urbanmennonite.com

Someday, a wife of a man running for President will get up in front of America and not have to talk about herself primarily as a mother, as a daughter, as a wife.   She will be able to talk about Princeton and Harvard Law School without having to reference her humble roots as a corrective.  She can proudly list her accomplishments including a stint as a high-power attorney and then as an executive in a major health care system without worrying about the thousands of “normal” people she is alienating.  And she won’t have to worry that a dislike of her equals a vote against her husband.

In my obviously naive college years, I thought that Hillary Clinton would be the last time a potential First Lady would have to trot out the “I as woman am only defined successfully by my interactions with children, parents and spouses.”  Think about how much should have changed in 20 years!  Oh, innocence.  How pathetically cute you are when you die.

Having said that — were those girls adorable or what!

Michelle Obama’s main goals with last night’s speech were to make herself not be scary, make Obama be not a foreign Muslim terrorist and to posit herself as American as every other (white, middle class) mother and wife. The general reaction was that she got it done.  How you reacted had a lot to do with who you were and what your own realities are but there were definitely some high points.

And Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values: that you work hard for what you want in life; that your word is your bond and you do what you say you’re going to do; that you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you don’t know them, and even if you don’t agree with them.

Sure, some jokes fell flat and there were times when she seemed less than comfortable.  There was the obligatory God Bless America (please, please retire this). And we can probably start some sort of drinking game with the South Side of Chicago phrase.

But she mentioned the people person that she needed to mention; she touched on race and gender; she linked the words change and hope to Obama and she reiterated, time and time again, that they were an American story.

I stand here today at the crosscurrents of that history — knowing that my piece of the American dream is a blessing hard won by those who came before me. All of them driven by the same conviction that drove my dad to get up an hour early each day to painstakingly dress himself for work. The same conviction that drives the men and women I’ve met all across this country:

People who work the day shift, kiss their kids goodnight, and head out for the night shift — without disappointment, without regret — that goodnight kiss a reminder of everything they’re working for.

The military families who say grace each night with an empty seat at the table. The servicemen and women who love this country so much, they leave those they love most to defend it.

The young people across America serving our communities — teaching children, cleaning up neighborhoods, caring for the least among us each and every day. …

All of us driven by a simple belief that the world as it is just won’t do — that we have an obligation to fight for the world as it should be.

That is the thread that connects our hearts. That is the thread that runs through my journey and Barack’s journey and so many other improbable journeys that have brought us here tonight, where the current of history meets this new tide of hope.