Sigmund, Carl and Alfred

MHNN (Ann Arbor, MI)- As the 2008 race for the White House continues, the candidates are taking a break from the campaign trail today to celebrate Mother’s Day.

Pat Santy, former NASA psychiatrist and organic waste in space disposal expert and author of the Carnival Of The Insanities agreed to sit down with the candidates and talk to them about what Mother’s Day means to them and how their respective mothers have influenced them.

The session was attended Democrat candidates Bill and Hillary Clinton and  Barack and Michele Obama. They were joined by Republican candidate John McCain.

Patricia M Santy (PMS)- Good morning and Happy Mother’s Day!

(Group, in unison)- Happy Mother’s Day to you too!

PMS- OK, I’d like to get started this week by asking each of you to tell me about your mothers and the role they played in your life. Bill, why don’t you start.

Bill Clinton (BC)- My mother was a very special woman. She pretty much raised me on her own after my dad was killed- and that was at a time when that wasn’t so easy. When she went off to nursing school I was left with my grandparents until she finished her studies. My momma knew exactly what kind of role models she wanted me to have. My grandparents had a small grocery store and was one of only a few places where African Americans could get credit when they needed to feed their family.

PMS- She sounds like quite a woman!

BC- Oh, there’s more to her than that. We were dirt poor and from the wrong side of the tracks, so to speak, but that didn’t matter one bit to my mother. She made sure her kids kept up in school and she believed in us. She married for a second time, to man who regularly beat her, but despite her situation, she kept her eye on the ball. I went off to college on scholarships, became a Rhodes Scholar and attended Oxford, all safe in the knowledge and security that my mom was behind me and would always be there for me. I know all about the American Dream because my mom believed in that same dream. My many failings are my own- but my belief that in America anything is possible is the result of my mom teaching me just that lesson.

PMS- Hillary, tell us about your mother.

Hillary Clinton (HC)- Sure. My situation was very different form Bill’s. I grew up in a stable and solidly middle class home anchored by mother. I was lucky to have my father around.  Though he worked long, hard hours, my mother was always there to keep my world and life stable. Make no mistake- though my mother was a homemaker, she wanted me to have my own independent and professional career and she influenced my dad in that regard. He was a traditional man in every sense of the word, but he was all for me doing whatever I wanted to do. He believed gender had no place in determining or stifling dreams.

PMS- She sounds pretty formidable!

HC- She was! She made sure I was on top of my game in school, academically and in sports. I played baseball, was on the school swim team, just to name a few sports. My mom encouraged me to get involved. I was a Brownie and Girl Scout, and I worked for and earned lots of awards and badges. My mom supported me in everything I did. In high school, I was on the student council, wrote for my school newspaper and I made the National Honor Society and later became a national Merit Finalist.  As Bill said, my mistakes are my own. My mom was a rock for me.

Barack Obama (BO)- People find it easy talk about my mom disparagingly, as if they knew her. In a way, Bill and I have a lot in common- we didn’t have it so easy growing up. My mom was an idealist and sometimes, idealists are easy targets for political cynics. Anyway, even after my mom remarried, she never lost her idealism. She wanted to leave a markand make the world a better place. She went to Indonesia with the idea that she could make a difference. My mother had a certain strength- she left me with her parents when she realized that would be best for me. My grandparents stepped up to the plate and raised me. They taught me about hard work and effort and making a difference. Iam really lucky- I had the best of both my mother and grandmother to guide me. Like I said a few weeks ago, only in America is my story possible. Because of the influence those two women had on me, I was able to attend and succeed at Columbia and Harvard, where I was the first black president of the Harvard Law Review. I learned about making America a better place. I went on to teach constitutional law at University of Chicago. My politics are my own, but my life could only have unfolded in America, under the guidance of two great women.

Michelle Obama (MO)- My mom worked a lot of years so us kids would make it out. She made sure we weren’t swallowed up by the streets of the South Side of Chicago. She and my dad showed us what a lot of folks, black and white, never knew- real stability. My brothers and I came home every day from school, did our homwork and then the whole family sat down to dinner. We did that every single night. My mom made sure of that. My brother Craig and I went on to college and beyond, all because my mom and dad took it for granted we would. They had high expectations of us. My missteps are my own, but when the Michelle Obama story will finally be told, the real successes of beginning, middle and end of that story will reflect the lessons and efforts of my mom.

John McCain (JC)- I’m the lucky one here today- my mom is still with us.  You know, people talk about me as if my mom were a minor influence in my life. Well, nothing could be further from the truth! My mother had a great influence on me. My dad and I went to Annapolis but was more of a rebel, like my mom. I broke just about every rule, written and unwritten. I stood up for friends, ideas and principles when I didn’t have to and just about ignored anything that didn’t hold my interest. While my dad was busy being an Admiral and helping to run the Navy, my my mom was busy running the ship and dry dock that was our home. My mother made a lot of sacrifices in her life, all in support of my father’s career. I learned a lot from her, about graciousness, humor and strength. When I was a prisoner of war in North Vietnam and subjected to some of the most inhumane treatment imaginable, in those darkest days, I wasn’t thinking about my father and grandfather only. I wanted my mom to know that I Iearned from her example of sacrifice and strength and even in the worst of conditions, I could be the man and leader she would be proud of. I made through my ordeal because I learned about duty and courage from my mother as well as my father. I wanted to get home to my mom to tell her that. All of us have a lot to be grateful for, for sure and that is no small measure  because pf our mothers and grandmothers. I know my mom would be proud to call your mothers ‘friends.’ By the way Doctor Santy, I want to thank you for putting up that video I made with my mom in the number one spot of the Carnival Of The Insanities.

PMS- Our time is almost up. There is one story I’d like to add. Allow me to read something I wrote:

…Or the love and gratitude, I feel for my mother’s mother, who took me out to lunch one day and encouraged me to become a doctor–and not to listen to my mother, who felt it was not appropriate that a woman go into a “masculine” career. “I came to this country because there was no future for women where I grew up. But you are an American and you are free to grow up and be whatever your abilities permit.”

Did I mention that my Grandmother at age 15 stowed away on a boat to America and entered New York without a penny to her name, ultimately starting her own sewing business, before she met my Grandfather?

My immigrant Grandparents always understood what this country was fundamentally about.

In short, while I was lucky enough to be born an American, I am proudly descended from some incredible people who chose to be American. And I salute them and thank them from the bottom of my heart. In fact, I believe the real strength of this country comes from people who consciously and deliberately choose the liberty that America offers–whether they are born between the shining seas of this wonderful land or they make their way here by other means.

You know, we have all been blessed with wonderful mothers and grandmothers- and we are doubly blessed that in America, those wonderful prayers and hopes our mothers and grandmothers have for us, are in reach. That is a lesson I have learned and will pass down.

Pat Santy is the author the weekly Carnival Of The Insanities. She is also the adored mother of a teenage daughter.