Taryn Slepicoff

English 113b

Professor Reynolds

9 May 2012

Michelle Moves People

            As a kid, do you remember playing outside; and having your mom yell at you to come inside and get cleaned up before dinner is ready?  Today parents are yelling at their kids to get up from watching television or to put their video games on pause to come have dinner.  Michelle Obama has chosen to fight childhood obesity as one of her priorities as First Lady.  She uses statistical information, appeals to emotional memories, and addresses the obstacles that stand in the way of success.  Michelle also presents a plan that spreads the solutions over several groups, so that no one is solely responsible for the plan to succeed.  In her essay “Michelle on a Mission,” she is very convincing in pointing out the reason for selecting this cause, some of the challenges that will be faced in overcoming it, and practical suggestions on changes that can be made by different groups of people that will have a big impact on reducing childhood obesity.

Michelle Obama has a lot of visibility and influence as the First Lady of the United States.  She is trying to address the problem of childhood obesity.  As far as ethos, Michelle’s extensive education, her position as a mother and the First Lady of the United States make her a very credible and influential source.  Michelle studied at Princeton University and graduated from Harvard Law School, joining a law firm shortly after.  She is a mother of two growing daughters, and a wife to President Barack Obama.  Michelle enjoys working with people, and helping them make their lives better (First Lady).  She makes herself friendly, familiar, and accessible by the way she refers to herself in her writing and how she participates actively in the Lets Move program.  In her essay, “Michelle on a Mission,” she is very inspiring about fixing the childhood obesity epidemic.  She writes it as if she were talking to you in person.  For example, she says, “And let’s be honest with ourselves: our kids didn’t do this to themselves.”  She doesn’t use big words, and speaks in an everyday, normal language.  Michelle also looks at the issue from a positive point of view and not as an impossible task.

Michelle Obama starts off her article mentioning how things used to be different in the past.  She is appealing to the audience by using pathos, or emotion, to help make a personal connection to the readers.  She mentions that children would walk to school, rather than take cars or hop on the bus.  They would also be outside running around for hours throughout the day; whether it was during a break at school or when they got home before dinner.  She appeals to the audience emotionally, bringing back the childhood memories of today’s adults.  Another way Michelle attracts people is by getting Beyonce to support her program.  Beyonce wrote a song, called Move Your Body, for Michelle Obama’s project and she can be used as a great example for people to look up to.  Schools from all over the United States made a video of their students dancing to her song.  The video was very contagious, because everybody was enjoying dancing.  Beyonce explains that this video is to help show that exercise can be fun (Nadeska).  You just have to find something that you enjoy doing in her case it’s dancing, and just do it. 

In Michelle’s article she used statistics to help show everyone what is really going on, and how much things have changed over the years.  In her article, Obama states, “… how one third of all kids in the country are either overweight or obese.”  Using logos, Michelle presents facts to show people the reality of the situation.  In doing this she demonstrates the seriousness of the problem and emphasizes that it is not just her opinion.  Obama also points out, “…the billions of dollars we spend each year treating obesity…” in order to show that there is a financial cost as well as a health concern.  These kinds of hard facts highlight how important her goals are.   

Surprisingly there was opposition to Michelle’s Lets Move campaign.  Some members of the Republican Party thought that the legislation she was supporting in Congress would prevent schools from having bake sales.  They also felt like the government was taking over private industry by influencing the National Restaurant Association toward healthier menu items.  The increase in pedestrian deaths was also attributed to the Lets Move campaign, because it encouraged walking (Democratic).  Aside from these few critics, the overwhelming majority of people believe that change is necessary, and the more people that are involved the easier it will be.  Obama’s conversational approach and suggested solutions seem hard to object to without appearing unreasonable.

Michelle admits that there is a long way to go with fighting childhood obesity, but the most important thing is for everybody to work together.  Let’s Move is trying to help families who have two working parents, no time to make home cooked meals, and families who can’t afford the healthier food.  This program is reaching out to the schools and grocery stores to help with the childhood obesity epidemic.  It’s trying to get schools to serve more fruits and vegetables, and less chips and junk food.  It is also trying to get grocery stores to provide nutritious food to the people that have a hard time getting it.  The work is being spread around amongst several groups and not just focusing on parents to fix the problem.  This plan even gets proposed to mayors and governors to help making their cities healthier, and the food manufacturers providing what’s healthy for children and other people to retailers.  At a young age children are becoming obese, and having health issues that shouldn’t be present. According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, “...in the last 2 decades, type 2 diabetes (formerly known as adult-onset diabetes) has been reported among U.S. children and adolescents with increasing frequency” (CDC).  Michelle came up with the Let’s Move program so that children can become active and have a healthy childhood, which will lead into a healthy adulthood and reduced childhood obesity. 

The Let’s Move program has a lot going for it.  It is championed by Michelle Obama, the First Lady, and has the support of influential people like Beyonce.  The plan is presented in an easy to understand way and is supported by facts.  Many different groups are targeted within the plan to help achieve the goal of reducing childhood obesity.  In my opinion as long as everyone works together, we could have a real chance at success.