<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:10pt">from: http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Ann_Dunham<br><br><h1 class="firstHeading">Stanley Ann Dunham</h1>
<h3 id="siteSub">From Metapedia</h3>
<div id="jump-to-nav">Jump to: <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Ann_Dunham#column-one">navigation</a>, <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Ann_Dunham#searchInput">search</a></div> <!-- start content -->
<div class="thumb tright"><div class="thumbinner" style="width: 202px;"><a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Image:Anndunham.jpg" class="internal" title="Stanley Ann Dunham, Mercer Island High School"><img alt="Stanley Ann Dunham, Mercer Island High School" longdesc="/wiki/Image:Anndunham.jpg" class="thumbimage" src="http://en.metapedia.org/w/images/0/0b/Anndunham.jpg" height="235" width="200"></a> <div class="thumbcaption"><div class="magnify" style="float: right;"><a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Image:Anndunham.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge"><img src="http://en.metapedia.org/w/skins/common/images/magnify-clip.png" alt="" height="11" width="15"></a></div>Stanley Ann Dunham, Mercer Island High School</div></div></div>
<p><b>Stanley Ann Dunham Soetoro</b> later <b>Sutoro</b> (<a href="http://en.metapedia.org/w/index.php?title=November_29&action=edit" class="new" title="November 29">November 29</a>, <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/w/index.php?title=1942&action=edit" class="new" title="1942">1942</a> - <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/w/index.php?title=November_7&action=edit" class="new" title="November 7">November 7</a>, <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/1995" title="1995">1995</a>), also known as <b>Ann Dunham</b> and <b>Stanley Ann Dunham</b>, was an American <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Cultural_anthropologist" title="Cultural anthropologist">cultural anthropologist</a>, <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Left-wing" title="Left-wing">left-wing</a> social activist, and the mother of <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/US_Senator" title="US Senator">Senator</a> <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama" title="Barack
Obama">Barack Obama</a> and <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Maya_Soetoro" title="Maya Soetoro">Maya Soetoro</a>. She was born on an <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/United_States_Army" title="United States Army">Army</a> base at <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Fort_Leavenworth" title="Fort Leavenworth">Fort Leavenworth</a>, <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Kansas" title="Kansas">Kansas</a>, to <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Armour_Dunham" title="Stanley Armour Dunham">Stanley</a> and <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Madelyn_Dunham" title="Madelyn Dunham">Madelyn Dunham</a>.
Her father (who gave his only child his name) was a furniture salesman
and her mother a bank vice president. The family lived in Kansas, <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/California" title="California">California</a>, <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Texas" title="Texas">Texas</a> and in 1955 moved to <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Seattle%2C_Washington" title="Seattle, Washington">Seattle, Washington</a>. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/14/us/politics/14obama.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1" class="external autonumber" title="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/14/us/politics/14obama.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1">[1]</a> A year later they moved to nearby Mercer Island so that 13-year old Ann could attend <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Mercer_Island_High_School" title="Mercer Island High School">Mercer Island High School</a> that had just opened. At the school she was on the debate team and graduated in 1960. <a href="http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004164387_brodeur05m.html"
class="external autonumber" title="http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004164387_brodeur05m.html">[2]</a>
</p>
<table id="toc" class="toc" summary="Contents"><tbody><tr><td><div id="toctitle"><h2>Contents</h2> <span class="toctoggle">[<a href="javascript:toggleToc()" class="internal" id="togglelink">hide</a>]</span></div>
<ul><li class="toclevel-1"><a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Ann_Dunham#Hawaii"><span class="tocnumber">1</span> <span class="toctext">Hawaii</span></a></li><li class="toclevel-1"><a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Ann_Dunham#Indonesia"><span class="tocnumber">2</span> <span class="toctext">Indonesia</span></a></li><li class="toclevel-1"><a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Ann_Dunham#Political_views"><span class="tocnumber">3</span> <span class="toctext">Political views</span></a></li><li class="toclevel-1"><a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Ann_Dunham#Dreams_from_My_Father"><span class="tocnumber">4</span> <span class="toctext">Dreams from My Father</span></a></li><li class="toclevel-1"><a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Ann_Dunham#Religion"><span class="tocnumber">5</span> <span class="toctext">Religion</span></a></li><li class="toclevel-1"><a
href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Ann_Dunham#2008_presidential_campaign_ad"><span class="tocnumber">6</span> <span class="toctext">2008 presidential campaign ad</span></a></li><li class="toclevel-1"><a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Ann_Dunham#External_links"><span class="tocnumber">7</span> <span class="toctext">External links</span></a></li></ul>
</td></tr></tbody></table><script type="text/javascript"> if (window.showTocToggle) { var tocShowText = "show"; var tocHideText = "hide"; showTocToggle(); } </script>
<a name="Hawaii"></a><h2> <span class="mw-headline">Hawaii</span></h2>
<div class="thumb tright"><div class="thumbinner" style="width: 202px;"><a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Image:Barackobamamom.jpg" class="internal" title="Ann Dunham and Barack Obama, Jr."><img alt="Ann Dunham and Barack Obama, Jr." longdesc="/wiki/Image:Barackobamamom.jpg" class="thumbimage" src="http://en.metapedia.org/w/images/thumb/d/dd/Barackobamamom.jpg/200px-Barackobamamom.jpg" height="289" width="200"></a> <div class="thumbcaption"><div class="magnify" style="float: right;"><a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Image:Barackobamamom.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge"><img src="http://en.metapedia.org/w/skins/common/images/magnify-clip.png" alt="" height="11" width="15"></a></div>Ann Dunham and Barack Obama, Jr.</div></div></div>
<p>Her family moved to Hawaii and Ann attended the <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/w/index.php?title=University_of_Hawaii&action=edit" class="new" title="University of Hawaii">University of Hawaii</a> at <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/w/index.php?title=Manoa&action=edit" class="new" title="Manoa">Manoa</a>, where she studied <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/w/index.php?title=Anthropology&action=edit" class="new" title="Anthropology">anthropology</a>. When Ann Dunham arrived in Hawaii, she was a full fledged radical leftist and practitioner of “<a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Critical_theory" title="Critical theory">critical theory</a>.” She also began to engage in <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Miscegenation" title="Miscegenation">miscegenation</a>
as part of her attack on society. Susan Blake, one of her friends has
stated she never dated “the crew-cut white boys,” “She had a world
view, even as a young girl. It was embracing the different, rather than
that ethnocentric thing of shunning the different. That was where her
mind took her.” In Hawaii she met <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama%2C_Sr." title="Barack Obama, Sr.">Barack Obama, Sr.</a> from <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Kenya" title="Kenya">Kenya</a> in her <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Russian_language" title="Russian language">Russian language</a> class. <a href="http://www.midweek.com/content/story/midweek_coverstory/08_year_of_obama/P1/" class="external autonumber" title="http://www.midweek.com/content/story/midweek_coverstory/08_year_of_obama/P1/">[3]</a> They were married February 2, 1961 in Maui. <a href="http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1729524,00.html" class="external autonumber" title="http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1729524,00.html">[4]</a> Barack Obama, Jr. was born August 4, 1961. Shortly thereafter Ann left the University of Hawaii after only one semester.
</p><p><a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama%2C_Sr." title="Barack Obama, Sr.">Barack Obama, Sr.</a> left Ann and their son in 1963 to attend <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Harvard" title="Harvard">Harvard</a> in <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Boston" title="Boston">Boston</a>.
The senior Obama obtained a masters degree in economics at Harvard and
returned to Kenya in 1965 where he obtained a position in the Kenyan
government. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Ann_Dunham#error_in_article" class="external autonumber" title="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Ann_Dunham#error_in_article">[5]</a> He died in an automobile accident in 1982.
</p><p>Ann Dunham Obama filed for divorce in January 1964, citing
"grievous mental suffering." By this time she had returned to the
University of Hawaii and would earn her bachelor’s degree.
</p>
<a name="Indonesia"></a><h2> <span class="mw-headline">Indonesia</span></h2>
<div class="thumb tright"><div class="thumbinner" style="width: 202px;"><a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Image:Obama01.jpg" class="internal" title="Lolo Soetoro, Ann Dunham, Barack Obama, and infant daughter Maya"><img alt="Lolo Soetoro, Ann Dunham, Barack Obama, and infant daughter Maya" longdesc="/wiki/Image:Obama01.jpg" class="thumbimage" src="http://en.metapedia.org/w/images/thumb/c/ce/Obama01.jpg/200px-Obama01.jpg" height="120" width="200"></a> <div class="thumbcaption"><div class="magnify" style="float: right;"><a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Image:Obama01.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge"><img src="http://en.metapedia.org/w/skins/common/images/magnify-clip.png" alt="" height="11" width="15"></a></div>Lolo Soetoro, Ann Dunham, <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama" title="Barack Obama">Barack Obama</a>, and infant daughter Maya</div></div></div>
<p>In 1967 Ann Dunham married <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Lolo_Soetoro" title="Lolo Soetoro">Lolo Soetoro</a>, an Indonesian oil manager and practicing Muslim whom she meet at the university. <a href="http://www.examiner.com/a-534540%7ECan_a_past_of_Islam_change_the_path_to__president_.html" class="external autonumber" title="http://www.examiner.com/a-534540~Can_a_past_of_Islam_change_the_path_to__president_.html">[6]</a> Later that year they moved to <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Jakarta%2C_Indonesia" title="Jakarta, Indonesia">Jakarta, Indonesia</a>. While in Indonesia Ann got a job at the American embassy teaching English. <a href="http://www.newshounds.us/2006/12/14/required_reading_in_preparation_for_the_swiftboating_of_obama.php" class="external autonumber" title="http://www.newshounds.us/2006/12/14/required_reading_in_preparation_for_the_swiftboating_of_obama.php">[7]</a>
</p><p>Barack's half-sister, <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Maya_Soetoro" title="Maya Soetoro">Maya Soetoro</a>
was born in Indonesia in 1970. Ann, Obama and his sister Maya moved
back to Hawaii in 1974 attending the University of Hawaii as a graduate
student. Three years later Ann Dunham returned to Indonesia with Maya,
leaving Barack to be raised by his grandparents. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/14/us/politics/14obama.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1" class="external autonumber" title="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/14/us/politics/14obama.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1">[8]</a> She divorced Soetoro in 1980.
</p><p>Dunham traveled around the world, pursuing a career in rural development that took her to <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ghana&action=edit" class="new" title="Ghana">Ghana</a>, <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/India" title="India">India</a>, <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/w/index.php?title=Thailand&action=edit" class="new" title="Thailand">Thailand</a>, <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Indonesia" title="Indonesia">Indonesia</a>, <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nepal&action=edit" class="new" title="Nepal">Nepal</a> and <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bangladesh&action=edit" class="new" title="Bangladesh">Bangladesh</a>. In 1986 Ann Dunham worked on a developmental project in <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Pakistan" title="Pakistan">Pakistan</a>. Later that year Ann and her daughter traveled the <a
href="http://en.metapedia.org/w/index.php?title=Silk_Road&action=edit" class="new" title="Silk Road">Silk Road</a> in <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/China" title="China">China</a>. <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20080211/pl_bloomberg/aoowmgwy_via" class="external autonumber" title="http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20080211/pl_bloomberg/aoowmgwy_via">[9]</a>
In 1992 she earned a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of
Hawaii. Her dissertation, "Peasant blacksmithing in Indonesia:
Surviving and Thriving Against All Odds," was 1067 pages long. She
worked for the <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ford_Foundation&action=edit" class="new" title="Ford Foundation">Ford Foundation</a> and promoted <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/w/index.php?title=Microlending&action=edit" class="new" title="Microlending">Microlending</a>.
</p>
<a name="Political_views"></a><h2> <span class="mw-headline">Political views</span></h2>
<div class="thumb tright"><div class="thumbinner" style="width: 202px;"><a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Image:Barackobamasr.jpg" class="internal" title="Barack Obama, Sr. and Ann on his return visit to Hawaii, December 1971"><img alt="Barack Obama, Sr. and Ann on his return visit to Hawaii, December 1971" longdesc="/wiki/Image:Barackobamasr.jpg" class="thumbimage" src="http://en.metapedia.org/w/images/c/c8/Barackobamasr.jpg" height="182" width="200"></a> <div class="thumbcaption"><div class="magnify" style="float: right;"><a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Image:Barackobamasr.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge"><img src="http://en.metapedia.org/w/skins/common/images/magnify-clip.png" alt="" height="11" width="15"></a></div>Barack Obama, Sr. and Ann on his return visit to Hawaii, December 1971</div></div></div>
<p>During Obama's campaign for the <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/2008_presidential_election" title="2008 presidential election">2008 presidential election</a> he portrayed his mother as a <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Conservative" title="Conservative">conservative</a> girl from <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Kansas" title="Kansas">Kansas</a>; however in reality she was a radical <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Leftist" title="Leftist">leftist</a> and <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Cutural_Marxist" title="Cutural Marxist">cutural Marxist</a>. She lived in the <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Seattle" title="Seattle">Seattle</a>
area; spending her teenage years in Seattle’s coffee shops with other
young leftist radicals. Obama claims his mother's family were
conserevative <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/w/index.php?title=Methodists&action=edit" class="new" title="Methodists">Methodists</a> or <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/w/index.php?title=Baptists&action=edit" class="new" title="Baptists">Baptists</a> from Kansas. However his mother's parents were members of a <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Left-wing" title="Left-wing">left-wing</a> <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/w/index.php?title=Unitarian_church&action=edit" class="new" title="Unitarian church">Unitarian church</a> near Seattle. The church located in <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bellevue%2C_Washington&action=edit" class="new" title="Bellevue, Washington">Bellevue, Washington</a> was nicknamed "the little red church," because of it’s <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Communist" title="Communist">communist</a> leanings.
</p><p>The school Ann attended, Mercer Island High School, was a hotbed
of pro-Marxist radical teachers. John Stenhouse, board member, told the
<a href="http://en.metapedia.org/w/index.php?title=House_Un-American_Activities_Subcommittee&action=edit" class="new" title="House Un-American Activities Subcommittee">House Un-American Activities Subcommittee</a> that he had been a member of the <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Communist_Party_USA" title="Communist Party USA">Communist Party USA</a> and this school has a number of Marxists on it's staff. Two teachers at this school, Val Foubert and Jim Wichterman, both <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Frankfurt_School" title="Frankfurt School">Frankfurt School</a> style <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Marxists" title="Marxists">Marxists</a>, taught a <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Critical_theory" title="Critical theory">critical theory</a>
curriculum to students which included; rejection of societal norms,
attacks on Christianity, the traditional family, and assigned readings
by <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Karl_Marx" title="Karl Marx">Karl Marx</a>. The hallway between Foubert’s and Wichterman classrooms was sometimes called <i>"anarchy ally."</i>
</p><p>Dunham has been described by her friends as "a <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fellow_traveler&action=edit" class="new" title="Fellow traveler">fellow traveler</a>..." meaning a communist sympathizer. <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/chi-0703270151mar27,0,5157609.story?page=3" class="external autonumber" title="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/chi-0703270151mar27,0,5157609.story?page=3">[10]</a>
</p><p>In an interview, Barack Obama referred to his mother as "the
dominant figure in my formative years... The values she taught me
continue to be my touchstone when it comes to how I go about the world
of politics." </p><p>Before she died Ann Dunham wanted to adopt a mixed-race Korean baby father by a Black American stationed in South Korea. <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20080211/pl_bloomberg/aoowmgwy_via" class="external autonumber" title="http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20080211/pl_bloomberg/aoowmgwy_via">[11]</a> Ann Dunham died in Hawaii in 1995 of ovarian cancer and uterine cancer.
</p>
<a name="Dreams_from_My_Father"></a><h2> <span class="mw-headline">Dreams from My Father</span></h2>
<p>She helped her son write his book, <i><a href="http://en.metapedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dreams_from_My_Father&action=edit" class="new" title="Dreams from My Father">Dreams from My Father</a></i>, while she was battling cancer. Obama wrote:
</p>
<dl><dd>During the writing of this book, she would read the drafts,
correcting stories that I had misunderstood, careful not to comment on
my characterizations of her but quick to explain or defend the less
flattering aspects of my father's character.<sup id="_ref-0" class="reference"><a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Ann_Dunham#_note-0" title="">[1]</a></sup>
</dd></dl>
<p>Obama noted in the book that it was Ann rather than his natural father who taught him about his <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/African_American" title="African American">African American</a> heritage.
</p>
<dl><dd>She would come home with books on the civil rights movement, the recordings of <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mahalia_Jackson&action=edit" class="new" title="Mahalia Jackson">Mahalia Jackson</a>, the speeches of <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King" title="Martin Luther King">Dr. King</a>.
When she told me stories of schoolchildren in the South who were forced
to read books handed down from wealthier white schools but who went on
to become doctors and lawyers and scientists, I felt chastened by my
reluctance to wake up and study in the mornings… Every black man was <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/w/index.php?title=Thurgood_Marshall&action=edit" class="new" title="Thurgood Marshall">Thurgood Marshall</a> or <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sidney_Poitier&action=edit" class="new" title="Sidney Poitier">Sidney Poitier</a>; every black woman <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fannie_Lou_Hamer&action=edit" class="new" title="Fannie Lou Hamer">Fannie Lou Hamer</a> or <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lena_Horne&action=edit" class="new" title="Lena Horne">Lena Horne</a>.
To be black was to be the beneficiary of a great inheritance, a special
destiny, glorious burdens that only we were strong enough to bear.<sup id="_ref-1" class="reference"><a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Ann_Dunham#_note-1" title="">[2]</a></sup>
</dd></dl>
<p>Obama noted in the book that he might have written a different book if he had known she was dying when he wrote it:
</p>
<dl><dd>I think sometimes that had I known she would not survive her
illness, I might have written a different book—less a meditation on the
absent parent, more a celebration of the one who was the single
constant in my life. In my daughters I see her every day, her joy, her
capacity for wonder. I won't try to describe how deeply I mourn her
passing still. I know that she was the kindest, most generous spirit I
have ever known, and that what is best in me I owe to her.<sup id="_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Ann_Dunham#_note-2" title="">[3]</a></sup>
</dd></dl>
<a name="Religion"></a><h2> <span class="mw-headline">Religion</span></h2>
<p>Barack Obama has said of Ann Dunham, "My mother was a Christian from Kansas."<sup id="_ref-3" class="reference"><a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Ann_Dunham#_note-3" title="">[4]</a></sup><sup id="_ref-4" class="reference"><a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Ann_Dunham#_note-4" title="">[5]</a></sup>
Earlier he had said, "I was not raised in a religious household... My
mother's own experiences... only reinforced this inherited skepticism.
Her memories of the Christians who populated her youth were not fond
ones... And yet for all her professed secularism, my mother was in many
ways the most spiritually awakened person that I've ever known."<sup id="_ref-5" class="reference"><a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Ann_Dunham#_note-5" title="">[6]</a></sup> And his half-sister, <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Maya_Soetoro-Ng" title="Maya Soetoro-Ng">Maya</a> said, when asked if their mother was an <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/w/index.php?title=Atheist&action=edit" class="new" title="Atheist">atheist</a>, "I wouldn't have called her an atheist," she said. "She was an <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/w/index.php?title=Agnostic&action=edit" class="new" title="Agnostic">agnostic</a>. She basically gave us all the good books—the <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Bible" title="Bible">Bible</a>, the Hindu <a href="http://en.metapedia.org/w/index.php?title=Upanishad&action=edit" class="new" title="Upanishad">Upanishads</a> and the Buddhist scripture, the <a
href="http://en.metapedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tao_Te_Ching&action=edit" class="new" title="Tao Te Ching">Tao Te Ching</a>—and wanted us to recognize that everyone has something beautiful to contribute."<sup id="_ref-6" class="reference"><a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Ann_Dunham#_note-6" title="">[7]</a></sup>
And, from another source, "She touted herself as an atheist, and it was
something she'd read about and could argue," said Maxine Box, who was
Dunham's best friend."<sup id="_ref-7" class="reference"><a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Ann_Dunham#_note-7" title="">[8]</a></sup> One of her freinds said of her “She always felt that marriage as an institution was not particularly essential or important,”<a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23623222/page/2/" class="external autonumber" title="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23623222/page/2/">[12]</a>
</p>
<a name="2008_presidential_campaign_ad"></a><h2> <span class="mw-headline">2008 presidential campaign ad</span></h2>
<p>A photograph of her holding a young Obama was included in a
30-second television advertisement called “Mother.” Obama says in the
ad, which focuses on his calls for health care improvements, that his
mother spent her final months "more worried about paying her medical
bills than getting well."<sup id="_ref-8" class="reference"><a href="http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Ann_Dunham#_note-8" title="">[9]</a></sup>
</p>
<a name="External_links"></a><h2> <span class="mw-headline">External links</span></h2>
<ul><li> <a href="http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1729524,00.html" class="external text" title="http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1729524,00.html">The Story of Barack Obama's Mother</a>
</li><li> <a href="http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/JB26Aa01.html" class="external text" title="http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/JB26Aa01.html">Obama's women reveal his secret</a>
</li><li> <a href="http://cofcc.org/?p=1171#more-1171" class="external text" title="http://cofcc.org/?p=1171#more-1171">Obamination. Chicago Tribune blows lid of more Obama lies.</a>
</li><li> <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/chi-0703270151mar27,0,5157609.story?page=3" class="external text" title="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/chi-0703270151mar27,0,5157609.story?page=3">Obama's mom: Not just a girl from Kansas</a>
</li><li> <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23623222/" class="external text" title="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23623222/">Free-spirited wanderer set Obama’s path</a>
</li></ul></div><br>
</body></html>