was at a standstill. The cab driver recommended that we walk south of the explosion to try to find alternative travel means to get back to Battery Park and our hotel. We ended up walking fifteen blocks at 11:40 at night. The evening was filled with sirens. I have never been so scared in my life. Was a bomb going to detonate somewhere else? Were we safe? Where would we go? Once we arrived safely at home, Mother and I discussed the situation, making me realize that terrorism and urban violence are increasing at alarming rates.

So my question to you is simply this. How will you keep me safe? How are you planning to keep the poor children of our inner cities safe? I hated how I felt that night and the thought that there are children who have to live with this fear everyday is a horrifying thought. Terrorism has started to become a rising issue across the world and in the US. The US as you may know has a Terror Rating of 4.61 out of 10. So, exactly what does this mean? This means that out of 150+ countries in the world the US is 35th on the list to have a terrorist attack (“Global Terrorism”). In my opinion this number is way too high.

ISIS codes secret messages to their followers in the US. Also messages to encourage more people to follow. ISIS has taken children as young as age seven from their families and raised them to be murders (“Terrorism kidnapping”). The main problem is that even experts on terrorism do not know who and how many people are fully committed to following ISIS and how far they will go to get what they want. There could be hundreds or maybe even thousands of people that are a part of this and we not know.

What are your plans to help us? You have the most powerful military in the world and yet we live in fear.

Sincerely,

Whitney T.