Reply #14: Here are some of the best comments from the comment thread attached to the article:

[Pirate Smile]

Dave Chicago April 20th, 2011 10:17 am

The story of a young Barack Obama dodging rocks thrown by epithet-spewing bullies is perhaps the most telling anecdote I've ever heard about our current president. By the way, it's almost equally telling that I've never heard Obama speak of this. Most politicians I know would have taken such an experience and hyped it up so much that by now the story would have been that he was chased by a howling mob of thousands and escaped by climbing a flagpole bearing the stars and stripes. Once again I consider our country fortunate to have him as president, both for his humility and his wisdom. Congratulations to Ms. Scott on her great reporting and writing.

Lizrs St. Louis April 20th, 2011 9:24 am

She was a trail blazer for women, a remarkable woman alone in the world. I empathize and relate deeply to her early life. Not to sound trite, but this is a woman who was given lemons ... not only did she choose to make lemonade, but she went on to make a lemon pie, lemon cookies, lemon curd, lemon sorbet and anything else that she could make. She was extraordinary. Not the sort, like many, to judge others, she went on to raise a president!

Ego Nemo Not far from here April 20th, 2011 10:13 am

Trade the Jakarta of the 1960s with with wild frontier of Indiana and Illinois of the 1820, and the story of Barack Obama and Abraham Lincoln are incredibly similar.

Both thought strange and different as children, both moved from place to place by their parents, both saved by caring women who insisted they get an education.

And both the receiving end, while president, of an utter century-storm of lies, deceit, insults and damnable lies that they weathered with almost inhuman amounts of dignity and courage.

SC New York April 20th, 2011 10:44 am

-snip-
She made some tough choices, and I don't think she had it easy nor did she make it easy for her children. It takes incredible determination to keep changing your home, send your children away, get an education as a single parent, and constantly refute the limitations for women in her time. Her story embodies a lot of bravery and her actions embody a truly American resolve - to pursue happiness and a better life for herself and her children.


It brings to mind President Obama's speech on race in March 2008: "I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible."

Luke Yonkers, NY April 20th, 2011 10:59 am

Like Obama, I was a mixed-race child, born in the U.S., fortunate to have international experience at an early age. At a boarding school in Europe, my white American roommate informed me that I wasn't a real American, but that my great-grandchildren might be accepted as such. Presumably, all taint of non-white blood had to be diluted out of the family tree for my descendents to qualify.


Today, such opinions are ridiculed, but the racist world view behind them is alive and well. Those who harbor it, however, have been put on the defensive by decades of incremental progress in civil rights. Thus, they resort to the fiction of a vast conspiracy to fake Obama's Hawaiian birth and childhood in order to rationalize their outrage at the fact of his presidency.


My experience tells me that while this kind of racism is harmful to individuals and the country as a whole, when decoupled from politics it is not necessarily mean-spirited, merely ignorant.


However, when Republican leaders who know better jump on the birther bandwagon, they reveal themselves to be something far more sinister than racists. They are hypocrites who, to advance their cause, encourage and foment racist ignorance and fear in their followers. Any politician who uses racism in this way, whether he personally believes in it or not, is a racist himself, because the end result of his efforts is the extension of racism in this country and in the world.

Barbara B.Westchester April 20th, 2011 11:11 am

The president is still dealing with people throwing rocks at him - only now it's the misinformed and insecure bullies on the political far right. The fact that he handles their personal attacks on him with such grace, dignity and intelligence is a testament to both him and his mother. Great article.

KAB Massachusetts April 20th, 2011 11:45 am

Any sixtyish woman who was growing up in the sixties and had come to believe that women were equals of men did so in a society that didn't see it that way. It took gumption to not succumb to the the numbing expectation that we were appendages of our husbands and their careers. It meant having to be assertive when assertiveness was not ladylike. There were few models of serious professional women on television or in our lives. Any of us were lucky to have a single mentor with high expectations and luckier still to have had a mutually respecting spouse.

Ann Dunham was remarkable for having brilliantly navigated a complex family life amid complex cultural realities both in America and in Indonesia. To think that she embarked on this journey with a child at age 17 makes her accomplishment all the more laudable. I admire her intelligence, values, clarity, dignity, and determination. I would have liked to have known her.

Our nation is fortunate that President Obama's mother and grandparents had so much insight about the importance of empathy, courtesy, learning, and strength. Their enduring love no matter what the challenges helped make him an outstandingly strong man and a loving father and husband.

The stones thrown at him by other children were nothing compared to the slanders that mean-spirited adults spout at him daily. The children were products of poor upbringings. The pathetic adults who make their fortunes and feed their oversized egos by defaming the president with their slander for sale are far, far worse.

How can it be that 48% of our Republican friends believe the disgusting lies? Is it for the same irrational reason some of the rock throwers joined the nasty gang? They wanted to be on the side of the bullies. Barack Obama and his wife are dodging the rocks with grace. It would be better that the sane people tell the bullies to cut it out. Children are watching. Our country has a future to prepare for.