Ronald Reagan's Letter To Seventh Grader: Former President's Response To Middle Schooler's 'Disaster Relief Request' (PHOTO)

In the years since it was first started, Shaun Usher's blog Letters of Note has brought fans more than 750 missives from famous figures past and present.

Earlier today, Usher tweeted a tongue-in-cheek letter sent by former president Ronald Reagan to a seventh grader in 1984. (He explained in a later tweet that it's from the book "Reagan: A Life In Letters.") In response to the middle schooler's inquiry -- "Today my mother declared my bedroom a disaster area. I would like to request federal funds to hire a crew to clean up my room." -- Reagan answered by first apologizing for a delay in responding (he had been in China) and then going on to provide a thorough analysis of Andy's predicament. Read the letter in full here:

(H/T Buzzfeed)

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Comments

[dbrett480]

01:56 PM on 05/23/2012

Cool letter.

[hershykershy]

11:03 AM on 05/21/2012

Terrible president, Iran/Contra, layoffs of protesting union Air Traffic Controllers. The list is too long to document here. But with all that said, very nice letter.

[David Ewers]

07:11 AM on 05/21/2012

Is it just me or is there a problem with one of his facts. 539 Hurricanes in one year?

[CaliAli]

09:02 AM on 05/21/2012

Curious, indeed. Surely it's a typo...I'm afraid to think of the implication of it's having been written in earnest. ^_^

[woof321]

12:55 PM on 05/22/2012

Yes, it's a typo in that it should say "tornadoes," not "hurricanes".

[rewith85man]

09:01 PM on 05/20/2012

Great for the honesty.

[Geopine]

03:55 PM on 05/20/2012

You people must not have been alive or were politically uneducated teenagers when he was president!

[FREEAMERICA2]

11:57 AM on 05/20/2012

ONe of the worst President's in history , but such a nice letter. That makes it all better.

[LibertyRoy]

12:12 PM on 05/20/2012

You are in the extreme minority in your view.

[Conuly]

01:44 PM on 05/20/2012

That the letter makes it all better? I agree. Misspellings all over the place!

[hershykershy]

11:05 AM on 05/21/2012

Libertarians should not throw stones at glass houses. Just saying.

[limaSwhiskey]

04:46 PM on 05/20/2012

As I have lived thru a few of them I would say it's a toss up between Carter and Obama.

[calidreamer]

11:55 AM on 05/20/2012

That letter is Typical president Reagan and why so many American's loved him and Miss him so Much

[jgesselberty]

08:36 AM on 05/20/2012

Oh for the Reagan days. He represented this country well. No, not perfect, but a heck of a lot better than the many that followed.

[pennray1]

05:07 AM on 05/20/2012

He was sure one of the best President's we ever had.

[rmayynrd]

02:47 AM on 05/20/2012

Obama would have had him interviewed by the secret service for harassment

[rmayynrd]

02:46 AM on 05/20/2012

that kid obviously had liberal parents that taught their kid to always ask for gov. handouts for everything LOL

[pennray1]

05:05 AM on 05/20/2012

She's most likely a single mother on welfare.

[Frank Torres]

09:11 PM on 05/19/2012

My favorite post of the week! What a nice post!.

http://www.orlandopolitics.net/

[Malcontent21]

09:17 PM on 05/18/2012

Reagan should have told that kid to wait for some trickle down.

[David Bell AZ]

02:58 PM on 05/18/2012

Cute, but not very accurate. There were not "539 hurricanes as of May 4th" in 1984. In fact, there were zero. Hurricanes usually don't start til summer, with most around aug-sep. There were 5 in the entire year. He also apparently thought there were "several" hurricanes in the one week period before the letter was written, but again the correct number was zero. Did he think it was a hurricane every time it rained someplace? "The Great Communicator"? No way -- more like "The Great Confabulator".

[AZHusker]

08:19 PM on 05/18/2012

Lighten up, Francis.

Maybe he was talking about worldwide? We, as in the USA, do supply aid for disasters all around the globe. Or maybe he was just generalizing or using imagination to a 7 year old boy who wrote a letter to the President to declare his bedroom a disaster area.

If Carter or Clinton had done this I would commend them. Give it a rest, will you?

[David Ewers]

07:13 AM on 05/21/2012

If we to average 20 hurricanes per year and 20 in Asia (Typhoons) and India (monsoons) we would be well short of that number

[woof321]

12:24 PM on 05/22/2012

He clearly meant tornadoes. Even if hurricanes did occur in the spring, most never make landfall so the total wouldn't be significant in this context. I still thought the letter was amusing, but it's even more amusing that someone would try to justify his glaring error. Cute letter in any case.

[goldengirl132]

02:08 PM on 05/18/2012

That letter was epic!