Dear Mr. President Students Write Postcards to Obama Regarding the Defense of Marriage Act

By Yasmin Tadjdeh, Asst. News Editor

With Washington, D.C. right around the corner, George Mason University students are signing, sealing and delivering their postcards to the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue.

This Thursday, Mason students will be hosting the Postcards to the President Card-A-Thon.

“Postcards to the President is a non-profit group started in L.A. after Prop 8,” said Quincey Smith, junior communication major and a member of the organizing group for Postcards to the President at Mason.

“The goal for the group is to send 20,000 postcards to the president by the end of 2009. The group relies on other activists around the nation to collect postcards and have them send them to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. While one postcard might not seem important, 20,000 postcards can definitely say something.”

“[Postcards to the President] is basically a get-out-the-voice campaign for Mason students to ask President Barack Obama to repeal DOMA [the Defense of Marriage Act],” said Smith.

“Students can participate by filling out a postcard that we will provide . . . Our group is hoping to have as many individuals as we can to get their voices heard by simply writing a simple postcard. We have a goal of collecting 100, but I am sure that we can surpass that by a substantial amount.”

According to www.domawatch.org, “The DOMA defines marriage as a legal union between one man and one woman for purposes of all federal laws, and provides that states need not recognize a marriage from another state if it is between persons of the same sex.”

The event, which is being put on by students in the Principles of Public Relations class, will be in the Johnson Center from 9:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. and in Southside from 1:30 to about 6 p.m on Thursday.

Students wishing to help volunteer with the event can contact Smith at qsmith1@gmu.edu and can find more information at Postcards to the President’s website, www.postcardstothepresident.com