Will President Obama bring home the Olympic gold to Sweet Home Chicago?

by

Crowds frolick around "The Bean," an Anish Kapoor-designed 110-ton stainless steel sculpture that helps define downtown's Millennium Park. WHEN Chicago is named as the host city for the 2016 Summer Olympics, you can bet locals and tourists alike will be celebrating at this gorgeous Windy City spot.
Crowds frolick around "The Bean," an Anish Kapoor-designed 110-ton stainless steel sculpture that helps define downtown's Millennium Park. WHEN Chicago is named as the host city for the 2016 Summer Olympics, you can bet locals and global tourists alike will be celebrating at this gorgeous Windy City spot, with Chicago's distinctive skyline in the background.

Many of us living here in Chicago were thrilled to wake up this morning and learn that President Barack Obama confirmed that he will INDEED be making that Air Force One flight to Copenhagen, Denmark, later this week to help his adopted hometown of Chicago secure the 2016 Summer Olympic Games.

UrbanTravelGirl readers know I have much love for our American commander-in-chief, as well as for First Lady Michelle and their two adorable daughters Malia and Sasha. I’m beyond proud to have this beautiful black family representing what’s RIGHT about America – its opportunity and its promise. So the fact that the Chicago 2016 Olympic team is counting on Brother Barack as the “closer,” to bring home the Olympic gold to Sweet Home Chicago, is almost too much for this South Side native.

Not sure how many of you have ever traveled to Chicago or know much about the city, but the “South Side” always gets a bad rap. It’s largely (as things often are viewed in America) because it’s home to a significant portion of the city’s African-Americans. Yes, there are plenty of violent, rundown parts of the South Side, but there also are majestic tree-lined enclaves filled with smart, open-minded people like Hyde Park (home to the world-renowned University of Chicago and the Obamas themselves!) and Beverly (a community that rivals those on the tony North Shore).

Just four days from now, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will vote and determine whether to bestow the 2016 Summer Games on Tokyo, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro or Chicago. And for me, the fact that two African-American South Siders – Barack and Michelle – are going to be standing on that podium (along with Multimedia Queen Oprah Winfrey) making the case for bringing the world to this amazingly diverse city on Lake Michigan shores is cool beyond words. These two worldly, well-traveled black folks, who have not just succeeded in these supposedly United States but thrived beyond anyone’s wildest dreams, prove that the phrase “only in America” still rings true.

"Fired up and ready to go," indeed!

“… with liberty and justice (and affordable health care) for all.”

by

Finally in America, the decades-long debate over health care is coming to a head. Last night, President Barack Obama hosted a prime-time news conference at the White House, where he delivered his vision on health care and answered reporters’ questions about it.

As someone who’s extensively traveled abroad and marveled at the United States’ apparent unwillingness to make affordable access to medical care available to ALL its people, I’m amazed that so many politicians—and regular citizens—think that providing such care is somehow socialist. Subversive. And against the “American way of life.”  Well, if having to choose between buying groceries and paying for prescribed medicine is capitalism at its best, perhaps we need to re-examine our priorities.

Although nearly 46 million of us Americans are uninsured, the hardly subversive National Coalition on Health Care reports the United States spends more on health care than other industrialized nations—yet those countries manage to provide health insurance to ALL their citizens. 

I half-facetiously joke with friends that I’ll probably meet my end after being hit by a bus (as a downtown Chicago dweller, I’ve been car-free for six years and rely on public transportation to get around). But here’s the irony: if I didn’t have health insurance and wanted immediate medical care that wasn’t based on my ability to pay, I’d better hope that bus mows me down somewhere outside the United States. And THIS is the country where as a gainfully employed professional for 20 years, I’ve put hundreds of thousands of dollars (if not more) into the American tax system. And also where during several months in 2005 when I didn’t have either company- or university-provided health care, I ALSO was in a situation where I had to forgo prescription drugs for chronic ulcerative colitis since I couldn’t afford the hundreds of out-of-pocket dollars they cost me every 30 days.

Of course, as President Obama said last night, the health care debate goes FAR beyond just providing folks with access to a hospital. We need to delve into the larger realm of overall WELLNESS, of getting enough exercise and eating properly, rather than stuffing our bodies with products made from high-fructose corn syrup and Lord-only-knows what other additives are making and KEEPING us chronically sick. 

Maybe it’s coincidental, but despite frequent ulcerative colitis flare-ups here in the States, I have never suffered a SINGLE ONE when traveling or eating outside America. And that includes nearly one year of life (which was anything BUT stress-free) in Florence, Italy. I’m not a scientist or food supply expert, but I’m convinced that eating fresh fruits and vegetables grown and sold without artificial pesticides and meat grown without odd hormones helps eliminate a host of physical ailments we regularly suffer when purchasing and eating food in the States. And we shouldn’t have to shop at pricey Whole Foods to keep ourselves well.

But back to the health care issue. We Americans need to demand that our inalienable rights include affordable access to medical care REGARDLESS of our ability to pay. Until then, from this writer’s humble perch, all our bluster about "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" is just talk.

Michael Jackson’s lasting gift to black ‘citizens of the world’

by

As has everyone I know, I’ve been obsessively tuning into print, TV and Internet coverage of the horribly tragic, sad and untimely death of pop icon Michael Jackson. Back in the day, I was a huge Michael fan (before he morphed into someone unrecognizable). I still love his songs, and have found myself mindlessly humming and singing along with “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’,” “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough,” “The Lady in My Life,” and the telling “Black or White.”

But being a journalist who’s always searching for the sociological meaning and truth behind current events—and goodness knows this is the biggest global one since Barack Obama was elected president of the United States—I see Michael far beyond the off-the-charts performances, fantastically creative music and videos, and even the eccentricities that defined his later years.

Over the past few days, I’ve heard it stated by everyone from the Rev. Al Sharpton to former “CBS Evening News” anchor Dan Rather that Michael Jackson’s most lasting legacy to the world won’t be the impressive fact that he “desegregated” MTV back in the early 1980s. Not that he revolutionized the music video medium as we knew it. But the fact that he was the first African-American artist to achieve true global superstardom without constantly reminding folks he was black. These social critics—and I concur—changed the world by paving the way for global audiences to embrace and accept Chicago Bulls basketball phenom Michael Jordan. Multimedia mogul Oprah Winfrey, another black star who found her fame in my hometown Windy City. Golf genius Tiger Woods, who while still early in his career has permanently redefined his sport. And the third member of the Chicago trifecta, President Obama, who has ignited the world’s imagination in a way unlike any politician in my 40-year-old lifetime.

Now you say, what does this have to do with international travel? I say it has EVERYTHING to do with it.

Those of us who live in America often forget that what this country exports better than anything is its popular culture. Folks from Dublin to Dubai, from Buenos Aires to Beijing, form their impressions of America—and most certainly of AFRICAN-AMERICANS—from the musicians, actors, and more recently politicians we set upon pedestals. So when those of us African-Americans who DO travel go abroad, much of how we’re greeted has been shaped by the cultural forces that came before us. As I’ve written before in this blog, foreign nationals on cruise ships, regular folks in France, Italy, Turkey and Greece seem to feel an affinity for us (and perhaps these days for Americans of all colors) because of President Obama, a black American man of whom we can all be proud.

And long before any of us had ever heard Obama’s name, there was a performing sensation named Michael Jackson who made it “cool” to be black in countries where they’d probably never seen an African-American up close-and-personal. So beyond the music and the Moonwalk, those of us who consider ourselves citizens of the world can thank MJ for breaking down barriers long before we and our passports made it overseas.

"Obama: Savior of the world… and America?"

by

 

This image says it all, doesn't it? Many French people I talked to seem to have as much invested in an Obama presidency as we Americans do.
This image from Dorothy's Gallery pretty much says it all, doesn't it? Many French people I talked to seem to have as much invested in an Obama presidency as we Americans do.

p1080854

These works from artist Cyril Anguelidis are part of the “Barack Obama President A United World” exposition at Paris’s Dorothy’s Gallery. The one on the left is titled “Super Oba;” the one on the right is simply called “Yes We Can.” Both have been used as posters promoting this stellar exposition through Jan. 26 — and they capture the world’s hope for Barack Obama’s presidency.

 

“Obama: Savior of the world… and America?” So read the translation from a recent front-page story on a French publication during my time in Paris, the second half of my solo 40th birthday adventure.

This headline may be taking the “hope” message to an extreme, but what a wonderful time to be an American abroad again. 

And what a great time to be an AFRICAN-AMERICAN out in the world.

Since the election of Barack Obama, who’ll be the United States’ first president of acknowledged African descent, folks all over the globe certainly see America in a brand-new light. FINALLY, by electing this black man, we lived up to the platitudes and ideals the nation had been claiming for more than 200 years. We all saw the celebrations beamed from ‘round the world on Election Night – people hugging and crying in Australia, dancing in the streets in Kenya, celebrating after staying up all night long across Europe. But until you’re out in these countries, meeting “real people” who continue to gush about our president-elect, it doesn’t quite hit you just how negatively America has impacted the world over the past eight years – and how much HOPE people have invested in his impending presidency. Just like many of us in the States, they can’t wait for Jan. 20! And we American globetrotters no longer have to be apologists for our country’s policies, or ashamed of our president.

What’s heartening to me as a Chicagoan that now, when I mention my Midwest hometown, the first thing people around the world say is, “OBAMA!!” It’s no longer about Michael Jordan or gangster Al Capone. No, it is the Hawaiian-born former senator who is truly Chicago’s, and the world’s, rock star. Back in May, I remember talking (in terribly broken French) to a housekeeper in my small Parisian hotel who was thrilled about Obama’s chances. My mom and I took a Mediterranean cruise in late November and met people in Italy, in Turkey, in Greece, who couldn’t be prouder of America’s presidential choice. Even an Indonesian waiter on the cruise ship beamed, knowing that Barack Hussein Obama spent some early growing-up years in his native land. This American president truly belongs to the world.

During this birthday trip to France, I had incredibly thoughtful conversations with Europeans about Obama’s election, with them asking I had been “in the park” (my mom and I were!) on that magical Nov. 4th night in Chicago. It happened in Ventimiglia, Italy, where Ristorante Miramare’s young signore and I bonded over talk about the incoming president. In Villefranche, where a waiter at Le Cosmo Restaurant saluted me with, “Yes, we can!” after learning I was from the Windy City. I discussed Obama with my “magic hands” masseur in Paris. With a genteel older Frenchwoman dining next to me at famed tea house Ladureé. At Chez Vong, my favorite Chinese restaurant in Paris, where the waiters instantly piped up, “OBAMA!” after hearing my hometown. And during a home-cooked meal in Villefranche with three wonderful new friends from Ireland (on my 40th birthday, no less!), Olivia, Paddy and Grainne talked at length about our hopes and our fears for Obama’s presidency, one we truly believe can change the world. 

The global nature of this movement truly hit home for me at Dorothy’s Gallery in Paris. A tucked-away enclave in the bustling Bastille quartier , the gallery is owned by Dorothy Polley, an expatriate American who lives in France. During my stay in Paris, I checked out “Barack Obama President A United World,” the gallery’s second and marvelously uplifting “exposition” on the globe-changing election of this man. As you’ll see here, it featured paintings, photographs, sculptures, and even videos from 30 artists around the world — including African-American artist Ealy Mays — on the impact Obama’s ascent has had on the world. It should humble American leaders – and us as regular Americans – that the decisions we make and the votes we cast have more impact on our fellow world citizens than we’ll ever know. And that’s another reason travel is so key in this age of shrinking borders. Rather than just viewing the world’s reaction on CNN, we get to shake hands with it, discuss it, and see it up close in people’s hopeful eyes.

YES, God bless America!