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Help us tell the story of the Miami Valley by writing a letter to the President and sending it to WYSO.Your letter can be written, or recorded for audio or video. WYSO will collect the letters for a special storytelling series this spring.Your letter may be featured on the air! Here's how to participate:Write a letter: No more than 300 words - THEN - follow these steps:Record yourself in audio or video reading your letter out loudSend us the recording. Length: no longer than 90-secondsSend us a selfie/portrait of yourself holding your letterPlease let us know if you need help recording your letterWe want to hear from you, your family, your friends and your neighbors. Email your letter to wyso@wyso.org. A producer may contact you for more information.

Dear Mr. President: The Affordable Care Act

Dr. Tanisha Richmond at her office in Dayton.
WYSO/Jess Mador

For the last few months WYSO has been collecting your audio letters for our Dear Mr. President project.

Dear Mr. President asks what you want to say about your community, and what you want President Donald Trump to know about the Miami Valley.  We’ve sorted through dozens of letters so far, and found the number-one topic on the minds of many of our letter writers is an issue that’s dominated headlines this year: health care and what to do about the Affordable Care Act. 

The debate came to a head last Friday, when a much-discussed effort by the Trump administration and Republican leaders to repeal and replace the federal health law collapsed in the face of bipartisan opposition.

It’s a sentiment we also heard reflected last month at our special Dear Mr. President Library Day event, when WYSO producers went to 10 Miami Valley libraries to record people’s letters to the president.

An overwhelming number of people talked about the Affordable Care Act. And they didn’t just talk about it, they talked about wanting to keep it.

People from all walks of life and across the political spectrum shared personal stories about the impact of the federal health law on their own lives, and on the lives of their friends and family members. Some letter-writers you'll hear in this piece didn’t want to give their names. Others did.

This episode was produced by Jess Mador and featured music by Ars Sonor and Eric Steuer.

Special thanks to the WYSO Dear Mr. President Library-Day partners.

Dear Mr. President asks what you want to say about your community, and what you want President Donald Trump to know about the Miami Valley. Submit your own letter by emailing it to wyso@wyso.org. Click here for more information.

 

Jess Mador comes to WYSO from Knoxville NPR-station WUOT, where she created an interactive multimedia health storytelling project called TruckBeat, one of 15 projects around the country participating in AIR's Localore: #Finding America initiative. Before TruckBeat, Jess was an independent public radio journalist based in Minneapolis. She’s also worked as a staff reporter and producer at Minnesota Public Radio in the Twin Cities, and produced audio, video and web stories for a variety of other news outlets, including NPR News, APM, and PBS television stations. She has a Master's degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York. She loves making documentaries and telling stories at the intersection of journalism, digital and social media.