As I watched HardBall on MSNBC tonight Rep. Michelle Bachman was on quoting Michelle Obama when she said “For the first time she is proud of her country.” This line has been drilled into our collective consciousness by the Republicans during this campaign. The sad part is that when you hear this you don’t seem to understand what she means by this statement.
America is a great place in theory, hell I will go so far to say that America is a great place in practice (having never lived anywhere else) but she is far from perfect. Eric posted a piece a few days ago that I had to take a whole day to respond to. It didn’t anger me it caused me to have to sit and think and answer the questions he was asking, if you have not read it and my response you should.
America, this great land of mine, is full of freedoms and liberties. But those liberties didn’t come easy and they were not just given they were fought for. The Native American has been given a number of concessions because they were here first, and there land was taken. And they fought back! Blacks were brought here to be cheap labor and were seen as less than human (at a few points in history) but felt they were entitled to the America they helped to build. And they fought back. Women were not seen as equals in this country, they were not allowed to vote or work or educate themselves as men where. And they fought back.
Sadily it seems as though this country is only ripe for change when people make enough noise or draw enough attention to their plight. Bill Ayers bombed building and killed people, I don’t agree with his actions BUT I understand his need to bring the noise. Nat Turner was an escaped slave who killed slave owners and slave masters and built an army to free his people. Again, not big on the killing people, but who is to say how I would have felt 300 years ago. Stonewall riots, Iowa Cow wars, Boston Bread Riots, The Days of Rage. These were just a few examples off the top of my hand were people stood up and people died and change was effected.
So yes, Michelle Obama is proud of her country, because for the firs time in a history that is documented, a person of color had been put out there to run for the highest office in the land and beat someone everyone thought was a shoe in belonging to a national party. America was acting like America…and for her and for me and for many many people of all colors, it was GRAND!
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