Yesterday, my thirteen year old son walked into the kitchen with his tablet and showed me this picture of President Obama. He said: ‘This is how a President should be’.
‘What do you mean?’ I asked.
‘Well, he should be like a father to his country. He should love everyone like a father loves his family. He should do what’s best for everyone, like a father does for his family. A caring father would never own a gun because he doesn’t want to teach his children violence. A good father loves his children equally. I have a friend who was adopted and his parents love him just as much as they love their other children, probably more, because Tommaso suffered a lot when he was little. That’s how a President should love refugees, instead of kicking them out of the country and saying things on television and in newspapers to make everyone hate people who come from different places in the world. Bullies act like that, not fathers.’
Daniele then wandered over to the book shelf leaving me standing there, speechless. The only word that crossed my mind was: wow!
After a while he came back and showed me a book that had been on our shelves for a long time. The kids were small when I bought it and I loved reading it to them at bed time. The title is ‘Barack Obama Of Thee I Sing. A Letter to My Daughters’.
‘See mom. Just like in a family, in a country there are people with many different talents. If we put those talents together, if we appreciate other people’s gifts everyone feels happy. If everyone is happy there is love. The first thing we need is love, not money.’
I felt myself slipping deeper and deeper into my son’s enthusiasm as he read and discovered many of the people who changed this world for better: Geogia O’Keeffe, Albert Einstein, Jackie Robinson, Sitting Bull, Billie Holiday, Hellen Keller, Maya Lin, Jane Addams, Martin Luther King, Neil Armstrong, Cesar Chavez, Abraham Lincoln… I watched his eyes come alive and listened to his voice fill with passion. Yes, there is still hope for humanity.
He closed the book and asked: ‘So mom, what do you think, am I right about all this?’
‘I think you are going to make the best father and husband in the world one day and, who knows, maybe even the best President!’
Originally published at www.mylifeinaboot.com on January 18, 2017.
Originally published at medium.com