[Photo from The Journey to Rediscover]
What follows has been, until just recently, relatively unknown. President Obama, in secret, went to Sandy Hook to meet with the parents whose lives were shattered beyond repair.
At the memorial service, he met with them, hugged them, talked to them, offered what words of comfort he could and he prayed with them.
From an article by Joshua Dubois here.
"I went downstairs to greet President Obama when he arrived, and I
provided an overview of the situation. “Two families per classroom . . .
The first is . . . and their child was . . . The second is . . . and
their child was . . . We’ll tell you the rest as you go.”
The president took a deep breath and steeled himself, and went into
the first classroom. And what happened next I’ll never forget.
Person after person received an engulfing hug from our commander in
chief. He’d say, “Tell me about your son. . . . Tell me about your
daughter,” and then hold pictures of the lost beloved as their parents
described favorite foods, television shows, and the sound of their
laughter. For the younger siblings of those who had passed away—many of
them two, three, or four years old, too young to understand it all—the
president would grab them and toss them, laughing, up into the air, and
then hand them a box of White House M&M’s, which were always kept
close at hand. In each room, I saw his eyes water, but he did not break.
And then the entire scene would repeat—for hours. Over and over and
over again, through well over a hundred relatives of the fallen, each
one equally broken, wrecked by the loss. After each classroom, we would
go back into those fluorescent hallways and walk through the names of
the coming families, and then the president would dive back in, like a
soldier returning to a tour of duty in a worthy but wearing war.
We
spent what felt like a lifetime in those classrooms, and every single
person received the same tender treatment. The same hugs. The same
looks, directly in their eyes. The same sincere offer of support and
prayer."
The President does not talk about this.
Two things:
1) I cannot imagine any Republican candidates for president in recent years doing the same thing and not advertising it for all the world's acclaim.
2) Unfortunately, the hate that fills the minds of those on the right will see this as a callous attempt to divert attention from their delusion he is a Marxist/Muslim/Antichrist.
1 comment:
Obama doesn’t talk about many things he does. He apparently has been getting daily Scripture reading from a pastor, since he was elected.
He is a committed Christian, even though he does not attend church every Sunday.
Post a Comment