I am a firm believer in that both your experiences as a child and the choices you make both play integral parts in shaping the human being you will eventually become. For example, I once worked with an older, partially-crippled woman whom to most was known to be, well, a real pain in the rear. Everything had to be done her way and she often came across rude and disrespectful to both customers and co-workers. As I also have at times a “fiery personality”, not apt to being bullied, I felt it best to avoid her. Nearly a year passed working fifty-hour weeks beside her without incident and without much communication at all frankly. One day, I came in to discover her hunched over the table head in hands, obviously distraught. I couldn't’t help but to offer up assistance. Completely out of character, this steely, stern old lady opened up and divulged some truly horrible details of her life beginning with her molestation and rape as a child by her father, and ending with her daughter's disabling diabetes that had just recently resulted in the amputation of her leg. I began to see how her life's events had influenced the person she had become. I felt not only truly regretful for ever thinking that she was a b***h, but I came to really appreciate her life’s struggle and see her as the beautiful, strong and spirited woman that she was. Again and again, I have seen that in order to understand a person’s point of view or to judge their character or motives, some basic knowledge of the individuals background is needed to put their words and demeanor into context. In my journey to gain some political knowledge and be able to make more that a blind interpretation of some candidate’s words about pigs wearing lipstick, I stumbled across a work titled “A Free-Spirited Wanderer Who Set Obama’s Path" in the New York Times. In an attempt to gain some context in which to “judge” the comments of a politician I knew little about I found this particular article fascinating. While some may not find this work to be relevant to pressing political issues, I caution you; to know where someone comes from and what setting they were raised is more telling of their future choices and the context from which their perceptions and priorities are set than you may think.
Thus,the above stated article is a three-page moving account of the life of Barak Obama’s mother Stanley Ann Dunham Soetoro and the influences she had on the young presidential candidate told not exclusively by an uninterested columnist, but mostly in the words of those who knew her best. It can be said indefinitely that she was not a conventional sort of gal, but a trail blazing, intelligent, free spirited strong woman who raised the man many are enthusiastically standing behind as the leader of this great country. Ms. Soetoro was remembered to be “unusually intelligent, curious and open”. She “worked for the Ford Foundation, championed women’s work”, went to school and wrote an “800 page dissertation on peasant blacksmithing in Java”, all the while raising young Barak. The article goes on to state that Stanley Ann “brought home recordings of Mahalia Jackson, [and] speeches by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.” Mr. Obama’s half-sister Maya stated that “ her philosophy of life [was]— to not be limited by fear or narrow definitions, to not build walls around ourselves and to do our best to find kinship and beauty in unexpected places.” In said article it was pointed out that, in Obama’s memoirs he stated how "his biggest mistake was not being at her bedside when she died,” and when “The Associated Press asked the candidates about “prized keepsakes” — others mentioned signed baseballs, a pocket watch, a “trophy wife” — Mr. Obama said his was a photograph of the cliffs of the South Shore of Oahu in Hawaii where his mother’s ashes were scattered.” It was said in Obama’s memoirs that “ she was the kindest, most generous spirit I have ever known, and that what is best in me I owe to her.” I believe this article is worth the few minutes it takes to read, and who knows, maybe my next blog will be about an unknown and fascinating side of Mr. McCain or Mrs. Palin.
Thus,the above stated article is a three-page moving account of the life of Barak Obama’s mother Stanley Ann Dunham Soetoro and the influences she had on the young presidential candidate told not exclusively by an uninterested columnist, but mostly in the words of those who knew her best. It can be said indefinitely that she was not a conventional sort of gal, but a trail blazing, intelligent, free spirited strong woman who raised the man many are enthusiastically standing behind as the leader of this great country. Ms. Soetoro was remembered to be “unusually intelligent, curious and open”. She “worked for the Ford Foundation, championed women’s work”, went to school and wrote an “800 page dissertation on peasant blacksmithing in Java”, all the while raising young Barak. The article goes on to state that Stanley Ann “brought home recordings of Mahalia Jackson, [and] speeches by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.” Mr. Obama’s half-sister Maya stated that “ her philosophy of life [was]— to not be limited by fear or narrow definitions, to not build walls around ourselves and to do our best to find kinship and beauty in unexpected places.” In said article it was pointed out that, in Obama’s memoirs he stated how "his biggest mistake was not being at her bedside when she died,” and when “The Associated Press asked the candidates about “prized keepsakes” — others mentioned signed baseballs, a pocket watch, a “trophy wife” — Mr. Obama said his was a photograph of the cliffs of the South Shore of Oahu in Hawaii where his mother’s ashes were scattered.” It was said in Obama’s memoirs that “ she was the kindest, most generous spirit I have ever known, and that what is best in me I owe to her.” I believe this article is worth the few minutes it takes to read, and who knows, maybe my next blog will be about an unknown and fascinating side of Mr. McCain or Mrs. Palin.
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