Michelle Obama Speaks at UF

Yesterday, the 17th, the First Lady of the United States made her way to the O'Connell Center in Gainesville, Florida. The word that Michelle Obama would be in town spread like wildfire last Thursday. Callie (my roommate) and I waited in line for over two hours to get tickets to see Michelle Obama speak. The line was short, but moved incredibly slow. We were bombarded by people trying to get us to register to vote in Alachua County (no thank you) as well as making sure that we were indeed registered to vote somewhere. When we finally made it to the front of the line, we provided volunteers with our name and address before receiving our free ticket. We filled out the bottom as requested by the volunteers and made our way home.

The First Lady was scheduled to speak at 3:30 p.m. on Monday, September 17th. As this was a once in a lifetime opportunity, I skipped my final class of the day to go wait in line. Callie, Justin, and I arrived at the O'Connell center at 2:00 p.m. However, by this time the line had already wrapped around the parking garage and through much of the parking lot. It took us over an hour before we made it in the building. While we were waiting in line, we learned that you could not bring backpacks inside which was unfortunate considering that I just came from class. Justin, (Callie's boyfriend) kindly volunteered to take our things home and miss the speech. What a good boy. Part of me thinks that he really didn't want to go or wait in line any longer, but we won't hold that against him. ;) As Callie and I neared the front of the line, a family of four cut in front of us (and about a thousand other people) and scooted under the rope. I didn't say anything to avoid starting a fight, but I thought it was rather rude. Secret Service personnel screened us just like airport security before we entered the building. It was absolutely packed. However, the organization of this event was less than efficient, particularly the seating arrangements.

Michelle Obama did not take the stage until 4:00 pm. 30 minutes later than scheduled. I'm sure there are  reasons why she was so late, but I was still a tad peeved to be waiting for so long. When she did walk out on stage, the crowd roared. We all stood and applauded for the First Lady. I listened intently as I want to make an informed decision this November. Here are some of the points that she made that stuck with me: 1) "We don't get anywhere on our own".  Now, I'm sure this wasn't meant to be insulting, but I thought it was a little bit of a risky statement following her husbands "You didn't build this" comment. She continued to say that for every time that we accomplish something, we have a community to thank, a special teacher, or someone that helped us along the way. While that is not entirely false in my opinion, I think the statement she made was a little bit too strong. 2) The Obamas will always tell us the truth, even when it's hard to hear. Very false. No politician, Democrat or Republican, will ever tell the people the entire truth. They have a campaign to win. Politicians have two goals in life: Get elected, and get reelected. Many times, the "hard truth" wouldn't allow them to get elected, so they tell the people what they want to hear instead. That comes as no surprise to me. That's part of politics. I watch the news knowing that there is no way that I am getting the full truth and I have come to accept that. So, the fact that I am getting lied to doesn't bother me nearly as much as politicians insisting that they are telling me the truth. 3) When President Obama took office, the newspapers were using words such as "meltdown" to describe the state of the economy. Interesting. During President Obama's term, we were minutes away from a government "shutdown". 4) The slogan of "GM is alive, Osama Bin Laden is dead" continues to be used heavily through the campaign trail. 5) Women. The First Lady made many appeals to the women in the audience, countering Governor Romeny's "War on Women". 6) With ObamaCare, children can stay under their parent's insurance until the age of 26. To me, that seems a bit ridiculous. In many ways I'm sure that is helpful, but I find it to be more enabling and crippling than helpful. I don't think that that encourages independent young adults.

Florida is a battle ground state. Our votes in this election are critical. I believe this is largely why Michelle Obama came to Gainesville to speak, and Tallahassee later that same night and I don't blame her. She knows that we will have an influence on this election and she wants to make her case for "4 more years". I think Michelle Obama is a wonderful speaker, just like her husband. I also think that she is a loving, dedicated wife and that speaks volumes to me. During these last four years at the First Lady of the United States, she had made great progress in the effort to fight childhood obesity and I admire that. Following this speech, however, I am not sure that I agree with much of what was said yesterday and will be eagerly watching the debates that will begin shortly.

Happy Tuesday! Make it a great one!