Nerd History: A Letter From Ronald Reagan to a Young Child

Today, the United States goes to the polls to either re-elect our current president or elect a brand new one. The role of the President, among many, is to respond to disasters as they occur, and I'm reminded of one rather charming story from the Reagan era.

A child wrote to President Reagan, noting that the child's mother declared the bedroom a "disaster area." Given that it's a fairly standard move, when faced with a natural disaster, to seek help from the government, naturally, the child was petitioning Reagan for federal aid. That is, after all, what we as Americans do.

In his typically charming way (Reagan, regardless of how you felt about him politically, was quite charismatic), took some time to respond:

Your situation appears to be a natural. I'm sure your mother was fully justified in proclaiming your room a disaster. Therefore you are in an excellent position to launch another volunteer program to go along with the more than 3,000 already underway in our nation—congratulations.

In a time where there's a lot of hand-wringing about the state of the nation and the civility of discourse, it's nice to look back and see some awesomeness.