Wednesday, July 30, 2014

First Lady Michelle Obama will receive a great deal of support for her truthful agenda for Africa.

She is quite a lady. Why will she receive support? Because women and men in the USA understand the PROMISE of opportunity.

I am not African American, but, I am a woman. I grew up understanding a large Irish American family. I had forty first cousins of which about half are women. I came from a family of three children of which all three were women. My father was as engaged with our futures as much as if we were his sons and believe me he would loved to have raised a son.

But, the support didn't stop with my father. All the men in the family fully supported the women in pursuing a future that was self-sustaining and fulfilling, including, having a family.

Here is basically how it went. My grandparents on both side of the family were first generation Americans. They were laborers. Both my grandfathers worked in the mines. My maternal grandmother was busy with eleven children, but, my paternal grandmother worked at Barbizon Factory making ladies intimate apparel. (See left margin. Vintage go for upwards of $100.00 - The ILGWU - International Lady Garment Workers Union.) None had high school educations.

My parents and all their siblings graduated High School and worked after high school. The women who remained single worked for distinguished companies. The men found work as laborers in factories that was Wall Street. It was a time when manufacturing was still viable and most men worked in that capacity at some level. Some of the men went on to work in management with only a high school diploma. Imagine that. The big bucks.

Now, comes my generation. Everyone of my cousins and their spouses have a college education. There are all sorts of professionals in the family and most of the time any problem one is experiencing can be ironed out at a family reunion.

Why this phenomena? It's America. There is opportunity. When there is opportunity there is ambition. When there is ambition and personal satisfaction within that ambition there is support for women to achieve and exceed any expectation any stereotype dictates. When there is personal satisfaction, there is happiness because there is no reason not to be.

There is nothing unusual about my family. We just did what came natural and achieved to expectations set down by our elders. It was easy. The path was laid out by those that had a vision for our futures, but, the choice of path was left to us to decide where, in this American society, we would achieve the best and be happy.