“As Barack works on bringing in the votes, she works on bringing in the crops…”
I actually picked up this story from an Israeli news site and was highly entertained. Apparently Obama’s grandmother in Kenya is becoming more and more popular. She does not speak English, and lives in a fairly poor town of Kogelo. As more news outlets are picking this link up, she is getting more and more requests for interviews. Fiercely proud of her grandson, she describes how he came one summer to help out in the farm.
It is encouraging to see Barack’s widespread support, not because of his racial or class background, but because he is truly smart and a brilliant speaker. An excerpt I read summed this up nicely – the ever growing power that mobility has, powered by education, immigration and hard work!
I worry that enemies of Obama will seize upon details like his grandfather’s Islamic faith or his father’s polygamy to portray him as an alien or a threat to American values. But snobbishness and paranoia ill-become a nation of immigrants, where one of our truest values is to judge people by their own merits, not their pedigrees. If we call ourselves a land of opportunity, then Obama’s heritage doesn’t threaten American values but showcases them. The step-grandson of an illiterate, barefoot woman in this village of mud huts in Africa may be the next president of the United States. Such mobility – powered by education, immigration and hard work – is cause not for disparagement but for celebration. (source)