First Lady

 

One night, before bed, I was randomly scrolling channels. I stopped on a program called First Ladies on CNN. Michelle Obama, one of my heroines, was being profiled. It spoke about the fact that she was the first in the White House to use Twitter. She recognized the power of social media and the written word. Not too long after, the President followed suit.

What I learned then, shook me to the core. First let me say, I do have a Twitter account but rarely, if ever use it. It was suggested as wise as a writer that I do so to promote my work. I also do not regularly check Twitter for the few people I follow.

So, in watching this program, I discovered the vicious, vile and horrendously racial comments that were made on Michelle Obama’s account. I’m not sure why it surprised me so completely but it did. It literally made me sick. Who are this people? What rock did they crawl out from under? What purpose did/do they have except to wound, belittle and spew venom?

I realize that politics is not for the faint of heart. But this? Innocently, I thought this was, with few exceptions, behind us as a nation, as human beings when we elected Barack Obama to the Presidency. Little did I know the poison that would ooze to the surface. President Obama recently said in an interview that he didn’t believe the current President was responsible for the present climate of hate and racism but that he simply has fanned the flame.

I try to stay out of politics on this page but during this recent election that has become impossible. I remember my first encounter with Twitter on a business trip with my husband. A woman was furiously typing on her phone. When asked about it, she said she was updating her Twitter. I asked what the difference was between texting and email. She tried to explain it was for her “followers.” I didn’t get it then. No one really understood the power of social media then. I don’t think the original purpose was to spread hate and misinformation. You would think it would be to spread the truth. Apparently, a concept lost on our current, lame-duck President.

So this is off my chest but still sits heavily on my heart. I think it is up to all of us to fight this poison in any way we can. To douse this flame of unconscionable, lack of humanity. Our votes were just the beginning.

“When they go low, we go high.”

-Michelle Obama