146 NW 99 Avenue Miami, FL 33182 November 26, 2013 The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President: Times now are difficult, and Im sure you of all people know that best. I commend you for your efforts in trying to better the economy and the United States as a whole. The situation in which President Busch left the nation was not great but Im sure with your help we can better America by putting a little time and money into valuable causes. One such cause would be the continuously rising rate of teenage suicide, American society today needs more programs to help aid in the prevention of the death of Americas young people. Every 1 in 7 high school students seriously considers teenage suicide and today suicide is the third leading cause of death in adolescents. It has been proven that more young adults and teenagers die from suicide than from cancer, heart disease, AIDS, birth defects, stroke, pneumonia, influenza, and chronic lung disease, combined; this a startling fact indeed. It is heartbreaking that day after day parents, friends, siblings, and others lose their loved ones to something completely preventable; something you can help put an end to with avoidance programs. Presently there are several organizations such as the Society for the Prevention of Teenage Suicide and the Youth Suicide Prevention Program which do aid teens fight their suicidal thoughts but, as most of those organizations are nonprofit it is hard to reach out to many schools with the little money they have coming in. If the government were to help finance the fight against youth suicide more measure to avert it could be done through means such as advertising, school assemblies, informational web resources, and just more awareness of the public in general. By funneling more government funding into this cause and helping either the existing organizations affect more adolescents or by creating more programs to support this cause you can save millions of lives. In one of your speeches you said, The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness. I believe in what you said, that we all have a right to reach our full measure of happiness, and I hope that you choose to aid this cause and fulfill your promise of exacting change and ensuing joy. Sincerely, Melina Paan