resident Barack Obama was not the only one under attack after returning from his Asian trip. It appears that a highly coordinated smear campaign is also being directed against Michelle Obama. First, mainstream news reports have criticized the First Lady for no longer reaching out to people who are not a part of her "inner circle." They also allege that she is defensive and often keeps to herself. Second, it was leaked that Sarah Palin's new book slams Michelle Obama for her statements during the 2008 election in expressing how proud she was of her country because it felt like hope was making a comeback. (On another occasion, she said, "For the first time in my adult lifetime, I'm really proud of my country, and not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change.")
One must ask if the recent attacks against Michelle Obama are due to her inspiring, cooperative and inclusive message while in Asia. Not only did she visit Asia's largest mosque in Indonesia, the Istiqlal Mosque, but everywhere she went she spoke of peace and religious toleration. While in Mumbai, Michelle Obama danced, sang and played vocabulary games with children from the Indian charity Make a Difference that services orphans and runaways and economically disadvantaged youth. After forming a circle where she played the tambourine, she talked about the importance of education and setting goals. When she invited questions, one child exclaimed that meeting the First Lady of the U.S. was like a dream come true. Michelle Obama replied: "No, you are my dream come true!"
As First Lady, Michelle Obama has taken up many causes within the United States. She has advocated for continued diversity in public education and supports organic gardening and buying organic food, including pursuing a more healthy lifestyle and addressing the sensitive issue of childhood obesity. She has visited numerous homeless shelters and soup kitchens, and continually encourages citizens to commit to some type of national or community service. She has shown a deep concern for veterans and have been a campaigner in assisting military families with certain needs. Not only has Michelle Obama been an outspoken proponent for pay equity laws, but she has attended meetings focusing on improving balancing parenting and a career.
As First Lady, Michelle Obama's global inclusiveness, intelligence, articulation, activism, and role as a mother, is just what the U.S. desperately needs. Since the end of World War II and with the onset of the Cold War, the loss in Vietnam, and the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, many Americans have turned inwards and have tried to find solutions from manipulative, racially biased, and hate-filled media demagogues. Studies have proven that the tender and early love of a mother creates deep reservoirs of self-confidence and courage throughout one's life. Children who are denied physical and social contact and affirmation have difficulty speaking, walking and integrating into groups, let alone working cooperatively. When children experience their mother as being confident, secure and loving, they are more likely explore and become trustworthy and industrious people.
In the 2000 election, another First Lady, this one from Florida, exclaimed: "It's going to be a great four years...eight years! God bless America."(1) Her speech came immediately after hundreds of thousands of Floridians were wrongly disqualified from voting. Others were either illegally purged from voter registrations, or intimidated at road blocks on their way to vote. Still, Al Gore won the popular vote by 539,898. If not for the ruling of the conservative Supreme Court that usurped 154 million votes, a recount or emergency revote in Florida would have revealed or enabled Al Gore to become president. Instead, "compassionate conservatism" has caused numerous genocidal wars, an economic collapse unparalleled since the Great Depression, a shameful increase in economic disparity, and an intolerance, militancy and exclusiveness not experienced since the days of McCarthyism.
When Michelle Obama hosted a town hall meeting with St. Xavier College students in Mumbai, she commented on how wonderful India's cultures and peoples were. After describing her meager upbringing, she told how her parents instilled into her a strong work ethic and the importance of humility and of treating others with dignity and respect. Then, she said the shared responsibilities for building the present and future must be met with education and a reverence for the environment and for the most vulnerable citizens of the world. She also mentioned the importance of healing divisions that too often keep people and nations apart. Michelle Obama concluded by declaring that all children, regardless of their circumstances and where they live, deserve the same chance to get an education and to build productive and meaningful lives.
With deep sorrow and even a sense of shame, one must wonder why the U.S. is one of the few remaining modernized and industrial nations (one could even include emerging countries) of the world that has yet to elect a female head of state. Meanwhile, women who do strive politically are either confined to a "fashion statement" or comparatively demeaned too those who work in the sex industries. Still, women who attempt to lead and initiate beneficial change-like Hillary Rodham Clinton who tried to reform for-profit health care corporations and pharmaceutical monopolies that cause the deaths of forty-thousand Americans each year, including untold misery and suffering for millions who do not have health care benefits-are attacked, derided, ridiculed, and threatened with political suicide.
For one of the first times since the end of World War II, and regarding a nation that has acted sexist, arrogant, belligerent, and which seems to be ignorant and intolerant of other cultures, some Americans are proud of you too Michelle Obama!
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