Barack Obama: Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters

Have I told you lately how wonderful you are?

How the sound of your feet

running from afar

brings dancing rhythms to my day?

How you laugh

and sunshine spills into the room?

A woman named Georgia O’Keeffe

moved to the desert and painted petals, bone, bark.

She helped us see big beauty in what is small:

the hardness of stone and the softness of feather.

That you braid great ideas with imagination?

A man named Albert Einstein

turned pictures in his mind into giant advances in science,

changing the world

with energy and light.

A man named Jackie Robinson played baseball

and showed us all

how to turn fear to respect

and respect to love.

He swung his bat with the grace and strength of a lion

and gave brave dreams to other dreamers.

Sitting Bull was a Sioux medicine man

who healed broken hearts and broken promises.

It is fine that we are different, he said.

“For peace, it is not necessary for eagles to be crows.”

Though he was put in prison,

his spirit soared free on the plains, and his wisdom

touched the generations.

A woman named Billie Holiday wore a gardenia in her hair

and sang beautiful blues to the world.

Her voice, full of sadness and joy,

made people feel deeply and add their melodies to the chorus.

A woman named Helen Keller fought her way through long, silent darkness.

Though she could not see or hear,

she taught us to look at and listen to each other.

Never waiting for life to get easier,

she gave others courage to face their challenges.

A woman named Maya Lin designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial to remember those who gave their lives in the war,

and the Civil Rights Memorial

to thank the many who fought for equality.

Public spaces should be filled with art, she thought,

so that we can walk amidst it,

recalling the past and inspired to fix the future.

A woman named Jane Addams fed the poor

and helped them find jobs.

She opened doors and gave people hope.

She taught adults and invited children

to play and laugh and let their spirits grow wide.

When violence erupted in our nation

a man named Martin Luther King Jr.

taught us unyielding compassion. He gave us a dream

that all races and creeds would walk hand in hand.

He marched and he prayed and, one at a time,

opened hearts and saw the birth of his dream in us.

A man named Neil Armstrong was the first to walk on the moon.

He watched the world from way up high

and we watched his lunar landing leaps,

which made us brave enough

to take our own big, bold strides.