Sincerely,
Jennifer Leigh

I've never sent you an email before, but I hope you get this. On the Yahoo! front page, there was an article titled: “In speech, Obama says 'Indonesia is part of me'”. I thought the article was rather heartwarming, he went there for the first time in over a decade, and said that in Indonesian in front of a crowd. I didn't think there was much wrong with the article, there wasn't anything provocative about it.

Then, I read the comments. Of course there were nice ones, but there were many rude ones. They're saying that Obama is turning his back on his country, that he's a mutt. Here are some comments that help illustrate what people were saying:
1. He's white, he's black, he's christian, he's muslim, he's an American and now Indonesian…Our little president is a chameleon and will be whatever you want him to be.
2.  reaching out to “Muslim world,” not even a specific nation, but the whole world in general. This attitude certainly tells you where is heart is. How this man ever got elected is beyond me.
3. Obama says Americans just don't understand him. It's a Muslim thing.
4. “Indonesia is part of me” – Yes, and Kenya is the other part. How did this piece of filth stay on as the President of the United States?
5. “Indonesia is part of me” – Why doesn't he just stay there and not bother coming back, maybe he can run for president there!!
6. “Obama said he learned to appreciate the “humanity of all” people during the time he spent in Indonesia, with its thousands of islands, hundreds of languages and people from many different regions and ethnic groups.” – Too bad Obama doesn't appreciate America and stand up for it instead of selling us out and making us a third world country and putting us in our place in the New World Order.”
7. It's time to inpeach obama for un-ameican acttivity
All articles get bad comments and trolls, but this was different. All those comments had a bunch of thumbs up, and that was probably the worst part. At first, I found those comments hurtful, but all of a sudden they didn't upset me as much. Of course they're incredibly rude, they're insulting a man just for being a bit different, like we TCKs are. The thing is, I know that if I'd read this article a year ago, before I even knew there was a term for TCKs, I know this would've affected me so much. I can't imagine how those with similar backgrounds who DON'T already know what TCKs are, are feeling anymore. It's like reading what you already know that the most ignorant people around you are thinking.

What I've been trying to say is how incredibly thankful I am to you for having made this site. This is the first time I've seen a TCK be attacked so horribly, and I can't imagine how alone I would've felt a year ago, before I discovered the site. I didn't know people felt so strongly about it, and I'm lucky for that. My thoughts went out to all the other TCKs, and it made me feel closer to all the people with similar backgrounds and who are members at TCKid. The site really has changed me, I feel a lot different and I don't get panic attacks when I think about my background. I used to look at flags and I'd feel connected to a lot of them, but I didn't really think of any one flag as “mine”, but now I just think that our flag isn't there yet.

It also reminded me how lucky we are, no matter where we're located, to have such a prominent political figure who's proud of his background, and who's bringing attention to it. It'd be easy for him to just ignore it, there'd certainly be less people criticizing him if he did. It's like he doesn't think it's anything to be ashamed of, and it isn't, but when things are bad it can seem that way.

This is way longer than I expected it to be, but I just wanted to say THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU BRICE for creating this amazing site, I can't put into words how nice it is to have a place to go to talk to people who know how you're feeling. To read stories from people who know how you're feeling. Most people can just speak to most everyone around them for that.

Sincerely,
Emily

You have no idea how perfect timing this message you sent was! I had been having a pretty rough week and was praying yesterday and asking God what on earth I am trying to do with my life because all the outcomes seem so uncertain. Anyway, last night when I got home there was you email in my inbox, and it spoke right to my heart.
Coincidence? I don't think so!

I hope you are doing well! All the best and God bless

Lauren
http://blog.briceroyer.com/res…/

Hi ruth,
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