The White House
Office of the First Lady
For Immediate Release
October 25, 2011
Remarks by the First Lady at a DNC Event in Detroit, Michigan
The Westin Book Cadillac Hotel
Detroit, Michigan
12:48 P.M. EDT
Excerpt:
Who are we? That is the choice we face. Those are the stakes.
And believe me, your President knows this. He understands these issues because he’s lived them. He was raised by a single mother who struggled to put herself through school and pay the bills. And when she needed help, who stepped in but his grandmother, waking up every morning before dawn to take that bus to that job at the bank. His grandmother worked hard and she was good at what she did. But for nearly two decades, she was passed over for promotions. Why? Because she was a woman. And she watched men no more qualified then she -- men she actually trained -- climb the corporate ladder ahead of her.
So believe me, Barack knows what it means when a family struggles. He knows what it means when someone doesn’t have a chance to fulfill their potential. And today, as a father, he certainly knows what it means to want your child to grow up with no limits on their dreams. See, these are the experiences that have made him the man -- and the President -- that he is today. And we are blessed to have him. (Applause.)
And that is what I hear in my husband’s voice when he returns home after a long day -- whether it’s traveling around the country, or working in the office -- and he tells me about the people he’s met. That’s what I see in those quiet moments late at night after the girls have gone to bed, and he’s still up poring over the letters people have sent him -- the letter from the woman dying of cancer whose insurance company won’t cover her care, or the letter from the man struggling to pay his family’s bills, the letter from the many young people with so much promise but so few opportunities.
And I hear the passion and the determination in his voice, say, “You won’t believe what these folks are still going through.” That’s what he tells me. He says, “Michelle, it’s not right. And we have to fix this. We have more work to do.”http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/10/25/remarks-first-lady-dnc-event-detroit-michigan:dem:
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