Dear Mr. President Obama

Recently, Congressman Kevin Cramer issued a press release where he invited President Barack Obama to make his first Presidential visit to North Dakota. As a common-citizen of North Dakota, I chose to rewrite a similar letter to our President:

Dear Mr. President,
There is a place in America where your vision of equality, diversity, and fairness is not a fully realized reality.

It is a place where a super majority rules nearly every day, and where their opinions say “not welcome” instead of “you matter”.

Yes, it is a place where the energy, agriculture, technology, and manufacturing industries thrive, and yet there is a disproportionate amount of citizens who are working poor.

This is North Dakota, and I invite you to see it for yourself.

You campaigned there before you became President, but a lot has changed. While the national economy has been struggling to repair itself, North Dakota may have been growing jobs in every sector of our economy. Since then, the super majority has made sure the importance of women, Native Americans, the poor, the LGBT citizens, and the marginalized are less and less valued.

Mr. President, you have not seen the headlines mainly because the super majority does not want their story told. Maybe this invite and your visit might brief you on the denigration of our citizens. Several of your cabinet officials have traveled here, and we are grateful for their visits.

I and many others believe the significance of the North Dakota story requires a visit from the President himself. And what better way to assure a nation your first priority of diversity than to visit the state creating fear faster than anywhere else?

We want to show you production making North Dakota's natural beauty a wasteland a reality.

We want to show you our agriculture industry and introduce you to the farmers and ranchers struggling in a hungry state.

We want to introduce you to college students unsure if they want to remain here after graduation.

We want to show you how our marginalized citizens are some of the most caring people despite their oppression, and that there is more to North Dakota than just the super majority's ideal Anglo-Saxon Christian Republican.

And nearly everyone you meet along the way will have a story to share about the super majority.

Please visit North Dakota to see how great America can be much better than here. Our door is open and waiting.

Sincerely,
Kevin R. Tengesdal

Emailed to the President, Cramer, Heitkamp, Hoeven. As well, emailed letters to the editor at Bis Trib, Minot Daily, Fargo Forum, GF Herald, Williston Herald, and then to ND Dem NPL office, and to the ND GOP office.