Obama in London

Watching the Michelle Obama speech on TED.com again put a realistic spin on how people should improve their morals and beliefs to something bigger. Barack Obama said “We see the world as it is and as how the world should be, the focus should be on closing the gap of these two ideas combining what the world is and what the world should be,” this is an idea if adapted would better our world as a whole. This concept doesn’t seem hard at all but it seems people are set in their ways and unable to budge for a significant change. We have our leaders such as President Obama that tell us these simple plans for improving our lifestyle and for many it is far reaching. We all know what the world should be like, no pollutants, no war, no global warming, no violence, ect. Yet people are genuinely lost about where to start.
The video to me is a starting point that many take for granted: education. Michelle Obama hit on the fact that women have struggled all through the ages and living in a country where women do have equal rights we should take that opportunity by the horns and be the best that we can be. Like she had said she has never skipped a class, she loved getting A’s, and she never handed anything in late because to her being smart was her top priority. I find this story to be an eye-opener since I do realize I take education for granted, I do not get straight A’s as it is possible to do so nor be the best that I can be. It shows that like the rest of the world I am taking everything that feels so easy for granted, people take the health of our environment for granted, the ability to go to school, our cheap goods, and oil was a major resource we took advantage of and look where the United States is now. By ignoring what really is at stake there could be dire consequences from each of the examples above. It comes back down to what President Obama has said we are not stupid we know the troubles we are faced with but it all depends on how we take our aspiration of what the world should be and combine that ideal with our present.
The last bit of the video Michelle Obama explained the significance of the woman’s role in society just as Nancy Folbre has also touched base on. The woman’s significance in the world has now gone beyond caring for the sick, elderly, and children since we can now become career woman as well. To not take this position seriously I realize I am just like all those other ignorant people who are destroying our world, to morph what we know is wrong and put a bright light on it to make our conscience feel less damaged. I SHOULD make school a priority just as people SHOULD take global warming seriously, we should take these shoulds’ and turn them in to our present because there is only so much time where we can put these shoulds on hold until they blow up in our faces.