Obama Promises Justin Bieber Meeting for Young 9/11 Family Member

(The Wall Street Journal) - After laying a wreath Thursday at the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan, President Barack Obama lingered to talk with several people who lost family members in the 9/11 attacks.
Among them was 14-year-old Payton Hall, who had written the president a letter about her father, Glen James Wall, who was killed in the Trade Center attacks.
Each day, White House staff give the president 10 letters from the public to read on a variety of topics, and on Monday, Payton's was in the batch.

The White House invited Payton to attend the 9/11 event Thursday -- only to learn that her mother had no clue that her daughter had written the letter. Nonetheless, Payton turned up, along with her mother, Diane; 12-year-old sister, Avery; and a friend, Madison Robertson, who also lost her father that day.
All four stood behind Obama during the moment of silence.
In her letter, Payton said, she wrote about "the entire day [of Sept. 11, 2001] and how I pictured it happening, and what it's like to have to live without a father."
But when she met Obama, Payton said she and the president talked about another aspect of the letter: how she had originally written it for singer Justin Bieber, hoping to meet him. She decided on a whim to revise it and send it to the White House, even though her sister teased that the president would never read it.
As for the letter, Payton explained, "I wrote to Obama about how Justin Bieber inspired me to tell my story."
The president offered comfort, but even better, he promised to pull some strings and make sure she meets the Canadian teen sensation the next time he's in town.