If you read my last entry, you’re aware of the powerful impact my mother had on me and my three sisters. She was truly an amazing woman. I’m still awe-struck by just how smart and perceptive she was. She had a way of seeing things not as they were but the way they would become. She was one of the first people that I ever heard discuss the attributes of Barack Obama. This was long before he became president, years before becoming a senator from Illinois, and sometime before he ever gave that gripping speech at the democratic convention. She saw him as a man of character, full of integrity. She spent time researching his background long before his book “Dreams of My Father” was ever released. She was quick to say “He’s not a saint but he’s an honest man and can be trusted.” Not long after he became an Illinois State Senator, she started to comment about him as a man, a husband, and a father. At the time, I had no idea who he was or what he stood for, but she did. It wasn’t until he was elected US Senator from Illinois that I started to notice him. When he gave that impassioned speech at the democratic convention in 2004, my mother told me that Barack Obama would become the President of the United States. My mother died on October 27, 2013 at the age of 93. But she lived to see her prediction come true. She voted for him twice and witnessed his historic inauguration. But her decision to believe in Barack Obama was not political. She believed in him based on his character, his conduct, and his integrity.
She once remarked about his character. She said “John, character is one of the attributes that distinguishes an individual. Trust me, Barack Obama has character.” She would comment about how he paid close attention to his wife. He placed her first. It is well documented that he regularly asked her opinion about his life, and especially his political life. My mother appreciated this aspect and repeatedly told me that I should model my behavior after this attribute of his. I can’t say that I always followed this but it was well worth considering. She said that the best way to determine how well he paid attention to this detail was by asking his wife Michelle. I decided to find out what the President’s wife had to say on the subject. I found a speech she gave back on October 12th of 2012 in Fountain, Colorado. Michelle said “I love talking about my husband. He's handsome and smart, she said, but I married him for his character — his compassion and decency. He treated the women in his family, me, his mother, and grandmother, with great respect and tenderness.” Wow, I was impressed by that and how it was right in line with what my mother said.
My mother also stressed the importance of integrity, and again used Barack Obama as an example. She said “Integrity is what you do when no one is looking.’ I thought long and hard about that definition and, in the end, I agreed with her. She detailed all of the integrity challenges of Mr. Obama’s predecessors. There have been endless stories about their indiscretions both in and out of the White House. Then she said, “In all the years that I have been following him, there has never been an indiscretion of any kind since he’s been married. Every man in America could take a lesson from him.”
A Smart woman, my mother, she gave me a great set of examples to follow based on her life and in the life of Barack Obama.
She once remarked about his character. She said “John, character is one of the attributes that distinguishes an individual. Trust me, Barack Obama has character.” She would comment about how he paid close attention to his wife. He placed her first. It is well documented that he regularly asked her opinion about his life, and especially his political life. My mother appreciated this aspect and repeatedly told me that I should model my behavior after this attribute of his. I can’t say that I always followed this but it was well worth considering. She said that the best way to determine how well he paid attention to this detail was by asking his wife Michelle. I decided to find out what the President’s wife had to say on the subject. I found a speech she gave back on October 12th of 2012 in Fountain, Colorado. Michelle said “I love talking about my husband. He's handsome and smart, she said, but I married him for his character — his compassion and decency. He treated the women in his family, me, his mother, and grandmother, with great respect and tenderness.” Wow, I was impressed by that and how it was right in line with what my mother said.
My mother also stressed the importance of integrity, and again used Barack Obama as an example. She said “Integrity is what you do when no one is looking.’ I thought long and hard about that definition and, in the end, I agreed with her. She detailed all of the integrity challenges of Mr. Obama’s predecessors. There have been endless stories about their indiscretions both in and out of the White House. Then she said, “In all the years that I have been following him, there has never been an indiscretion of any kind since he’s been married. Every man in America could take a lesson from him.”
A Smart woman, my mother, she gave me a great set of examples to follow based on her life and in the life of Barack Obama.
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