US President Barack Obama, responding to the request of an 8-year-old girl from Flint, Michigan, will travel there in a week to talk to residents concerned about the high level of lead contamination in their water.
Mari Copeny, who acquired the nickname Little Miss Flint for her vocal activism on the issue of lead exposure, wrote to Obama last month when she was preparing to come to Washinton to watch Michigan Governor Rick Snyder testify before the House Oversight Committee on his state's handling of the issue.
Snyder, as well as the state's Department of Environmental Quality and the federal Environmental Protection Agency, have come under fire for not acting sooner to limit lead contamination coming from the city's aging pipe system.
"I know this is probably an odd request but I would love for a chance to meet you or your wife," Mari wrote. "My mom said chances are you will be too busy with more important things, but there is a lot of people coming on these buses and even just a meeting from you or your wife would really lift people's spirits."
Obama responded in a letter on Tuesday, which the White House posted today on the site Medium. He noted that she was "right that Presidents are often busy, but the truth is, in America, no title is more important than citizen."