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Weekly Address: The First Lady Marks Mother’s Day and Speaks Out on the Kidnapping in Nigeria

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The President’s Weekly Address post is also the Weekend Open News Thread. Feel free to share other news stories in the comments.

 

From the White House – Weekly Address

In this week’s address, First Lady Michelle Obama honored all mothers on this upcoming Mother’s Day and offered her thoughts, prayers and support in the wake of the unconscionable terrorist kidnapping of more than 200 Nigerian girls.

Transcript: Weekly Address: The First Lady Marks Mother’s Day and Speaks Out on the Tragic Kidnapping in Nigeria

Hello everyone, I’m Michelle Obama, and on this Mother’s Day weekend, I want to take a moment to honor all the mothers out there and wish you a Happy Mother’s Day.

I also want to speak to you about an issue of great significance to me as a First Lady, and more importantly, as the mother of two young daughters.

Like millions of people across the globe, my husband and I are outraged and heartbroken over the kidnapping of more than 200 Nigerian girls from their school dormitory in the middle of the night.

This unconscionable act was committed by a terrorist group determined to keep these girls from getting an education – grown men attempting to snuff out the aspirations of young girls.

And I want you to know that Barack has directed our government to do everything possible to support the Nigerian government’s efforts to find these girls and bring them home.

In these girls, Barack and I see our own daughters. We see their hopes, their dreams – and we can only imagine the anguish their parents are feeling right now.

Many of them may have been hesitant to send their daughters off to school, fearing that harm might come their way.

But they took that risk because they believed in their daughters’ promise and wanted to give them every opportunity to succeed.

The girls themselves also knew full well the dangers they might encounter.

Their school had recently been closed due to terrorist threats…but these girls still insisted on returning to take their exams.

They were so determined to move to the next level of their education…so determined to one day build careers of their own and make their families and communities proud.  

And what happened in Nigeria was not an isolated incident…it’s a story we see every day as girls around the world risk their lives to pursue their ambitions.

It’s the story of girls like Malala Yousafzai from Pakistan.

Malala spoke out for girls’ education in her community…and as a result, she was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman while on a school bus with her classmates.

But fortunately Malala survived…and when I met her last year, I could feel her passion and determination as she told me that girls’ education is still her life’s mission.

As Malala said in her address to the United Nations, she said “The terrorists thought that they would change our aims and stop our ambitions but nothing changed in my life except this: Weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage was born.”

The courage and hope embodied by Malala and girls like her around the world should serve as a call to action.

Because right now, more than 65 million girls worldwide are not in school.

Yet, we know that girls who are educated make higher wages, lead healthier lives, and have healthier families.

And when more girls attend secondary school, that boosts their country’s entire economy.

So education is truly a girl’s best chance for a bright future, not just for herself, but for her family and her nation.

And that’s true right here in the U.S. as well…so I hope the story of these Nigerian girls will serve as an inspiration for every girl – and boy – in this country.

I hope that any young people in America who take school for granted – any young people who are slacking off or thinking of dropping out – I hope they will learn the story of these girls and recommit themselves to their education.

These girls embody the best hope for the future of our world…and we are committed to standing up for them not just in times of tragedy or crisis, but for the long haul.

We are committed to giving them the opportunities they deserve to fulfill every last bit of their God-given potential.

So today, let us all pray for their safe return… let us hold their families in our hearts during this very difficult time…and let us show just a fraction of their courage in fighting to give every girl on this planet the education that is her birthright. Thank you.

Bolding added.

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Categories: Uncategorized.

/ 18 Comments

18 comments

  1. JanF

    As Malala said in her address to the United Nations, she said “The terrorists thought that they would change our aims and stop our ambitions but nothing changed in my life except this: Weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage was born.”

    Girl Shot in Head by Taliban, Speaks at UN: Malala Yousafzai United Nations Speech 2013

  2. DeniseVelez

    by wingnuts for daring to tweet support ( I refuse to link to r-wing sites so early in the morning).

    And of course Slimy Toad Gingrich is now blaming Boko Haram on…Hillary

    Gingrich: Hillary Clinton’s Boko Haram problem

    http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/09/…

    Time for more coffee

  3. JanF

    From John Boehner:

    “This investigation is about getting answers for the families of the victims and for the American people”

    Er, no:

    House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) told reporters that family members of two of the four Americans who died the night of the attack had reached out to oppose the formation of the committee. “(They) have called us and said: Please don’t take us down this path again,” the former Speaker said. […]

    In lamenting the Republican politicizing of the issue, and recent fundraising initiatives, [Democratic Rep. Louise] Slaughter asked why more wasn’t being done to prevent the next tragedy on Benghazi’s scale. “What the families of the victims and Americans want is to ensure it never happens again,” she said. “But we’re doing nothing in to ensure that.”

    Some family members have apparently shown up on Fox News to demand answers bolster Sean Hannity’s ratings.

    Democrats are still undecided on whether or not they will participate:

    Democrats don’t “want to legitimize a process that has been completely partisan for the last year and a half,” said a senior Democratic aide, “but on the other hand, if Democrats are not in these interviews and seeing these documents, it is much harder to respond to false allegations.”

    The pro-boycott school of thought, which House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has been sympathetic to, is that participation would “legitimize” what they universally believe will be a partisan witch-hunt aimed at tarnishing the Obama White House and Hillary Clinton ahead of an expected 2016 presidential bid. On Friday, Pelosi called the probe a “political stunt.”

    But now that Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) has rejected Pelosi’s demands to give Democrats equal membership and power on the panel, they’re left with a difficult choice. […]

    Eventually the focus will turn to the work of the committee, and there is substantial concern that if Democrats don’t claim their seats at the table Republicans would have free rein to issue subpoenas and make allegations without rebuttals or cross-examination. And so the momentum among Democrats has shifted somewhat toward participation.

  4. JanF

    Dairy Queen CEO: Paying Workers A ‘Fair Wage’ Helps Us

    or the second time this week, a CEO of a major fast food company came out in support of raising the minimum wage. Dairy Queen’s CEO John Gainor made a simple case for why Congress should raise the minimum wage from $7.25, in an interview CNN aired on Thursday: “It takes a lot of time to train people,” he said. “You want to make sure you’re paying a very good wage, otherwise you have a lot of turnover.”

    “People need to be paid a fair wage,” Gainor said.

    Subway and Dairy Queen … and even Mitt Romney. The $10.10 is based on inflation’s effect on the base wage:

    If Republicans agree with Romney’s position that the minimum wage should keep up with inflation, then a $10.10 level should make sense. That’s about where it would be if it had risen with the rising cost of living since the 1960s.

    Some Republicans say there should be no minimum wage and I suspect that their base would not be happy with Romney’s coming out in favor of an increase.

  6. JanF

    How North Carolina Republicans may be helping Kay Hagan

    Tillis and the governor have made some radical changes in the state including some policies that folks there are not too happy with. De-regulation … and the coal ash spill by Duke Energy. Tax cuts … and the nearly half a billion dollar budget shortfall. And because the GOP controls all the branches of government, they sit squarely in the blame chair.

    Sen. Kay Hagan (D) will not run out of ripe targets.

  7. JanF

    Report: FBI Questioning Local Law Enforcement About Bundy Militia

    Las Vegas TV station KLAS reported Thursday that the FBI has begun interviewing Clark County sheriff’s officials in what the news station describes as a “formal investigation into alleged death threats, intimidation and possible weapons violations” on the part of the Bundy militia.

    Sheriff Doug Gillespie confirmed to KLAS that FBI agents asked him whether he saw Bundy supporters point guns at metro police officers during last month’s showdown, but declined to share what he told the agents.

    It is still illegal in America to issue death threats to law enforcement … not just the sheriffs but the BLM agents. Perhaps some criminal indictments would finally have the teeth needed to put a stop to Bundy’s lawlessness. Twenty years of civil proceedings have certainly not gotten his attention.

  9. rb137

    sustainable development. It’s well established that Human Development Index and the status that women hold in a society are closely coupled. I wonder what these terrorists think they’ll get from fighting to keep their country in the toilet.

    I hope these girls get though this thing and come out the other side of it.  

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