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Jul. 23--Janey Smith has a ritual.
Every Monday she sits with pen and paper and writes. The 57-year-old Steilacoom resident drafts a letter, sometimes to family but more often to someone famous she respects or admires.
She's been doing this since she was 3 years old, when her father convinced her to write President Harry S. Truman a thank-you note for ending World War II. She remembers the letter she got back, its official presidential seal and 3-cent stamp.
It showed her that reaching out only takes a walk to the mailbox.
"I, as a little person, can write a letter to someone in power," she said. "You can suggest important things to them that are important to yourself."
Since then, she's written and received a response from every U.S. president except John F. Kennedy. But that's just the beginning. Among the many figures Smith has written are Rosa Parks, Helen Keller, Ernest Hemingway, Robert Frost, Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel), Queen Elizabeth II and a bevy of celebrities such as Tom Hanks, Katherine Hepburn and Bill Cosby.
Not every person returns correspondence. But that's not important. She doesn't write to collect famous signatures. On the contrary, Smith writes on plain paper, can't recall the size of her collection and stuffs her returns inside books.
She does it for the emotional pleasure, to express gratitude, to vent.
"She's a very sprightly, forthright woman," said Jerry Culpepper, owner of Culpepper Books in Proctor and a friend of Smith the last five years. "(Writing letters) is her way of expressing her philosophy and beliefs of today."
Smith describes herself as a strong Democrat. Since the beginning of the fighting in Iraq, she's added writing a letter to President Bush -- which she addresses to King George II -- to her ritual.
"I write him about the Constitution, Geneva Conventions and United Nations," she said. "I'm never threatening. I write him in respect to where I see him not ethically following the desire of the people of our country."
One president she does respect is Jimmy Carter, whom she writes often about his work with Habitat for Humanity and similar enterprises.
Smith said she dreams of having had the chance to write to Thomas Jefferson.
One of her favorite responses is from Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust survivor and author of "Night," who thanked her for the "warmth of her words."
She wrote Fidel Castro after the Bay of Pigs invasion about the importance of the United States making "true allies" in the Western hemisphere.
Smith's letters are part of the curriculum for the third-grade classes she teaches at Saltar's Point Elementary. She has her students write during catastrophes such as Hurricane Katrina.
"We corresponded with another third-grade class and asked what we could do to help," Smith said. "Because of my third-graders, we've gathered curriculum and student supplies that are being shipped to the Ninth Ward in early August.
"Letters really give human beings the potential for reaching out beyond themselves."
Joseph Montes: 253-552-7091
joseph.montes@thenewstribune.com
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Copyright (c) 2006, The News Tribune, Tacoma, Wash.
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