For Mom-in-Chief Michelle Obama and Women Everywhere, It’s About Choice
If there is one thing that most unfairly haunts women it is their career choices. Women around the world struggle with what career path to take after graduating from college. And once they've chosen that path they face any number of other obstacles. When I marry should I leave my job? When I decide to have children, should I be a working mom or stay home? If I choose to stay home, when is an appropriate time to re-enter the workforce?
All of these questions make a woman's work life a complicated and very personal thing. It is for this reason I must disagree with my colleague at Thomas Jefferson St., Bonnie. She takes issue with Michelle Obama and her handlers for calling her "Mom-in-chief." Bonnie says she is not a feminist, antifeminist, Republican or Democrat, but I do know she supports women's rights. In my view the most fundamental right women (and men) have is to make their own decisions. Women have successfully advanced in the working world, but we still deserve the right to make our own choices. Just because Michelle Obama is an attorney doesn't mean she can't make the decision to stay at home and support her husband and look after her children. She chose her own path—and that is the truest measure of the success of the women's movement.
Working outside of the home has long been an issue for women. We were judged for doing it and Michelle Obama is being judged for not doing it. Not only is that not fair, it's anti-women's rights.
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Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr's Niece: Abortion Means Obama
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr's Niece: Abortion Means Obama Doesn't Fulfill Dream
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
November 11, 2008
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Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. says Barack Obama doesn't fulfill her uncle's dream despite his election last week as president. Dr. Alveda King says Obama's pro-abortion position makes it so the civil rights struggle is not complete because unborn children are killed in abortion.
Alveda King told LifeNews.com on Tuesday that the civil rights struggle for unborn children continues and noted that abortion adversely affects the black community.
"The election of an African American president sends a powerful and historic message that what was previously unthinkable can become reality," King said.
"The battle for equal rights has reached a major milestone, but Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s dream of full equality remains just a dream as long as unborn children continue to be treated no better than property," she added.
While Obama has talked about reducing abortions and entering into common ground discussions about abortions involving both sides of the debate, King says his rhetoric and record don't match and that Obama will increase abortions as president.
"President-elect Obama has promised actions that will only increase the number of abortions," she said and added that pro-life advocates "must promise to redouble our efforts to resist anti-life proposals, speak up for the babies, and, above all, pray."
"We must pray with persistence and love that, in God's time, what is now deemed unthinkable will become reality - that all our brothers in sisters, from conception to natural death, will be protected in law and welcomed in society," King concluded.
"The elections are over. The pro-life battle begins anew."
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr's Niece: Abortion Means Obama
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr's Niece: Abortion Means Obama Doesn't Fulfill Dream
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
November 11, 2008
Add to My Yahoo! Email RSS Printer
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. says Barack Obama doesn't fulfill her uncle's dream despite his election last week as president. Dr. Alveda King says Obama's pro-abortion position makes it so the civil rights struggle is not complete because unborn children are killed in abortion.
Alveda King told LifeNews.com on Tuesday that the civil rights struggle for unborn children continues and noted that abortion adversely affects the black community.
"The election of an African American president sends a powerful and historic message that what was previously unthinkable can become reality," King said.
"The battle for equal rights has reached a major milestone, but Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s dream of full equality remains just a dream as long as unborn children continue to be treated no better than property," she added.
While Obama has talked about reducing abortions and entering into common ground discussions about abortions involving both sides of the debate, King says his rhetoric and record don't match and that Obama will increase abortions as president.
"President-elect Obama has promised actions that will only increase the number of abortions," she said and added that pro-life advocates "must promise to redouble our efforts to resist anti-life proposals, speak up for the babies, and, above all, pray."
"We must pray with persistence and love that, in God's time, what is now deemed unthinkable will become reality - that all our brothers in sisters, from conception to natural death, will be protected in law and welcomed in society," King concluded.
"The elections are over. The pro-life battle begins anew."
Obama Gives Work of Moms a Well Deserved Promotion
By celebrating her role instead of apologizing for it, Michelle Obama conveys that it is possible to be a successful professional and a devoted mother—that these two roles are not mutually exclusive but mutually enriching. She has experience juggling both. I think she sends a strong message that being a mom inherently means being a leader. Her words not only help give the job of mom status but convey an attitude that will help our country recognize the support that 26 million working mothers need to be effective moms-in-chief.
My (coincidentally titled) book Mom-in-Chief, to be released by Wiley in February of 2009, is all about connecting the work of moms to leadership. Obama exemplifies the kind of professional women I write about who use skills honed in the workplace to raise happy children. Leadership whether in the corner suite, the presidential mansion or around the kitchen counter is all about teaching people through actions, making healthy emotional connections, encouraging people to trust their instincts and learn from their mistakes, and looking beyond the task at hand to the greater purpose. http://www.mominchief.com
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