First Lady Michelle Obama walks softly and carries a big stick.
She mourned the death of 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton Saturday and also highlighted gun violence in America without uttering a single word at the funeral.
And it was the right thing to do.
Obama paid her respects to Pendleton inside a packed church on Chicago’s South Side where Pendleton’s friends gathered to remember her as a loving teenager who had plans to attend Harvard.
Pendleton was shot and killed on Jan. 29 when a gunman opened fire on her group of friends who were sitting in a Chicago park. She performed at Obama’s inauguration just days before she was murdered.
Although Michelle Obama didn’t know Pendleton, the teenager’s death clearly struck a raw nerve: The Obamas are from Chicago, she has two daughters, Sasha, 11 and Malia, 14, and her husband, President Barack Obama, is urging Congress to enact gun control laws calling for strict background checks for all gun buyers and bans on assault weapons.
“It’s personal for us,” Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to President Obama who attended the funeral, told The Washington Post. “The first lady and I grew up in Chicago. It could have been our daughters. So, as residents of Chicago, residents of the South Side, our heart just goes out to her family.. . . We may not have known her, but she’s a part of our family, too.”
And while Michelle Obama grieved for Pendleton on Saturday, former Republican Congressman Joe Walsh took to Twitter to condemn the first lady for attending the funeral.
“Heartbroken” Michelle Obama attending funeral of Hadiya Pendleton. I guess the other 553 murder victims didn’t break her heart,” Walsh tweeted.
“Most of the 553 Chicago murder victims in 2012 & 2013 were young black males. Is she attending this funeral to make a political point?” he asked.
COMMENTARY: Michelle Obama’s Quiet Mourning of Slain Teen Speaks Volumes While GOP Mocks Her was originally published on blackamericaweb.com
