To know Barack and Michelle is to understand: They have always believed that leadership is about leaving something behind that empowers others.
Today's opening of the Obama Presidential Center reflects that vision. It will continue to invest in future generations and encourage people to see themselves as part of something bigger.
Congratulations, my friends. What a remarkable day.
More than 40 years ago, I arrived in Chicago in search of an idea. I was a young man looking for purpose, who believed deeply in America, was inspired by the Civil Rights Movement, and wanted to be a part of something larger. The America I believed in was one where everyone has opportunity, everyone is seen, everyone belongs—because that was an America that had a place for me, too.
Barack: You told me all those years ago that you couldn’t promise me the world, but you could promise me an interesting life. Of course, you outdid yourself and managed to give me both.
Eight years in the crucible, and not once did you melt from the heat. Not once did you let it harden you. Instead, you used it to reveal your truest essence: your stubborn optimism and unflinching courage, your dazzling brilliance and unpretentious decency, your ferocious work ethic and absolutely unshakable moral fiber.
I just cannot get enough of watching this race and the trainer’s reaction as she realizes there’s a chance they’re going to win. I can’t behold that level of pure human joy without tears. It overwhelms me.
The kids are more than alright, they're extraordinary. And, incredibly, the bus driver has made a 100% full recovery.
Last Wednesday, on a seemingly ordinary day in Mississippi, a school bus driver suffered a severe asthma attack. She blacked out behind the wheel. The bus loaded with 40 children, was hurtling down a busy four-lane highway. Disaster felt inevitable.
But instead of chaos, these kids showed grit and unshakable courage. Five middle schoolers immediately sprang into action in a scene straight out of an edge-of-your-seat thriller.
A 12-year-old seized the wheel, steering the bus away from catastrophe. Another kid slammed on the air brakes, grinding the bus to a halt in the median, averting disaster. One student dialed 911 with trembling fingers but an unshakable resolve. Meanwhile, another hero-in-training searched for the driver’s nebulizer and personally administered her life-saving medication.
None of these kids waited for an adult to save the day. They became the adults right then, right there.
MS NOW host Symone Sanders Townsend recounts how poor security was at the WHCD. She says she was able to roll up to the front door on a scooter and security did not ask to see her ID nor see her ticket, they assumed she was a guest at the hotel:
"I actually showed up to the Hilton shortly after 8 P.M. And I actually took a scooter right up to the front of the Hilton driveway. And this matters because, as you know, usually there's a lot of protesters outside that's outside of those barricades before you can actually enter into the driveway of the Hilton.
But this year, there are no protesters outside. I come to find out the people were actually milling about into the lobby. When I got off of the scooter and into in front of the barricade, usually you have to show ID and a ticket.
The folks, the security at the gate, these were not agents, the Secret Service agents. They were not identified as Secret Service agents that I could see at the gate, but they did not ask me to show ID, and they did not ask me to show a ticket. They said, 'Oh, you're good. I'm sure you're going to your room.' I am not staying at the Washington Hilton.
As I entered into the driveway, I saw the president's vehicle. The Beast was driving around in the circle of the Hilton driveway, and people walking around near it, taking photos. Secret Service was not keeping a perimeter. And it went around about two or three times while I was outside.
When I entered into the Hilton, I asked Secret Service agents, which I saw they were identified as Secret Service agents, which way the ballroom was, and they said they didn't know.
When I finally got my way onto elevator, no one asked me to show ID. No one asked me to show a ticket. I got all the way down to the red carpet area without ever showing a ticket to anyone in the Hilton.
I am saying it like this because this is unusual."
Here is everything Dawn Staley had to say today about Geno Auriemma, his statement, and her perspective:
"No distractions at this time... I grew up in the projects of North Philly. 215, 267 area code. Nothing can derail us, or me, from staying with the task at hand."
I’ll never understand how America went from Barack Obama to Donald Trump.
From dignity, empathy, and competence
to grievance, cruelty, and chaos.
It wasn’t an accident.
It was backlash.
Backlash to having a smart, principled, wildly popular Black president who proved this country could be better.
And some people couldn’t stand it.
Congratulations to the Super Bowl champion @Seahawks! This defense was special. MVP Kenneth Walker was dominant. And Sam Darnold gave us one of the best comeback stories in a long time. Enjoy the celebration.
Clara B. Williams college professors did not allow her inside the classroom because she was Black.
But that didn’t stop her. She took notes from the hallway–standing up! She eventually graduated at the age of 51 and lived to 108 years old and saw her 3 sons become doctors.
—Clara Belle Drisdale Williams [1885-1993] was the valedictorian of the graduating class of Prairie New Normal and Independent College, now (Prairie View A & M University) in 1908.
She enrolled at the New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts in the fall of 1928, after taking some courses at the University of Chicago. While she worked as a teacher at Booker T. Washington School in Las Cruces, she also took college courses during the summer.
Many of her professors would not allow her inside the classroom, she had to take notes from the hallway; she was also not allowed to walk with her class to get her diploma.
She married Jasper Williams in 1917; their three sons became physicians. She became a great teacher of black students by day, and by night she taught their parents, former slaves, home economics.
In 1961, New Mexico State University named a street on its campus after Williams; in 2005 the building of the English department was renamed Clara Belle Williams Hall.
In 1980 Williams was awarded an honorary doctorate of laws degree by NMSU, which also apologized for the treatment she was subjected to as a student. She died at 108 years old.