It
makes some of us sad when we hear ridiculous comments that the
Honorable First Lady Michelle Obama “doesn’t act like a First
Lady.” In other words, she doesn’t act like royalty, that she
acts “common” that she has been seen in shorts with muscular arms
– the result of rigorous exercise, and fraternizing with common
folk.
Of
course, Mrs. Obama is not Mrs. Kennedy, Mrs. Reagan, or Mrs. Clinton,
for that matter. She exhibits what she is: a middle class woman from
the south side Chicago, who lived in a one-bedroom apartment, studied
hard and obtained government financial aid. A woman who the went to
Princeton and Harvard, became an attorney and served as a mentor for
Barack Obama and later married him.
Both
the First Lady and the President rose from incredibly ordinary
beginnings. Born to a pump worker at the City of Chicago Water
Plant and a secretary of Spiegel Catalog Store,
Michelle grew up as an ordinary, simple young woman living in a
one-bedroom apartment on the top floor of a classic Chicago brick
bungalow. Her bedroom was actually the apartment's living room,
which, for a while, had been converted with a divider down the
middle, allowing her to share it with her brother.
The
President also hails from humble origins. He was not born of famous
people who had gained high military or political honors. His father
was not the endower of the Exalted University sitting on its Board.
He had no European nannies for him, no privileged status, no fineries
of clothing. This commander in chief of the most powerful armed
forces of the world didn’t grow up in estates or palaces with
marble floors, fine tapestries and gilded domes, acres of polo
playgrounds, hundreds of Arabians, French chefs in the vast kitchens
and harem girls to pamper him. In fact, when he was a child in the
State of Washington, for a while his mother had to live on food
stamps.
How
much more ordinary can you get and what a saga of conquering
environments which some may consider blighted.
But
herein lay the marvels of democracy, the great equalizer, and the
American way.
And
now, it is good that we have a fresh breeze in the White House, and a
hard-working campaigner, a person who cares for the poor and the
middle class. She has a ready smile for the common folks, the
elementary school students, and whoever she comes in contact with.
Mrs.
Obama is a phenomenon. Barack Obama has called Michelle “the
most quintessentially American woman I know.” The world press
called her a “firebrand” when she was in the 2008 campaign trail.
She is a powerful speaker, an astute analyst, and one on whom the
President has always relied heavily in campaign and in office. “Long
before there was a Barack Obama, there was a Michelle Robinson who
was a star in her own right,” said a classmate of hers at Harvard.
Even though she is a “homely,” unassuming person, the French said
she reminded them of Jackie Kennedy.
Consider
the opposite. Suppose all of a sudden she changes and goes about with
regal bearing, up-turned nose, with a retinue of assistants and body
guards, always wearing expensive, high fashion clothes. Some may like
it. The photographers will have field day.
But
there will be others who would say, “Look at that woman! What a put
on! Don’t we know where she is from? South side Chicago? And how
can we forget that she is a great, great, grand-daughter of slaves?
We
admire Mrs. Obama just as she is -- a smart, talented woman and role
model.
