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Bieber-Inspired 9/11 Victim's Daughter Inspired President Obama
By
Ben Yakas
Published May 7, 2011
Modified May 8, 2011
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By
Ben Yakas
Published May 7, 2011
Modified May 8, 2011
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This week when President Obama visited Ground Zero, he met with 14-year-old Payton Wall; Wall had written a letter to the President about her father, who was killed on 9/11, and how she had been inspired to share her story by our favorite cyborg Christian pop star, Justin Bieber. And this morning, the President related her moving story while speaking to troops at Fort Campbell. By the transitive properties of inspirational stories, does that mean that President Obama is now a Belieber?
Here's an excerpt from that speech:
Now, this week I received a letter from a girl in New Jersey named Payton Wall. She wrote to me on Monday after the news that bin Laden had been killed, and she explained how she still remembers that September morning almost 10 years ago. She was only four years old.
Her father, Glen, was trapped inside the World Trade Center. And so, in those final, frantic moments, knowing he might not make it, he called home. And Payton remembers watching her mom sobbing as she spoke to her husband and then passed the phone to Payton. And in words that were hard to hear but which she's never forgotten, he said to her, "I love you Payton, and I will always be watching over you.
Wall, who lives in Rumson, NJ, opened up about her 1,500-word letter to the President to the Post. She noted that she and her friend Madison Robertson, who also lost her father on 9/11, were inspired to tell their stories after seeing Bieber's movie Never Say Never: "We were so amazed by his story and how he never said never. It inspired us to believe in our selves and share our story to encourage others." She actually tried contacting Bieber first, through Twitter, but when he didn't respond, she wrote to the President. The next day, the White House called her mother, Diane, who had no idea about the letter, and invited Payton, her mother and her sister, Avery, to Thursday's ceremony.
When she met him, the President also told her that he "knows Justin" and that he would help arrange a meeting between the two. Wall said she was absolutely thrilled, but "I just don't want it to seem like I only wrote the letter to meet Justin Bieber. I did it to honor my father. My father is the reason that we all came together today. I miss and love him and don't go a day without thinking about him."
Tagged
9/11
ground zero
inspiration
justin bieber
payton wall
president obama
White House
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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