When former first ladies Michelle Obama and Laura Bush teamed up on April 18 to help raise private dollars for global health and front-line workers in the midst of this pandemic, you’d think there would be universal praise that something worthwhile and sorely needed had been done.
In this divisive era, when even a worldwide fight to prevent the spread of coronavirus has been politicized, we know it’s a little more complicated than that.
Obama and Bush appeared in a 90-second joint segment of Saturday’s Global Citizen “One World: Together at Home,” a concert event to raise money for the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund for the World Health Organization. Taking turns speaking from separate locations, they delivered a message of hope that the country and the world will get through this difficult time and expressed gratitude to health care workers and first responders.
The two former first ladies from different parties — Obama a Democrat and Bush a Republican — helped raise almost $128 million, providing $55.1 million for the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund and $72.8 million to local and regional responders.
And for that, some are unfairly criticizing them and questioning whether they see themselves as citizens of the world over being Americans.
Here’s the truth of it: When we have former presidents and former first ladies, especially from opposing parties, working together it sends a clear leadership signal that political differences can be set aside to address common problems. In this case, their leadership also underscored the need to curb the coronavirus in places where, if allowed to fester, it would rebound back to America.
It’s the reason we were so alarmed with President Donald Trump’s call for halting funding to the WHO, over its warnings about the coronavirus and cases in China. At a time when cases are believed to be far from peaking in the world, this is not the time to cut resources to a U.N. agency charged with controlling this global pandemic.
The WHO, buoyed by forward-looking U.S. leadership and monetary support, is needed now more than ever.
It is fair to point out that the World Health Organization can be flawed, and it has been less than perfect in this pandemic. It seemed to give China’s efforts too much unearned credit in early January. But around the same time, officials were also warning of possible global spread. And Trump himself has been criticized for downplaying the threat.
But the bottom line is that we must all focus on the common goal: Defeating this deadly virus. The former first ladies reminded us that we all have a responsibility to do our part.
They are displaying the kind of leadership that is too often lacking in public discourse. Without playing politics or castigating others, they simply supported the important critical work being done around the world to save lives.
For that, they should be applauded and, we hope, joined by millions of Americans interested in beating this virus.
