WHY I WILL ALWAYS LOVE MICHELLE AND BARACK OBAMA
“America, hope is making a comeback.” Michelle Obama said those words, but that was the message both of the Obamas delivered tonight.
I’m not religious, but I believe in saints. Not the way the Catholic Church means, and I doubt their list and mine have much overlap - though when it comes to Captain Father Emil Kapaun, sainted by the Church for living exactly the kind of life I mean when I use the term, in the worst of circumstances in North Korea during the Korean War, Papa Frankie and I are on the exact same page.
The people I consider saints are the ones who live their lives in close touch with their beliefs, and what they do shows the rest of us what is possible, that you can be the person you’d like to be.
I’ve known a few.
I’ll never forget, back in 2016, when I was working on one of my books on the Korean War, “MiG Alley,” a fighter pilot I interviewed gave me the contact information for another fighter pilot veteran of that war, Jim Thompson. He was a very good interview, because he had a very clear-eyed view of the way things were done in the squadrons; not being an ace, his ego wasn’t tied up in the story. And then, at the end of the interview, I asked him how he became a minister after being a combat fighter pilot.
And then I got The Interview, the story of Reverend James Thompson, the only white minister in Alabama who worked with Martin Luther King Jr. on the Montgomery Bus Boycott the year he graduated from seminary, who became one of the leaders of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. I asked one question in the interview, what had made him do that? “Because it was clear to me that Martin Luther King was trying to make the ideals that led me to join the Air Force a reality.”
I’ve heard variations of those words from every one of the saints I’ve met.
Barack Obama’s 2004 speech at the Democratic Convention is hopelessly naive and idealistic, and it’s certainly easy to see over the 20 years since he gave that speech how far we are from anything even remotely connected to his vision of this country and the people who live here really are.
But damn, I’d love to live in that country. We all would.
When I think about it, the desire to live in that America - to move toward that goal - has been why I have done most everything I have done politically in my life.
Barack and Michelle Obama are and have been the best advocates for achieving that America I’ve known of in my life. And tonight they proved they still are.
Michelle went on to say:
“No one has a monopoly on what it means to be an American. No one.”
“Trump’s limited narrow view of the world made him feel threatened by the existence of two hard-working highly educated successful people, who happened to be Black.”
“Who’s gonna tell him that the job he’s currently seeking, might just be one of those “Black jobs?”
Barack said :
“We shouldn't be the world's policeman, and we cannot eradicate every cruelty and injustice in the world, but America can be and must be a force for good, discouraging conflict, fighting disease, promoting human rights, protecting the planet, defending freedom.”
It’s hard to believe that it’s only been 29 days since Joe Biden told us he wasn’t going to continue his re-election campaign and endorsed Kamala Harris as his successor.
These have been a revolutionary 29 days - it’s not even a whole month yet! - we’ve been living through something never seen before. Anywhere. We’re in a revolution where there isn’t enough time for the ideals that lead ordinary people to join a revolution get corrupted and overthrown by those who see the revolutionary moment as the time to take power. If this revolution succeeds on November 5, it will be the only time in history such a revolution has succeeded.
We all have the opportunity right now to act like Reverend James Thompson did 70 years ago.
And we can do worse than aspire to be the America Barack and Michelle, and everyone else who’s spoken this week, has pointed to.
As Michelle said, we can achieve the America our ancestors came here to create.
We just have to believe in it and work for it.
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Love your final blurb. Canceled mine two months ago. I feared that Obama would be murdered in office. The hatred was out and proud in Texas. The secret service was on the job then. I have a feeling that the tale will be told someday. But, back to the point. They are the real deal. What you see is what you get. Ideals that any lighter skinned person would be proud to own. It’s still amazing to me that so many people haven’t figured out that melanin is just skin deep. Weird that so many palefaces try to darken theirs in tanning beds and such. Damn, no logic no where.
Both Obama’s are evidence that the best of us can be tan. The presidency can now be a “black job.” A female job ( probably thanks in large part to Rosie the Riveter). My admiration for both is that they have had to work twice as hard as a white person to get where they are. That is after they got to the starting line. There were/are plenty of obstacles that deter people of color just getting to the starting line. The vitriol spewed by so many, especially the orange menace, was and is unconscionable. Orange will never be the new black. But black may be the new equal. Way past time.
You have seen a lot, Tom, and you share it well. I sat transfixed last night and tonight. I think the "Brat Pack"article you shared yesterday realy points to the nature of the revolution we are witnessing/ being part of. Right down to the DJ tonight. I don't need to name any speaker. You all saw and heard them. I was blown away by so many of the younger ones, women of color mostly. If this is our future, I hope I live long enough to be part of it.