"At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us." Albert Schweitzer
June 10, 2015
By: Linda Case Gibbons
If you're living, it's happened to you.
You're feeling okay, then somebody comes along who makes you feel "not okay," mostly because they're not okay.
They trash your day, burst your bubble and zap the soul right out of you, leaving you feeling depressed and hopeless.
Bummer.
Luckily the First Lady doesn't do that kind of thing.
No, when she gave commencement speeches this year, the faces of the graduating kids absolutely lit up as she spread her special message.
She chose her words specifically to instill hope.
Addressing predominantly black graduates at Tuskegee University in Alabama, Oberlin College in Ohio and King College Prep in Chicago, Mrs. Obama talked about her life and her country:
How good America had been to her and her husband and how privileged she felt to have been blessed with such a wonderful life because she lived in the greatest country in the world.
How grateful she was to have attended the finest schools, Princeton University and Harvard Law School.
How honored she felt, as First Lady, to be able to take her children and her mother with her on her travels around the world, to Japan, Cambodia, Africa, China, Spain and Hawaii.
And how important it was to her to speak about her country's exceptionalism when she travelled.
It was not the first time in her adult life that she was proud of America, she said, because it was only in a country like America that her husband could have been elected as the first black president in the way that he was -- with huge support from voters all over the country, voters of all races and religions, voters from both political parties, in a truly democratic election.
This is not something to be taken for granted, she cautioned. This sort of thing does not happen everywhere, and certainly not in countries where Islamic terrorists kill Christians and innocent men, women and children.
Unfortunately, she told them, there is evil in the world.
It can come in the form of political correctness which seeks to censor words and thoughts.
It can come through social media from people who hate us, people who will try to turn you against your country.
Fight them, she said.
And she had words of advice:
Support the greatest Constitution in the history of the world; respect the law; trust our legal system; and be respectful of the men and women who protect you, your country and your communities.
If you make a mistake, admit it; be grateful; say please and thank you; and never wash your dirty laundry in public. Americans don't whine.
There may be times that you disagree with something that happens, perhaps a court decision that you wanted to see turn out a different way, she said, but as a lawyer and an officer of the court, I believe that to disregard the rule of law at any time is not the way we get things done in this country.
If you feel you must protest, if you must demonstrate, she added, then do so peacefully and respect the rights and property of others, in the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
We are proud to call America a "Melting Pot," she said. People love this country, so much so that they leave the countries of their birth to come here. And we welcome them, but with a caveat: Observe our laws and come here legally.
What happens to you and what happens to your country is entirely up to you, she said. It is a big responsibility to be a citizen of the United States. It always has been. But to whom much is given, much is expected.
At the end of her speech, she finished with a recorded rendition of Ray Charles' love song to his country, "America -- sweet America."
There wasn't a dry eye in the house.
I guess you know that the First Lady didn't say any of this in her commencement speeches. I wish she had.
But I wasn't surprised that she didn't. I'd heard the words she spoke before, angry and accusative words, in other speeches, speeches made by Attorney General Eric Holder and by the president.
And just like the First Lady's, those speeches didn't do anything for anyone, either.
Hold the line, America.