I don’t know about you, but it’s absolutely thrilled me to see First Lady Michelle Obama taking 9-year-old Sasha on a mom-and-daughter holiday–and to SPAIN, no less! I don’t have kids, nieces or nephews, but if I did, I’d be booking us on some overseas trip as soon as they were old enough to appreciate it. And I’d be sitting them down right now to watch video of adorable Sasha meeting the king and queen of Spain. How it does my heart proud to see this darling young brown-skinned girl looking confident alongside her mom, realizing she’s a princess in her OWN right. Nothing like self-assurance, even when it comes in the package of a preciously dressed pre-teen.
I was super-proud and psyched last year when the President and Michelle took Sasha and Malia with them to Paris and London. I wrote then about how important it is for youngsters—and especially African-American ones, who don’t always see themselves portrayed positively in the American media—to travel abroad and experience life through a different lens. Just think of all the young black kids out there who see Sasha strolling the streets of Spain, visiting its treasures, meeting its royalty, witnessing the crowds of Spaniards eagerly seeking a glimpse of her and her glamorous First Lady mom. SURELY that’s got to have an effect on their individual and collective psyches, even if they don’t realize it now.
I’ve loved reading about the Obama ladies’ trip since they landed in Marbella, on Spain’s sun-drenched Costa del Sol, earlier this week. They toured an historic cathedral in the southern Spanish city of Granada; took in a flamenco performance in the region where this legendary dance was born; toured the Moor-built Alhambra at night. The traveling half of the First Family and their friends stayed at Marbella’s Hotel Villa Padierna, a five-star Ritz-Carlton resort on the Mediterranean Sea. And while this was hardly budget travel, folks tend to forget that the Obamas are wealthy folks, thanks largely to royalties President Barack has generated from his best-selling books.
I’m not even going to start on the haters screaming that the Obamas’ trip abroad is costing U.S. taxpayers untold dollars, and that Michelle is somehow a “modern-day Marie Antoinette” for daring to travel abroad on a luxury vacation while America’s in a recession. As has been made clear, the Obama ladies and friends paid for their own stay in Spain, although granted, the Secret Service had to travel with them and they flew aboard Air Force Two. As far as I’m concerned, the complainers SHOULD be glad we’ve got a globally minded First Family that actually wants to see and positively engage with the world.
And for THAT, all of us Americans ought to be proud.