In just the past two weeks, the president’s son-in-law has had to make a public statement about colluding with the Russian government; Republicans in Congress have pushed through one of the most poorly designed social policies in history; and the president himself announced on Twitter that transgender Americans are banned from serving in the U.S. military. But amid all the turmoil, Michelle Obama wants you to remember something: Humanity is fundamentally good.
“The people in this country are universally good and kind and honest and decent,” she said during a speech in Denver, Colorado, Tuesday night for the Women’s Foundation of Colorado’s 30th anniversary. “Don’t be afraid of the country you live in. The folks here are good.”
According to the Denver Post, Obama told the audience that, no, the country is not falling apart — it’s just “learning from its mistakes.” And she told women that, if they’re turned off by national policies, they should work to counteract them in their own communities.
She also discussed her time in the White House; when asked a (very poetic) question about which “falling shards” from the glass ceiling she’d shattered by becoming the first black First Lady had cut the deepest, she replied: “The ones that intended to cut … knowing that after eight years of working really hard for this country, there are still people who won’t see me for what I am because of my skin color.”
And she carried on the metaphor:
“Women, we endure those cuts in so many ways that we don’t even notice we’re cut,” she said. “We are living with small tiny cuts, and we are bleeding every single day. And we’re still getting up.”
She reportedly added that women should embrace their scars in order to “encourage younger girls who are getting their first cuts.” Even when she’s quoting Sheryl Crow, Michelle Obama is impeccable.
