The Lesson We Should Learn From The Love and Devotion Between Barack Obama and His Grandmother

Obama and his grandmother, Madeline Dunham at his high school graduation

Obama's grandparents, Stanley and Madeline Dunham, and his mother, Stanley Anne as an infant.


Barack Obama with his Mother, Ann Dunham, his grandfather, Stanley Dunham, and his younger sister.


Obama and his grandfather, Stanley Dunham.

Barack Obama has a very small family. His mother, father, and grandfather are dead. His grandmother, Madeline Dunham, is seriously ill and is probably not going to live much longer. So, the Senator took a couple of days off to visit the woman who was his life-line. So much has been made of Obama's race even though, as pundit Donna Brazil so eloquently noted, Obama was carried for nine months by his white mother, and was raised mostly by his white grandmother and grandfather. Obama has spoken often of his grandmother, the woman who sacrificed everything for him and helped to make him the man he became.

The irony of this within the larger context of the campaign is that the first mixed race man to run for president in the modern age--Barack Obama--is fifty percent Caucasian but has been accused of being a Muslim instead of the life-long Christian that he is, and a wild-eyed Christian radical in the image of Rev. Jeremiah Wright. I never understood why his opponents would label him a Muslim and a Jeremiah Wright style Christian simultaneously.

It is unfortunate that most Americans will not understand and appreciate the important lesson that is being taught in Obama's relationship with his Grandmom. I am sure he must wish his late Mother could experience this campaign and this era of his life. I don't mention his father in the same vein because he was never around.

We African Americans don't question whether we should vote for a Caucasian for President. It never occurs to us to reject a person because they are of mixed descent. How great it would be if those whites who reject Obama on the basis of his race would use the example of Barack and his grandmother as the one that can enlighten and uplift our nation.

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