Her name is Elizabeth Messina, she is an award-winning photographer, and she wrote An Open Letter To President Obama at Huffington Post. On this, the 4th anniversary of Obama's election (yes, this is the actual date), it is worth reading this letter to remember how much that election meant in so many ways.
As she notes,
Neither my husband nor myself would ever be able to entirely comprehend what it felt like to grow up bi-racial child in a world that is not always embracing of things and people that are different. I was faced with trying to figure out how to prepare my son for issues that he may face in his life due to his ethnicity that I had no firsthand experience with.
Her son was 5 at the time of the last election. The family watched the campaign, and the debates, attempting to explain the significance of what was happening to their children. As Messina writes
We were watching history unfold, a story that had a direct impact on our children. I felt this was especially true for my son because he could see himself in your face.
He was 5-years-old at the time you were elected president. And although I realize you were in the midst of pursing your dreams, you inadvertently simultaneously changed my son's life. Quite frankly, I believe you changed the lives of sons across the world. This, Mr. President, is no small thing. My son could see himself in you, the leader of our country, something no child of color had been able to do in America prior to your presidency. He was at an age when he had just become aware that my skin did not look like his. You gave my son in this moment something I could not.
Please keep reading.
This is a somewhat personal issue in our family. My sister's son has a black wife. My two-great nieces are like the President half-black, half white. One of my wife's sister has a beautiful daughter whose father is Native American. Another has three boys by a husband whose family has been in Northern New Mexico for several hundred years. The diversity of the children throughout our extended families is something we celebrate, and having a President of color makes a difference for all of them.
The letter is very moving. Messina is a gifted writer.
But she is an even more gifted photographer, who things primarily in visual images.
To thank the President, she offered a photograph.
You will be well rewarded if you take the time to read her letter and see the photograph she offered as a thank you to our 44th President.
Peace.