On Thanksgiving, let’s give thanks to Ann Dunham.
We Americans owe her more than most of us will ever know. Her life was monumental in its breadth & depth of interests. If you wish to see her monument, just cast your gaze towards the White House. I’m a momma’s boy, I know momma’s boys, & Barack Obama is a momma’s boy. Thank God.
Ann, thank you for having the courage to blaze your own trail in life. Thank you for having an endless curiosity about the diverse cultures & peoples of the globe. Thank you for not being afraid to understand religions different than the dominant one in your home country. Thank you for sharing the beauty of different cultures & religions with your children. Thank you for being an anthropologist. Thank you for your work on womens’ issues. Thank you for your work on micro-lending to ease the condition of the indigent & marginalized. Thank you for respecting local ways & thinking globally. Thank you for typifying what is best in the American spirit, if not always evident. .
Thank you for being the conscience of your son & daughter. Thank you for instilling in them a joyful interest in the world about them. Thank you for teaching them not to be afraid. Thank you for giving them the skills that they adapt to their own personalities. Thank you for being the better angel of Barack’s nature that will sit on his shoulder in the White House, whispering in his ear, & nagging him to stay true to himself. Whisper, Ann, whisper.
In Obama I hope, & in Ann I trust. Thank you for that trust Ann. I could not have gotten through the primaries or general election without it. And, I know I won’t get through the next eight years without remembering and treasuring it. Like all people, your son won’t always do the right thing. When he does the wrong thing, he’ll know it. You’ll whisper one of your questions into his ear, he’ll smile knowing he did a less than stellar thing, and then try to do better next time. Maybe, just maybe, the little monkey god in his pocket will smile back at him for you.
Thank you Ann for planting a seed whose fruition the world has yet to see the completion of.