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Book Review: What If Michelle Obama & Mary Todd Lincoln Were Reversed In Time?

Oh The Times They Have A'Changed!

Can you imagine it: Mary Todd Lincoln first lady in 2009? And Michelle Obama First Lady in 1860?

Yes, Mary Todd Lincoln --she would be a lot like our present day First Lady--extremely well educated, politically savvy, a staunch stand by and behind your man. a socio-politically engaged woman with great intellectual and life scope, a devoted mom, a passionate sexual and life partner, a fashionista, and a serious contender in her own right.

Michelle Obama--well, she would have been a slave as were her ancestors. Her life scope would have been nil. Her education non-existent. Her work in the rice paddies. Her life expectancy short and her children many. Her great great grandfather, Jim Robinson, was a slave on Friendfield Plantation in South Carolina and likely she would have been as well.  The Cohen branch of her ancestry were "Black Cohens" owned by Sephardic Jews. The Robinson's sought education and after the Civil War each succeeding generation was better and better educated--culminating with Michelle and her brother Craig having advanced ivy degrees--hers Princeton and Harvard Law.

A Different View Of Mary

Mary Todd Lincoln, who Anna Quindlen calls The Other Lincoln, in her Newsweek Article of Mar 2, 2009, is now considered a tragic figure.

A woman constricted, constrained, ridiculed and ultimately consigned to the looney bin by her son, for being too out spoken, too strong, too frustrated by her life limitations, too passionate, too smart, too educated, too expressive, too saddened by the deaths of her sons, beloved husband, mother and father and brothers. Too outre, too too and too too much.

Would we admire her now?

Would she be running for president--she with 12 years of education and her husband Abe with less than one? I don't know. We've come a long way baby...but we have a long way to go to really accept woman and power in the same sentence. I do think, I hope, in 2009, we would see her totally differently and she would not be tagged crazy (or  fashion obsessed ), as Martha Mitchell was during the Nixon era. And Martha, as we all know was RIGHT!!Without her speaking truth to power, there would have been no Watergate and all the scum scoundrels, thieves, liars and criminals would have gone unnoticed. But like Mary (dead at 63), Martha died young at 57-- scorned and unmourned.

Michelle Negotiates a New Era

Book Review: "Michelle"

Liza Mundy's 2008 biography of Michelle Obama called, no suprise, simply, Michelle, paints a picture of a very strong, brillant,  steady woman.

Family grounded and surrounded, great leadership, All American African American woman who is a no BS person, and who has done a pretty good job of gaining a bigger view of life in a few short months.

From her Chicago neighborhood roots to the White House and beyond--hugging the Queen, sweet and a protocol faux pas--Michelle will never be The Other Obama. At least not as an object of ridicule.

She is way too savvy and ...the times have a'changed--thankfully.

Michelle And Barack--A GQ Couple

Looking back over the last hundred and sixty years to the pre-civil war era, clothing of any kind beyond rags would have not been possible for Michelle and dress has been a distinct marker of achievement--especially in the Black community--precisely because of the field hand and mammy images that are still all too familiar. And Michelle is more the generation of Sex and the City, with its emphasis on style, sex and shoes and getting married, than on the earlier boomer generation with its emphasis on breaking barriers for women and minorities and getting ahead professionally. most of the Sex and the City "gals" have professions, but lack love. Michelle has benefited from the battles that Secratary of State Clinton's generation had fought and won: Title IX and Title VII, Roe V Wade. Simple but far reaching changes like eracing 1950s and 60s standard newspaper  sex differentiated classified want ads that consigned women to domestic, clerical, factory, nursing or teaching work.

With these social changes to back her, her family and community to support her, and her brillance and education to shine, it's no wonder she could become a prominent hospital administrator. And more power to her!!

It's easy to dismiss her by judging her as a mommy, self-effacing fashionista, and judging her as shallow.

That would be a mistake. She has depths of knowlegeble anger that rise out of her slave ancestry, her Chicago Black community background--that was a segregated one--de facto if not by intent--and her sense that minorities and women still get short shrift in today's America.  Maybe it's not a woman crazy making society like Mary Todd Lincoln and Martha Mitchell's were, but there is still a lot of change to be made.

I get the sense that Michelle Obama is lying low--taking her time, scoping out the terrain

, understanding the byways and how-tos of power and who's got it in DC and around the world. After all she is known for her low key, steady and intelligent leadership.  Will we see her after Obama term 2 as President Obama?

Howdy Doody: Can You Believe His Name was DOOdy?

On the Lighter Side

Ok, we've been really serious here on vaboomer for a looooooooooooong time. It's that winter doldrums thing. Do you remember Howdy Doody? Were you a fan? I tried. I wanted to be. I pretended to be. I was not.

In fact I could not stand that stupid freckle faced (48 freckles --one for each state) cowboy wanna be.

Maybe it was that we didn't have a TV in our home until my early teens and so I did not get hooked early. Maybe I was too serious, But maybe it was just that I couldn't get behind a marionette whose name was doody! Made me giggle, point and want to make scatological jokes. Or maybe there was the cowboy indian thing that turned me off. I was always proud of my little bit of indian heritage and never related to the cowboys getting the best of the indians.

I did like Princess Summerfall Winterspring--not too surprising, gave me and other girls in America someone to relate to More info:  And gave us an indian princess to admire. She became a real life character and was played by Judy Tyler.

Watch final Howdy Doody program:

It is fascinating that there were two "minority" characters on the show, albeit it was clear that the cowboys had won the west at the expense of the indians.

Tons of boomers loved this show which laid down the pattern for kids shows to come--just think Sesame Street with its combo of puppets and live people interacting. So, just call me a spoil sport when it comes to HD.

Instead  give me Shari Lewis and Lambchop

Shari Lewis or Mr Rodgers. I am still a HUGe fan of Mr Rogers. Lewis was able to make a big star out of an old white sock and have all of us believe that Lambchop was a fiesty, mischeivous little girl. And can we say enough about Fred Rogers? Who wouldn't love a daddy like that? Mr. Rogers Kind, gentle, loving and so smart and respectful to kids. By the time I started watching Mr R, I was in HS! but I loved his direct way of talking to us kids in the TV land audience.

What were your faves?

Another Step Forward Towards Full Inclusion: Dr Stephen Chu (Baby Boomer) and Angel Island

Recognizing Chinese Americans

When President Obama appointed Dr. Stephen Chu, Nobel Prize winner and Baby Boomer, as 12th holder of the Head of the Department of Energy, Stephen_Chu he recognized not only Dr Chu's brillance and foresight interms of alternative energy, but his Chinese heritage. A first for America. And a somewhat belated public apology since the Chinese Exclusion Acts of 1882 were only repealed in 1943!!!

Dr Chu's family would not have been allowed entry into the U.S. were it not for that belated repeal and our national energy future would be the poorer

See below an account of the significance of Angel island--the western counter part of Ellis Island and its relevance to Chinese immigration. While Ellis Island is celebrated Angel Island is little known in the history of Americ's Immigration story. See belwo for a wonderful account by Alan Wang of KGOTV in San Francisco.

The historical significance of Angel Island

By Alan Wang, KGO TV, San Francisco

"I'd like to tell you about a very profound experience I had while I was anchoring the ABC 7 eleven o'clock newscast on Sunday night. But first let me set the stage. Our mountain-top cameras, positioned around the bay, were fixated on Angel Island as a wildfire swept across its 740 acres. People, from four counties, could see it glowing in the darkness of the night, but our SKY7-HD helicopter camera was able to magnify the dramatic flames as it hovered over, what looked like, a volcano oozing lava from its peak.

I found myself explaining the historical significance of Angel Island and how the immigration station there was created to help enforce the Chinese Exclusionary Act of 1882. It was a discriminatory law that specifically barred people of Chinese decent, just like me, from entering the United States of America. Yet here I was 65 years after the law was repealed, a Chinese American, sitting at the helm of a Bay Area institution (KGO-TV).

I drive across the Bay Bridge and stare at Angel Island all the time, and quite honestly I had been unable to appreciate its symbolic nature until Sunday night.  The Angel Island Immigration Station on what is now Angel Island State Park in San Francisco Bay served as the processing center for most of the 56,113 Chinese immigrants who are recorded as immigrating or returning from China;upwards of 30 percent more who showed up were returned to China.

When it opened in 1910, the new detention facility on Angel Island was considered ideal because of its isolation. There were buildings to house and care for detainees, a pier, and regular boat service to the mainland. During the next 30 years, this was the point of entry for most Chinese immigrants and approximately 175,000 came to Angel Island. The average detention was two to three weeks, but many stayed for several months and a few were forced to remain on the island for nearly two years.

Some detainees expressed their feelings in poetry that they brushed or carved onto the wooden walls of the detention center. Others simply waited, hoping for a favorable response to their appeals, but fearing deportation. Many of the poems that were carved into the walls of the center are still legible today. This was all going on while immigrants from European countries were freely pouring through Ellis Island on the East coast.

In 1943, the Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed by the Magnuson Act, allowing a national quota of 105 Chinese immigrants per year, although large scale Chinese immigration did not occur until the passage of the Immigration Act of 1965. Despite the fact that the exclusion act was repealed in 1943 the law in California stating that Chinese-Americans were not able to marry whites wasn't repealed until 1948.

 Although all its constituent sections have long been repealed, Chapter 7 of Title 8 of the United States Code is headed, "Exclusion of Chinese." It is the only chapter of the 15 chapters in Title 8 (Aliens and Nationality) that is completely focused on a specific nationality or ethnic group.

In 1940, the government decided to abandon the Immigration Station on Angel Island.

Ironically, their decision was hastened by a fire that destroyed the administration building in August of that year. The fire, back then, was a blessing for Chinese immigrants, but Sunday night firefighters were trying to save the immigration station that now reflects the struggles, the pain, even the joy of the Chinese American journey. Today, I have a true historic appreciation of Angel Island. It's an important part of our landscape that symbolizes the cultural fabric of who we "all" are as Bay Area citizens, and Americans. Now, I think of the Chinese-Americans who are contributing to the strength of this country, and I wonder about that many talents that were denied the right to be a part of it. These same immigration experiences are taking place today, and it makes you wonder who else is being kept from adding to the greatness of this country.

After the fast-paced, thrilling ABC 7 news coverage of the wildfire on Angel Island was over,  I sat back in the anchor chair and soaked in what had just happened. It was a cathartic moment for me, and I couldn't help but wonder and hope that the ghosts of my ancestors were watching with approval." 

October 13, 2008