The Education of an Idealist: A Memoir

by Samantha Power

A teacher in Maine was placed on a three-week leave of absence because she had visited Dallas for a conference. A passenger who vomited on a flight from Dallas to Chicago was sequestered in the bathroom until the plane landed. A middle school principal in Mississippi was asked to stay home after parents learned that he had traveled to Zambia—a country on the other side of the continent from the affected region. The approaching midterm elections in November fed into the fearmongering and political posturing, with Republican members of Congress compounding the turmoil by demanding a government-imposed travel ban. House Speaker John Boehner encouraged the idea, and several Democrats facing tough reelection fights also offered their support. Some of Obama’s longtime critics, seeming to tap into the racist conspiracies suggesting the President was not fully American, accused him of prioritizing the lives of Africans over those of the American people.

This country, I’ll tell you 🙇‍♀️