The house I live in,
The goodness everywhere,
A land of wealth and beauty,
With enough for all to share;
A house that we call Freedom,
A home of Liberty,
And it belongs to fighting people
That’s America to me.
My mother and father taught me to love my country, and I am so grateful to them for instilling that sentiment in me. I think we all learn love of country from our families. Sadly, today there are many who tell the next generation that America is fundamentally flawed—a place where only the rich and privileged succeed. This thinking, like it or not, will affect not only the future of those who accept it, but also our collective future. We have to correct these false ideas right and redouble our commitment to America’s creed.
My father is a proud World War II veteran and my mother had a fierce loyalty about all things American. I remember one evening with my parents as a child in the early 1970s, watching radicals burning flags on the evening news. My mother turned to me, serious as General Patton, and said, “Don’t you ever do that.” I’ve never forgotten her words.
Developing a personal love of this country and coming to a deeper appreciation of what America is remains a civic responsibility—our patriotic duty. We cannot allow America to forget herself. In his farewell address, Ronald Reagan issued this caution: “If we forget what we did, we won’t know who we are. I’m warning of an eradication of the American memory that could result, ultimately, in an erosion of the American spirit.”
That spirit is a fighting spirit—a faithful spirit, a hopeful spirit, a spirit capable of overcoming any obstacle or setback. We need that fighting spirit again. To summon it, we have to recall honestly, free of distortions, what America did and how she did it.
A few years ago, friends of mine took their young sons to a Veterans Day celebration in Washington, D.C. At first the boys seemed uninterested, but as they watched generations of warriors march by, it touched something within them. For the first time these children considered the sacrifices that allowed them to live free. They spoke to a wheelchair-bound Korean War vet seated next to them. To remember the moment, my friends took a picture of the boys and the veteran, and that framed photo sits on the boys’ dresser in their bedroom to this day. Over the years it has become a touchstone of American sacrifice for them. They revere this man for his contribution to the country and for the example that inspired them to investigate the Korean War for themselves. They now make an effort to thank all members of the military for their service. Americans should all take the time to be this curious about our history and this grateful for those who paid the price to shape it. Now it is our turn.
Our forefathers and mothers battled a repressive Crown bent on stifling their liberty. Today we face an equally repressive government bureaucracy that is slowly sapping our freedom and mortgaging our future. We are lulled into complacency by a pop culture that is as deadening as it is corrosive. This is the moment to take a stand—to say, “No more.” This is a time for patriots, a time to revive our American spirit and fight for the principles upon which our country was founded.
Samuel Adams spoke the truth when he said, “If ever a time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in Government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin.” To answer that call, we must be “experienced” and ready for the challenge. And that only comes from doing the intellectual, interior work needed to be a fully engaged citizen.
I am elated to see elections all over the country where citizens, not professional politicians, are willing to step forward and seek public office. We are returning to the example of the founders. From Washington to Jefferson to Hamilton, these men lent their expertise to the service of the nation for a time, before returning to the private sector. Public service was not a retirement destination, but a temporary contribution for the benefit of the country. I hope the rise of the citizen legislators that we are witnessing now will follow that historical model. We need farmers, lawyers, doctors, teachers, mothers, and small business owners who willingly offer their talents to their fellow Americans for a time, and know when to go back to their private lives.
If we put America above our own self interest, perhaps that spirit of generous public service will return. The people are watching, especially the young.
The fight for freedom never ends; it just changes form. In the Revolutionary War, our citizens took up muskets against the British. In the civil rights struggle, Rosa Parks refused to sit in the back of the bus. Today we use new technology to organize and petition our political leaders and find new candidates to run.
THE WINNING WAY
There are concrete things each of us can do to help revive our love of America. The following books will help give you an accurate appreciation of our spirit, a sense of the amazing people who shaped the country, and remind you what America truly means:
1776, David McCullough. America’s favorite historian offers a brilliant snapshot of our country’s most important year. It reveals the difficulties faced by this ragtag band of patriots and proves that the battle for liberty is never easy.
George Washington: The Indispensable Man, James T. Flexner. This is the one-volume distillation of Flexner’s Pulitzer Prize–winning, four-volume biography of Washington. In it you will find the story of this “great and good man” told with honesty and panache.
America: The Last Best Hope, Bill Bennett. This two-volume set is a fantastic general history of the United States that candidly confronts the highs and lows of America’s past. But the final effect, and Bennett’s intention, is to inspire love of country—and boy does he succeed.
A History of the American People, Paul Johnson. For an overview of the whole American experience this is a great place to start. Any book that begins, “The Creation of the United States of America is the greatest of all human adventures,” and concludes that America is “still the first, best hope for the human race” is a must-read.
The Federalist Papers, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay. If you want the Founding Fathers’ take on the Constitution and our government, this is it. These eighty-five articles explain and defend our republican form of government like no other single volume. And though parts of it can be a rough slog, it should not be overlooked by any true patriot.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain. The image of Huck and Jim floating down the mighty Mississippi still captures our American thirst for freedom and liberty. It is one of those indispensable American reads filled with Twain’s trademark wit and perfect dialogue.
The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt/Theodore Rex, Edmund Morris. The first two volumes of Morris’s trilogy is a thrilling exploration of the events and people that formed one of America’s great presidents. He didn’t win the Pulitzer for nothing.
Other Resources
To prepare young patriots for the inheritance that is theirs, the two-volume Bill Bennett book America: The Last Best Hope has now been transformed into a curriculum. It is called The Roadmap to America: The Last Best Hope and can be found at www.roadmaptolastbesthope.com.
I also came across a wonderful resource for families making travel plans. Why not turn your vacation into a patriotic pilgrimage? This National Park Service site identifies historic places in every state that can be used to teach some part of American history to all citizens. These are trips worth taking that connect us to the past in a visceral way. Visit www.nps.gov/history/nr/twhp/standards.htm for a full list of locations.
And we cannot forget the music of America that is a brilliant reflection of her soul. Our songbook is chock full of neglected treasures. We should take time to reacquaint ourselves with the American masters who shared the sound of freedom with the world (and I don’t mean Lady Gaga). Give a listen to the music of these American musical giants:
John Philip Sousa
Scott Joplin
George Gershwin
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Aaron Copland
Harry Warren
Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein
Irving Berlin
Duke Ellington
Stephen Sondheim
CHAPTER 2
“DON’T EVER TAKE SIDES… AGAINST THE FAMILY”
It has now reached the point where simply approaching the supermarket checkout aisle fills me with dread. This is because invariably, while I’m placing the applesauce and gallon of milk on the conveyor belt, I see a member of the Obama family staring back at me from the magazine rack. There is no escaping them.
Over the last two years the Obamas have stalked all of us from the covers of Vogue, Essence, US Weekly, People, Men’s Fitness, Golf Digest, Glamour, O Magazine, Vanity Fair, GQ, Life & Style, Condé Nast Traveler, Ladies’ Home Journal, Prevention, Vibe, Time, Black Enterprise, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, and Farm Home Journal (just kidding). President Obama appeared on Time magazine’s cover a staggering twenty-four times during his first year in office. For comparison’s sake, George W. Bush landed on Time’s cover only thirty-one times during his entire eight-year presidency.
For access to this “bright,” “young,” “fashionable” “most elegant” family, the magazines have to give up only one precious commodity: their objectivity. As a result, the fawning coverage of the Obamas is usually stuffed with spoon-fed ephemera that has now become mythic. From the swing set to the dog to the date nights to the burger and ice-cream runs, everything this family does is exalted and treated as if it were being done for the first time in human history. Like the Osbournes before them, the Obamas have transformed their family life into a type of reality show—but with a political twist. As an NBC reporter recently observed with a straight face, “The Obamas are like the new Brangelina.” It’s a good thing Huntley and Brinkley are dead, because watching news coverage like this would surely have killed them both.
The highly manipulated media portrait of the Obama family carries with it many negatives (which I will delve into in the coming pages), but there is an important positive that should not be missed. The fact that the media spends so much time celebrating this young, intact, African-American family living in the White House underscores an essential truth, namely, that there is a family ideal in this country. One man and one woman, bound by marriage and raising their children is something worth celebrating and preserving. Three cheers for the Obamas for putting this vision of family first.
THE DIARY OF VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN
WASHINGTON, D.C.
April 10, 2010
Okay, I have just about had it. Here we are, fifteen months in, and the Biden family has yet to be featured on the cover of Time, Newsweek, or People magazine once! We can’t even score a sidebar feature in US Weekly! Meanwhile, the Obamas go get ice cream and the entire world has to read about it. Don’t get me wrong, the girls are adorable and all, but please! My son Beau is a freaking war veteran! And have they not seen my drop-dead-gorgeous wife? She’s pushing sixty but doesn’t look a day over fifty-eight! But where are the profiles of her? (I have to get my communications director Jay Carney on this pronto. He used to work for Time magazine, so he knows how to generate fluff!) And I’m not talking about the Bidens on the cover of AARP magazine either—I’m talking something really big like OK! or in Touch Weekly! You know, a publication with some heft. We deserve it. I look at Jill every day and I think . . . man, is she the luckiest woman on the face of the planet, or what?
Family is the basic building block of our society, and stable families are a crucial part of ensuring our future. A healthy American democracy depends on a moral people to guide it. Families are where the morals and virtues that touch all aspects of public life are first taught and best learned. Families lay the interior foundation that will propel the next generation on to greatness or into oblivion. That future is being directed each day at the dinner tables and in the dens of America—and instinctively, the people know it.
Without the media fully appreciating it, their gratuitous coverage of the Obamas reinforces the message that parental involvement in the lives of our children is important and that strong marriages are critical to our nation’s survival. Being a single mother, I realize that families come in all shapes and sizes. And though we may not always reach the ideal, owing to circumstances or events beyond our control, there is no doubt that the traditional family is the best environment for raising a child and incubating America’s future. For that reason, above all others, we must defend and reinforce this foundational institution in American life—even when the Obamas fail to do so beyond the photo op.
THE DIARY OF FIRST GRANDMOTHER MARIAN ROBINSON
THE WHITE HOUSE
January 14, 2010
Miche made a big scene in the dining room tonight about me feeding the girls snacks “between meals.” She hit the roof when she noticed that Sasha had chocolate around her mouth when she sat down for dinner. I don’t see how two little girls sharing a couple of Peppermint Patties and a bag of bar-b-que chips with their grandmother is a national crisis. Since she dug that vegetable garden, you’d think Miche never touched a dessert in her life. I know better! I’ve seen the panels they added to the back of that state-dinner dress.
“Mama, next month I’m launching my anti-obesity movement and what message does it send if my own daughter starts to look like Meghan McCain?” Miche harrumphed at me during dinner, “If Sasha’s Body Mass Index goes up as much as five points, I’m blaming you!” For the record, Miche, not my granddaughters, had seconds.
After supper, Miche, Sasha, Malia, Barack, and I went to Sidwell Friends for “Back to School Night.” It was the first time Barack had been to the school in months. Usually Miche and I have to go alone. With this earthquake in Haiti and the healthcare bill, Barack was grousing about having to go. But I told him that he missed Malia’s poetry night—the least he could do was show up at her recital. The girls were so excited to have him with us.
Our motorcade shut down traffic on Wisconsin Ave. (poor rush hour commuters—ha!) so we got to the school in no time. But still the ride coming and going seemed like an eternity with Miche carrying on about me “making the girls fat” and Barack needing to get up to Massachusetts for some senator’s race. Barack and I just looked out the window and let her rant. I felt like telling her, “If you don’t like the way I raise your daughters, raise them yourself. And if getting up to Massachusetts is so important to the nation, you go.” But I decided it would be better to hold my tongue and keep my peace. Which I did.
THE DIARY OF PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA
THE WHITE HOUSE
January 14, 2010
Malia plays the flute like James Galway—amazing! She must get that from my side of the family. I think one of my half brothers is a pianist and, of course, if I had not been so dedicated to organizing for the community, I could easily be opening at Carnegie Hall tonight. I would have preferred to hear Malia play here at the House and not at that uppity Sidwell Friends School. After all I’ve done for that place you would think they’d treat me with a little more respect. Michelle and I sent them autographed pictures of our magazine covers to auction off last year and everything. What more do these people want from us?
Most of the parents were appropriately in awe of my presence, but this one flabby, typical white man comes over and says: “If the Republican takes Ted Kennedy’s seat, that could be big trouble for your health-care plan, huh?” Who died and made him George Will! As if that’s going to happen. The Kennedy name is the gold standard up there.
The good news is, I was in and out of there quickly. Reggie requested that the Secret Service close off all the streets. Then just as we were about to leave, they tell me they’re concerned about it being rush hour. I told the Secret Service, “I’m the president of the damn United States. The commuters can sacrifice an hour for their president and his family. This is important to my daughter.”
Mother Robinson was amazed at how fast we breezed over to the school. I
just kind of smiled and told her we must have hit a good traffic pattern. Michelle wanted me to stay for the whole event, but I put my foot down. I told her, “One hour only!” I needed to get back in time to see The Mentalist—that’s the only time I really get to relax on Thursdays. With Haiti, all these special elections, and Joe Biden, I’ve got a lot of disasters weighing on me.
Sasha came in during the show and wanted me to review some essay on George Washington. If her mother wasn’t off playing Jenny Craig, maybe I wouldn’t have to correct papers during my down time. I read the report during the commercial and then faxed it over to Biden. I figured Washington crossed the Delaware. And since Biden was Delaware’s senator for decades—let him figure it out.
It’s midnight and now I’ve got to go back downstairs to finish up this health-care meeting. Rahm is dropping the f-bomb every thirty seconds to keep that doddering old fool Reid awake. You always get the feeling that he’s one sentence away from pressing the medical alert pendant. Nevertheless, they tell me we’ve almost got this thing in the bag. Speaking of bags, Pelosi thinks we can deep-six that Stupak language and sneak a few more goodies into the bill for Planned Parenthood. That should get those shrews Rosa DeLauro and Nita Lowey off my back for a few weeks.
A WELL-TENDED IMAGE
I’m the badass wife who is sort of keeping it real.
—MICHELLE OBAMA, DAILY TELEGRAPH, OCTOBER 23, 2008
The Obamas have gone to great pains to project their image as a perfect, normal family. But beneath the self-generated narrative, looking past the swing set and the dog and veggie show, one has to ask, what’s really going on here? What is to be believed? And why have we been thrust into the private world of this president and his family as none before? Part of the answer is certainly political. The comforting, traditional images of Mom planning meals and Dad at the soccer game mask the radical policies that are being advanced.
The Obama Diaries Page 4