Tuesday, January 17, 2017

MICHELLE OBAMA AND US AND WHY SHE SAID 'YES' ON HER BIRTHDAY

FROM THE NEW YORKER
“The reason why I said yes was because I am tired of being afraid,” Michelle Obama told a crowd in Council Bluffs, Iowa, during the State Fair, in August of 2007, explaining why she had signed on to a long-shot campaign to elect her husband, Barack Obama, President of the United States. 
She stood in a middle-school gym, surrounded by a mostly white audience that was only beginning to know her husband and had an even vaguer idea of who she was. The stage was a small, low platform, but Obama, dressed in black pants and T-shirt, with her hair pulled back in a bun, occupied it like a dancer, punctuating her seven-minute address with appealing turns and pauses, as her listeners responded. The decision to run, she said, had not been an easy one, particularly with two young daughters, and as she and her husband discussed it with others she had noticed a common theme. 

“They were afraid,” she said.
  • There was “fear that we might lose.
  • Fear that he might get hurt.
  • Fear that this would be ugly.
  • Fear that it would hurt our family.” "

 Michelle and Barack proved those fears to be wrong 3 out of 4 times because they had most of us at their back. But she felt the fear and moved forward to support her husband's bid to be president anyway.  And she was outstanding at being the first lady.

I can't imagine how much strength and faith it must have taken to attempt to be the first black president in a country where you know the white supremacy reigns.

I'll be reading a biography about her soon. I hope to learn more about what shaped her vulnerabilities and complementary strengths. 


I also hope we get to keep track of how her daughters thrive in this world as a result of being raised by a feminist father and mother. If I've seen a stronger, black two person team than the Obamas, I don't remember them. 

Reading her short online biography, she's always been interested in jobs that give some sort of service. She is a typical black woman in that way.  I can't help but think that her sense of self-worth and high expectations of others must be the key to successes that manage to encompass and benefit others. 


From the magazine that did Michelle pretty dirty in 2007 and 2008, find more
to read on This Awesome Black Woman
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/01/02/michelle-obama-and-us

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