The Blonde and the Brunette

They did not appear as just wives of presidential candidates but rather as women with identity, ideas, capability and decisiveness with which to contribute to the future, with their own vision of the world and life.

Michelle Obama’s genuineness was moving, as was her frankness, which can become discomforting. She was the granddaughter of slaves and grew up in the poor suburbs of Chicago. Her father was a plumber, although she graduated at Princeton and Harvard; she came across as a living example of the American dream that her husband proposes to reclaim if he becomes president. No half measures, she clearly stated her commitment to helping make opportunities for a better life the norm rather than the exception in her country, so that the huge population living in poverty and without hope, hidden by North American affluence, but made visible by Obama’s electoral campaign, find the path to a promising future.

Michelle took the floor with ease and conviction, and in a truthful, simple manner asserted her position as a working mother who, on a daily basis, faces the balancing act of responding to her responsibility as a senior official at the University of Chicago Medical Center, being the mother of two children and supporting the political aspirations of her husband.

The same can be said for Cindy McCain, who, until her appearance at the Republican Convention, was mistaken for a cute barbie, constantly smiling and made-up. She unashamedly acknowledged her position as the heiress of a fortune in the beer distribution industry in Arizona. The circumstances of having grown up in a state bordering with Mexico led to her knowledge of the situation of the impoverished immigrants with whom she shared her childhood; she knows what they lack. This experience is reflected in the position of her husband, John McCain, when, going against his party, as senator he committed to a new migration law in 2007, with the support of Edward Kennedy.

Behind the blue eyes, crowned by very blond hair, a woman appeared who was full of sensitivity, concern for others and committed to numerous humanitarian causes in her country and the rest of the world. Alongside her, like a silent testimony of this commitment to life, was her adopted daughter, an orphan child who she rescued from death in a Mother Teresa of Calcutta orphanage in India. The ethnic impact was striking.

The world and its future is different through the eyes of committed women who contribute a view which grows and gains strength when it is made public, as is the case with these two North American women. How it would have helped in Colombia if my friend, Lina Moreno, had done so. She is an independent woman with solid views that the country should get to know better. What a difference it would have made, for example, when it came to easing tensions and contributing to calming the waters in these ill-fated days of train crashes and terrible fighting, full of bitterness and heartache, such as those that her husband, President Uribe, takes responsibility for, with everything he is up against. Lina’s voice would have a special echo. Because first ladies, united daily, manage to make the difference when they decide to.