“Mr. President…”

Aug 11th, 2009 5:22 PM UTC
By Michael Castaldo, marine and ONE member, Dover, NH

Hours ago, in Portsmouth, NH, ONE’s Marine, Michael Castaldo attended a town hall meeting with President Obama. He sent in this quick report:

With the doors scheduled to open at 11am, my young son and I breezed into position before 9am with only a handful of other attendees in front of us in line. We spent the time handing out ONE bands and eating our PB&J’s.

When we finally made it inside we took the best seats we could and I rehearsed what I thought was a good question, but I was not called on, but I am sure that my ONE shirt was a dead giveaway as to my probable line of questioning.

So what’s a boy to do? The next best thing. When I knew he had finished answering his last question, I grabbed my sons hand and was the first person at the rope line. Now we just had to wait. Less than a minute later, after he shook my son Sam’s hand, then shook my hand I asked him “Mr. President, at the upcoming G20 summit in Pittsburgh, will you make sure that the worlds poorest are not forgotten?” He had already shuffled a little to his right at that point but turned back to me and looked me in the eye and said “I surely will.”

-Michael Castaldo, ONE’s Marine

P.S. Here’s a clip of the encounter– without audio, unfortunately.

TAGS: ONE