One day my son noted the very strange phrase on the back of the United States $1 bill: “E Pluribus Unum.” I explained this in an ancient language called Latin and it translates into English as “From many, one.” This represents the joining of many small countries called states into the very large one we know as the United States – united meaning together. I then explained we live in North Carolina and although we all speak the same language and call ourselves Americans, this state has a history and ways of doing things distinct from a place like Hawai’i where my family comes from. And even within the states, there are smaller places called counties where people live similarly, but maybe a little differently than their neighbors. It was then he became interested in maps and would spend time looking for all fifty of the united states.
In this batch of letters, each went to a governor, and one of the heads of the three branches of government that comprise of the governance structure of the federal system: the Executive, the bi-cameral Legislative (House of Representatives and Senate), and Judicial. When talking about our federal-style government, I explained to my son, no one branch is more important than the other and each has a distinct role to play – with the citizens as the umpire. My son liked that final thought.
The responses from 2019 were few, but remarkable. In 2022, we sent letters to the new President and Vice President.
| Federal/State | Federal role/Governor |
| United States (Federal) | President – Joseph Biden |
| United States (Federal) | President – Donald Trump (2019, no response) |
| United States (Federal) | Vice President – Kamala Harris |
| United States (Federal) | Speaker of the House – Nancy Pelosi |
| United States (Federal) | Senate Majority Leader – Mitch McConnell |
| United States (Federal) | Senate Minority Leader – Chuck Schumer |
| United States (Federal) | Chief Justice – John Roberts |
| ★ Alabama | Kay Ivey |
| ★ Alaska | Mike Dunleavy |
| ★ Arizona | Doug Ducey |
| Arkansas | Asa Hutchinson |
| California | Gavin Newsom |
| Colorado | Jared Polis |
| Connecticut | Ned Lamont |
| Delaware | John Carney |
| Florida | Ron DeSantis |
| ★ Georgia | Brian Kemp |
| Hawaii | David Ige |
| Idaho | Brad Little |
| Illinois | J. B. Pritzker |
| Indiana | Eric Holcomb |
| Iowa | Kim Reynolds |
| Kansas | Laura Kelly |
| Kentucky | Matt Bevin |
| Louisiana | John Bel Edwards |
| Maine | Janet Mills |
| ★ Maryland | Larry Hogan |
| ★ Massachusetts | Charlie Baker |
| Michigan | Gretchen Whitmer |
| Minnesota | Tim Walz |
| Mississippi | Phil Bryant |
| Missouri | Mike Parson |
| Montana | Steve Bullock |
| Nebraska | Pete Ricketts |
| Nevada | Steve Sisolak |
| New Hampshire | Chris Sununu |
| New Jersey | Phil Murphy |
| New Mexico | Michelle Lujan Grisham |
| New York | Andrew Cuomo |
| North Carolina | Roy Cooper |
| North Dakota | Doug Burgum |
| Ohio | Mike DeWine |
| Oklahoma | Kevin Stitt |
| Oregon | Kate Brown |
| Pennsylvania | Tom Wolf |
| Rhode Island | Gina Raimondo |
| South Carolina | Henry McMaster |
| South Dakota | Kristi Noem |
| Tennessee | Bill Lee |
| Texas | Greg Abbott |
| ★ Utah | Gary Herbert |
| Vermont | Phil Scott |
| Virginia | Ralph Northam |
| Washington | Jay Inslee |
| West Virginia | Jim Justice |
| ★ Wisconsin | Tony Evers |
| Wyoming | Mark Gordon |