December 1, 2018

Michelle Obama’s Book Tour Is Full of Graceful Moments in a Graceless Time

The former first lady just surprised a group of teenage girls in New York City—and it was perfect.

As you’ve undoubtedly heard, Michelle Obama has a ridiculously popular new book out right now, and for countless Americans it has served as the slightest of reprieves from the unrelenting, graceless anger of the Trump presidency. And thanks to her book tour, we’re being treated to more moments like this:

Vanity Fair‘s Hilary Weaver reports that Obama surprised a group of 30 teenage girls in New York City’s Lower East Side on Saturday morning, making her appearance shortly after former White House chef Sam Kass asked the girls what they’d serve the former first lady if they were hosting her for dinner.

Obama eventually was the one doing the serving, handing out kale-and-grain bowls before sitting down to chat about healthy food choices, the fact they were meeting in the city’s only girls club, and, charmingly, why she’s not running for president.

It wasn’t the only special appearance Obama has made in recent days: The New York Post‘s Page Six reported Saturday that she recently met up with Parker Curry, the two-year-old girl who became a viral hit thanks to this darling photo of her staring at Obama’s official portrait:

 

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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