Word: know
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...when you were growing up - you've talked so much about your parents' influence and your teachers, but in public life, who was Michelle Obama's "Michelle Obama"? Was there anyone? You know, I had a hard time connecting to people that I didn't know as a young kid. I mean, the people who really moved me were the people that I knew in my life: my mother, the teachers that...
...with that said, there are people like Dorothy Height. I mean, every time I see this woman - 93, 97, I don't know how old she is, but she's over 90 - and she is just as engaged substantively in the work of changing the lives of people as she was when she worked in the civil rights movement. She is in her wheelchair, scooted up to the table, coherently, clearly, concisely articulating the values of today in the same way she did 40, 50 years ago. I hope that I'm that cogent at her age and able...
...there are people like her, of course - and I've gotten to know her now over the years. So there are those grande dames, those amazing women who obviously stand out. But in terms of whose stories stay in my head, it's my mother's, my aunts', my neighbors', my teachers' from growing up on the South Side of Chicago...
...those girls in the room with you that night - you know, a half hour in the room with you as First Lady - that potentially changes everything. I can only hope, right? You know, that's what I hope. That's what we all hope. But, you know, just to back it up, the goal is to keep being there, just keep doing that again and again and again so that it's not just one time. I don't want it to be just one time for this small group of kids. If I could divide myself...
...then? Or do you see what you're doing now as sort of a new thing? No, I don't. I don't think it's new. I mean, my mother said this in an interview and I completely agree with her, and it's something that, you know, I want young people to remember, is that, my mom said in this Essence article, Michelle and Barack aren't new; there are thousands of Michelle and Barack Obamas all over this nation. And that is true. I know them, I've gone to school with them, I live with them...