In 1970 Joel Lipton was a fifth-grade student at Hawthorne School in Beverly Hills, CA. His class was assigned to write a letter to someone they admired, asking them what makes a good citizen. 10 year-old Joel wrote to Peanuts cartoonist Charles Schulz.

Earlier this year he and his wife were cleaning out a closet and he stumbled upon the letter Schultz wrote to him. It is heartbreakingly poignant today.

ARTICLE: Charles Schulz's Letter About Democracy, Discovered 50 Years Later