Mom had Dementia and this is what she said about President Obama

[Omaha Steve]

"Why do so many people say he is black"? "He is Hawaiian, period"!

Two years. I still miss her.

OS

[leftyladyfrommo]

1. Wow.

That is so cool.

Thank you.

[BlueCaliDem]

2. Your mom

with dementia was still brighter than your average blue-collar Republican voter with all his/her faculties.

Bless your mother for her sharp insight.

[BrainDrain]

3. You the really neat thing about dementia?

Its that the world looks exactly as it did when you were 5 years old. Clean, honest and friendly. That's why folks with advanced dementia say the most wonderful things sometimes, just the way 5 year olds do. Bless'em all.

[tosh]

5. Truth!

[tosh]

4. My mom had dementia, too.

She never gave me a great quote like that, but she NEVER missed a televised address.

She didn't live to see him win his second term but I'm sure she was watching.

[alcina]

7. My mom has dementia too!

Sadly, she still thinks Nixon is president and is constantly asking me to help her wind her Spiro Agnew watch.

[Omaha Steve]

10. So this guy goes into a coma in 1958

He wakes up in 1972. He has so many questions. Finally he asks how President Eisenhower is doing? He is told that sadly he died. He starts screaming "OH MY GOD, Nixon is President!"

[alcina]

12. Good one!

Thanks.

[3catwoman3]

26. Kinda like the great line from...

...Back To The Future when the professor learns that Reagan is president. "The actor??!!"

(Possible parphrase - haven't watched it in a long time.)

[Omaha Steve]

15. Niether did my mom

As sick as she was I had to take her to vote in 2010. She had moved to assisted living and voted provisional at the new location. She was upset that Social Security for her grand kids was on the line.

OS

[ReRe]

6. God lover her!

I miss her too, and I didn't even know her. My Mom passed just before PO was elected the 1st time. She thought PO "was a fine young man" and smiled every time she seen him on TV campaigning. Our Mama's are still here, OS. They're right here inside of us in our bloodstreams.

[The Wizard]

8. Remind all the baseball fans

Obama is the same race as Derek Jeter.

[safeinOhio]

9. Same as me…..

half Irish.

[griloco]

20. my grandmother: 2 kinds of people

Irish and those who wish they were.
My 2008 bumper sticker
I'd vote for Obama
Even if he weren't Irish

[KauaiK]

11. I keep saying, if you "get" Hawaii you will "get" Obama

There's no foot-stomping arm-waving bombastic rhetoric; just quiet patience until it's time to strike. How many times has he "punked" the GOP?

[yurbud]

13. Is America ready for a hula dancing president?

[mercuryblues]

14. My Mom's

quote on her death bed when I asked her what she thought about Obama winning...

Good, anybody who voted for McCain is a fucking asshole.

[griloco]

21. lol nt

[Stellar]

16. LOL..what an angel!

And I'm a Chicagoan.

[sheshe2]

17. Love your mom, Steve.

My dad has dementia too, 92 years old. I got him and his wife to vote for Obama in 2008. Sadly he was not able to vote in 2012.

[Cha]

18. How sweet! Aloha, Steve.. he sure was born here!

[cleduc]

19. My mother has dementia as well

When I was a boy, she was prejudiced against blacks. It's how she was brought up, in poverty with a father who wheezed to death from being gassed in the first world war. She didn't know any better - classic ignorance. MLK, RFK, etc & the civil rights movement gave her kids the support and arguments to work on her and educate her.

In 2008, she was a gigantic fan of candidate Obama. Every day, she'd turn on her TV to see one of her favorite people in the world: Barack. Today, when she gets up, she'll turn on her TV and be back at it, getting snippets of how President Obama is doing. She adores him.

I know when you see things like Michael Brown, 150 years after the civil war and 50 years after MLK, it's disheartening and makes you wonder if things will ever change. But people can change, some do and some have. I've seen it. 60-70 years ago, I have my doubts you'd have ever seen the fuss and front page outcry over the police shooting someone like unarmed Michael Brown as we've seen recently. Not everybody has changed and not enough have changed but a bunch have.

Keep up the good work you do here. Slowly but surely, it is working and changing people.

[malaise]

22. Your mom explains you

a lot

[frazzled]

23. I'm sorry about your Mom

and I'm sure you miss her. I can only think she was a wonderful person

But although her intentions were good, the issue of trying to dismiss the president's skin color is, frankly, imo, misguided. If the president (if he was an ordinary citizen and not known) were walking down the street, the only thing people would notice--and judge him by--is his skin color. People wouldn't say: oh, there goes a Hawaiian, or a half-white man. They'd say, there goes a black man--with all the attendant assumptions that accrue to that status.

We've been talking about white privilege a lot lately. And there's an correlate to white privilege: if your skin looks black you are judged to be black, with all that entails. So I think I'm pretty much within the bounds of consensus when I say that the president is a black man in society's eyes.

Maybe what she meant is that in a perfect world his skin color shouldn't matter. But we don't live in that world, and we can't pretend we do.

[Jokerman]

24. My Dad's dementia came and went.

I was along side of him at a hospital intake interview in 2003 when the nurse asked him a series of questions to determine how coherent he was.

He answered every question as expected until he was asked, "Who is the President of the United States?" to which he responded "Al Gore".

The nurse hesitated and looked at me before my dad continued with "There's no way in hell that you're going to get me to say the name of that bastard who stole the presidency."

[Omaha Steve]

25. He was absolutely right

[3catwoman3]

27. A totally lucid moment...

...to be sure! I'll bet you cherish that memory.

[cbayer]

28. I hope this is true, because it's a great story!

Kudos to your father. Sounds like a real character.