Thoughts on Becoming

"I have become, by certain measures, a person of power, and yet there are moments still when I feel insecure or unheard. It's all a process, steps along a path. Becoming requires equal parts patience and rigor. Becoming is never giving up on the idea that there's more growing to be done." 

- Michelle Obama

Reading Michelle Obama's memoir is a reminder of the possibilities of this country. Her life story and her role as First Lady remind us of aspects of our nation that we should embrace and uphold: diversity, love, community, family, and the importance of hard work and courage. The initiatives she supported and spread through hard work and dedication made important impacts including encouraging and educating young people about how to eat right and exercise, helping to keep the obesity rate among children from increasing. She and her husband also raised billions of dollars to help educate young women in many other countries struggling from sexist traditions and limitations on women. Overall, both Obamas helped give voice to the voiceless, upended the status quo that tended to demoralize people of color and all minorities, worked with compassion and sincerity to help lead this nation.

And where are we now in 2020? What are we becoming? It is hard to see hope in the current path our nation is on now. With around 3.9 million confirmed cases of COVID-19, the numbers starkly rising in many states, the US is one of the top 10 nations with the worst outbreaks; this is not a position to be vying for. How is our nation so divided in its control of this virus? How did medical science and mask wearing become a political statement? How is state's access to federal funding based on the president's subjective favoritism?

The wounds and trauma of this pandemic are worsened by the hateful rhetoric of the POTUS, by his belittling and condescending tone toward all people who do not think like him. Where has dignity gone? It seems like it was forced out in 2017.

With this presidency, our nation's progress toward unity and collective democracy has been hindered by racist, white supremacist vitriol, a reality that has plagued our country for centuries. However, the nationwide and world wide protests against racism and unfair policing have proved that important cultural shifts are occurring and galvanizing citizens to uphold and fight for a true democracy that represents all beings justly. As we near the presidential election in November, there is hope that more people will be empowered to vote, that voters will begin voting for the greater good of our nation rather than their individual biases, that the majority of our people will help oust a tyrannical, hateful, self-serving, unethical person from the White House.

The America we need to become is one of acceptance and justice for all, regardless of race or income. This is a process that will need to continue for generations. As Frederick Douglass once stated,
          If we ever get free
          from the oppressions and wrong heaped on us,
          we must pay for their removal.
          We must do this
          by labor,
          by suffering,
          by sacrifice,
          and if needs be
          by our lives and the lives of others.
Our progress will not be easy and will continue for a long time. But there is hope we will move toward a more united nation, free from the shackles of racism and division. We should be united in our fight against this pandemic, united in our fight for a healthier world. If we work together free from barriers and political walls, we will help ease one another's suffering, and our collective sacrifices will help bring back dignity and love to this land.

To connect back to Michelle Obama's Becoming, reading this book has been refreshing, restoring my faith in this country, helping me find a connection, however small, to what it means to be American. To me, this means rising above society's limited expectations, unfair assumptions, stereotypes, and with the support of family, finding your own way to contribute to the world. Her story asserts that all our voices need to be heard and accepted into the quilt of this nation. She is an ordinary person who was placed in an extraordinary position of the first African-American First Lady which carried countless responsibilities and incessant demands. Her invitation is important: "Let's invite one another in. Maybe then we can begin to fear less, to make fewer wrong assumptions, to let go of the biases and stereotypes that unnecessarily divide us." This book was published two years ago though these principles are even more essential today. We must commit to this process, vote out racist, divisive politicians, put power in the positive, and continue to struggle for progress.