July 14, 2009 9:47 PM
Michelle Obama - a $300,000/year Mother Teresa
This has been bugging me for a while. Back in May, Queen Michelle started gallivanting around the country, urging us all to volunteer, and using herself as some kind of icon of self-sacrifice. Here's her exact text:
And I went from college to law school to a big ol' fancy law firm where I was making more money than both of my parents combined. I thought I had arrived. I was working on the 47th floor of one of the largest buildings in the city of Chicago. And I thought, well, I must be doing okay.
But then several things happened over the course of my life in a year to make me stop and actually think for the first time about what I wanted. I lost my father. I lost one of my good friends to cancer suddenly. She was in her mid-20s when she died. And I thought that -- for the first time I had to think about life and the life that I was building for myself, and I had to ask myself whether, if I died tomorrow, would I want this to be my legacy, working in a corporate firm, working for big companies? And when I asked myself the question, the resounding answer was, absolutely not. This isn't what I want to leave behind, this isn't why I went to Princeton and Harvard, this isn't why I was doing what I was doing. I thought I had more to give.
So people were quite surprised when I told them at the firm that I was going to leave this big lucrative paycheck behind and a promising career, and go on to do something more service-oriented. They all told me to wait and to become a partner first, and then leave. And I was -- that was financially the better option, but I knew in my heart that I was making the right decision to leave then.
So I left my job at the firm and started to then think about what I wanted my life to become. And when I thought about the things that I cared about, the things that I was passionate about, service was always somewhere in there. I thought about the things that I did for enjoyment. They were always mentoring, working with other young people, trying to help them get to where I had -- I was to help them think about their lives differently. So I knew that service was always going to be a part of that passion. So my goal was to figure out how I could not do that in my spare time, but how I could make my work service.
So I started doing a bunch of crazy things: working in city government, and that's when -- after city government I left to start this wonderful organization in Chicago, Public Allies, which many of you know of, because it's one of the first model AmeriCorps national service programs.
Uh, excuse me? What Michelle refers to as public service was a 300,000. per year job created especially for her when her husband became an Illinois state senator - and which was somehow eliminated when she gradually stopped showing up for work and finally quit to join his presidential campaign. (See the Chicago Daily Observer January 14, 2009: Michelle Obama's Job Eliminated.)
Hey, I'd be really happy to leave a "big ol' fancy law firm" (and why are people like Palin mocked when they speak colloquially but when BO&MO do it, it's just too cool?) - and sacrifice to take a 300,000 a year paycheck I could later boast of as though I were some kind of Mother Teresa.
What to make of this pair, so full of twisted narratives about their lives, their ambition, their greed and their lust for power? And what to make of a naive and gullible electorate who are happy to support an ever-more-elitist and extravagant Royal Couple who continues to call on the proletariat for more sacrifice?
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Comments
Nice article! I agree. I think President Obama harrassed Gov. Sarah Palin, before, during, and after the 2008 Elections. Obama didn't say anything about Iran's Elections, because his own election. I believe was illegal!
Posted by: Catholic Musings | July 15, 2009 12:21 AM
Interesting times we are living in no doubt!
Service-oriented...right....
Posted by: A Mac and a Mug O' Joe | July 15, 2009 8:34 AM
I wonder if Michelle Obama would respect what I did, and what many of my fellow college-educated friends did (some even with master's degrees), after we gave birth to our children. We quit our paid jobs and became "Stay-at-home-moms" (SAHMs). Which meant that once our children became old enough to go to pre-school part-time, we became SAHMs AND volunteers. We've never received $300,000/year for keeping the PTAs running, teaching children at our churches, or raising money for just about every charity you could think of. Our bonuses come in the form of more time with our children, more communication with our schools and churches, and knowing that we are truly serving others, not ourselves. Not that I was a mom yet back then, but we were dismissed by Hillary Clinton for "staying home and baking cookies." Never mind that the cookies we bake now end up at a bake sale to raise money for orphans in South America. I'm afraid I may be sounding bitter here -- I'm not. I wouldn't change my choice for the world! BUT, it does amuse me that someone who chose the big bucks is now an expert on "service."
Posted by: Donica | July 15, 2009 9:42 AM
I thought the same thing when I first heard this speech, "Hey, wait, didn't she work for a hospital board at $300k/year?" And that reminded me of that bio movie shown at the DNC convention in denver - introducing Obama with his midwestern roots. I was confused. It didn't match reality (growing up in the NW and then Hawaii, his mother's seeming flightiness in relationships, his grandparents radical leanings, etc). But no one said boo about the contradictions. That's the most frustration, aggravating thing about this whole thing - the media not fact checking and taking everything he says as fact and truth.
Posted by: Barb | July 15, 2009 11:03 AM
