Yesterday at Sweet Melissa’s, I was eavesdropping (I might as well just come out and say it).

OSFO was doing her homework and I was listening to snippets of conversation at another table.

So sue me.

Anyway. A nice young man, Daniel Eppelbaum, a student in the seventh grade at Brooklyn Friends, was drinking Earl Gray tea and eating a scone waiting to go to his choral practice.

Already impressive.

His mother handed him an envelope. "Do you have an letter opener," he asked. She didn’t so he carefully opened it with a knife.

"Oh it’s a response to the letter I sent him," he said.

My interest was piqued. Who was "he"?

"He" was our Borough President, Marty Markowitz. And this young man had written him a letter about something that bothers him a lot.

At this point, I was talking directly to Daniel and his mother. I apologized for eavesdropping and I came right out and said: tell me more.

At Brooklyn Friends, they encourage kids to be community minded. So Daniel decided write a letter to complain about the infrequency of the B67
bus — especially when he’s coming home from school at 6 p.m.

"Sometimes I have to wait twenty minutes for the bus to come," he said. His mother concurred. "He’s tired. He’s got this heavy backpack. It’s hard at the end of the day."

Well, Marty Markowitz wrote back. He said he was going to follow up on it — and speak to the muckity muck who’s in charge of the B67 bus. But first, he wants Daniel to get back to him on the exact details of which bus and what times he rides the bus.

Daniel has probably already written back—he seems like a really responsible kid. I’m curious how this is going to play out. What will Marty do after he gets Daniel’s second letter? Will he make this a top priority? Will he get in touch with Daniel again?

STAY TUNED TO OTBKB FOR MORE ON CITIZEN-7TH GRADER.

I for one hope Daniel’s letter gets results. I think that we have to wait WAY too long for that Seventh Avenue bus. So I am going to stay on this story.

Daniel said that he wrote two letters to George W. Bush in order to complain about his policies in Iraq and all he got was a photograph of George and Laura with their autographs.

He is obviously a big believer in writing letters to public officials and newspaper editors. 

He comes by it honestly, his mother said. "It’s something the people in my family do," She herself has had two letters to the editor published in the
New York Times.

Impressive. 

If anyone who reads this knows Daniel can you tell me if I’ve spelled his last name right. Also, tell him to get in touch. I’d love to publish the correspondance. louise_crawford@yahoo.com