Mining diamonds in Islington with Michelle Obama
“Blimey, are you listening to Obama’s missus?” Lol missed the usual pleasantries.
“Trying to, but someone’s on the phone spoiling it.” I was and he was.
“Soz mate, I’ll shut the fuck up, shall I?” He took my silence as the affirmative it was meant to be. For the next three minutes we both sat there, either end of a phone line, not saying anything, but meaning everything. When she’d finished my lip was trembling, and I couldn’t say anything anyway. The sharp intake of breath with a slight terminal shudder coming from the Westminster end of our line told me I was not alone in this respect.
Few politicians, if any, can inspire me to an emotional response with their words. I get the occasional flicker of anger, but even then it subsides quickly, replaced by a weariness borne out of several decades of despair. Even fewer politician’s wives can evoke any kind of response at all. Michelle Obama is different though.
Her powerful speech to Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School in Islington took my breath away. The sheer passion, and emotion evident in her voice, the message her words conveyed and the response she had from her largely teenage audience, all spoke of a woman who not only believed what she was saying, but knew how to say it and not just to the hundred or so youngsters in her immediate audience. Her voice broke too as she referred to the girls as “diamonds”, my heart broke at the same time because I knew, I knew exactly what she was saying. Better still, anyone watching now knows about those hidden diamonds, just waiting to be discovered and polished.
The real Michelle according to Google
“If you want to know the reason why I am standing here, it’s because of education,” she told them.
“I never cut class. I loved getting As, I liked being smart. I liked being on time. I thought being smart is cooler than anything in the world. You, too, with these values, can control your own destiny. You, too, can pave the way.”
“For nothing in my life ever would have predicted that I would be standing here as the first African-American First Lady. I was not raised with wealth or resources or any social standing to speak of. I was raised on the South Side of Chicago — that’s the real part of Chicago.”
The message Michelle conveys is one of hope, the same message her husband offers. So, what did the BBC lead on today? Hope for world through the Obama route to deliverance? How Michelle Obama inspired a group of schoolchildren to see education as the route to success? No, aunty led on her fashion sense, as did most of the media. The message was secondary, and in one case – Fox News; derided. Determined to redress the balance in my small way, I started to research a blog piece about Michelle.
I got this (above) from Google. All I can say is: it’s a good job I don’t believe in conspiracies.
I’m sold on the Obama dream in a way I never bought from Blair, or Clinton. There’s a sincerity and feeling of truth about these two that almost seems to transcend ordinary politics. Anyway, I’ve bought a ticket for the ride: one way, to the end of the line. Let’s go.
