Pics: Obama meets & hugs first nurse to contract Ebola in the US

Nurse Nina Pham, the first person to contract Ebola in the US met with president Obama at The
White this afternoon where she received a hug from him.
Nina, who contracted Ebola while treating Liberian Thomas Eric Duncan at the Emory University hospital in Texas, is now free from the virus after being successfully treated at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda.
When
President Obama heard she was Ebola-free, he sent word to her asking if he could hug her and she agreed to meet him.

“Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago,” -President Obama

In a deeply personal reflection on race, President Obama today said the African American community is frustrated and pained by the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting of Trayvon Martin because of a “history that doesn’t go away.”

“Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 yearsbago,” the president said in his first on-campus response to Saturday’s verdict. “In the African American community at least, there’s a lot of pain around what happened here. I think it's important to recognize that the African American community is looking at this issue through a set of experiences and a history that doesn’t go away.”

Zimmerman, 29, shot Martin, who was 17, claiming it was in self-defense. The not guilty verdict triggered outrage in cities across the
country.

Making a surprise appearance in the White House briefing room, the president said African American men, in particular, have become accustomed to being viewed with
suspicion.

“There are very few African-American men in this country who haven’t had the experience of being followed when they were shopping in a department store. That includes me,” he said.

“There are very few African-American men who haven’t had the experience of walking across the street and hearing the locks click on the doors of cars. That happens to me, at least before I was a senator.

There are very few African-Americans who haven’t had thebexperience of getting on an elevator and a woman clutching her purse nervously and holding her breath until she had a chance to get off. That happens often,” he said.

A senior white house aide told ABC News that after watching the debate over the Zimmerman verdict for five days and talking about it privately with family and friends, including first lady Michelle Obama, the president called his senior staff into the Oval Office Thursday afternoon to say he wanted to “speak from the heart” and make some personal remarks about
Martin’s death and trial.

The president decided the best thing to do would be to come to the briefing room unannounced and deliver his heartfelt remarks directly to reporters.

The president said the African American community is not “naïve” to the fact that young African-American men are disproportionately involved in the criminal justice system, both as victims and perpetrators, but that a lack of context adds to the public frustration.

“We understand that some of the violence that takes place in poor black neighborhoods around the country is born out of a very violent past in this country, and that the poverty and dysfunction that we see in those communities can be traced to a very difficult history,” he said.

“So folks understand the challenges that exist for African American boys, but they get frustrated, I think, if they feel that there’s no context for it and that context is being denied.”

The president called for a review of the “stand your ground laws,” but stopped short of calling for a national dialogue on race relations, saying attempts by politicians to drive those discussions “end up being stilted and politicized.”

“For those who resist that idea that we should think about something like these ‘stand your ground’ laws, I just ask people to consider if Trayvon Martin was of age and armed, could he have stood his ground on that sidewalk?
And do we actually think that he would have been justified in shooting Mr. Zimmerman, who had followed him in a car, because he felt threatened?” Obama asked. “If the answer to that question is at least ambiguous, it seems to me that we might want to examine those kinds
of laws.”

As a nation, the president said, “We need to spend some time in thinking about how do we bolster and reinforce our African-American
boys.,''

“I’m not naive about the prospects of some brand new federal program. I’m not sure that that’s what we’re talking about here. But I do recognize that as president, I’ve got somebconvening power,” he said.

Finally, he urged Americans to do some “souls searching” and was optimistic that progress is
occurring.

“Things are getting better. Each successive generation seems to be making progress in changing attitudes when it comes to race. It doesn’t mean that we’re in a postracial society.

It doesn’t mean that racism is eliminated. But you know, when I talk to Malia and Sasha and I listen to their friends and I see them interact, they’re better than we are. They’re better than we were on these issues,” he said.

Obama underscored that “in a case such as this, reasonable doubt was relevant, and [the jury] rendered a verdict. And once the jury's spoken, that’s how our system works.”

On behalf of himself and the First Lady, the president offered his thoughts and prayers to the family of Trayvon Martin, saying they have dealt with the situation with “incredible grace
and dignity.”

“I can only imagine what they’re going through, and it’s — it’s remarkable how they’ve handled it,” he said.
Martin’s parents, Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, issued a statement saying, “We are deeply honored and moved that President Obama took the time to speak publicly and at length about our son, Trayvon.”
They said the president’s comment that he
“sees himself in Trayvon … is a beautiful tribute to our boy.”

SOURCE: abcnews

Obama pays tribute as ailing Mandela turns 95

US President Barack Obama paid warm tribute to South African Nelson Mandela for his 95th birthday on Thursday, which the anti-apartheid icon will spend in hospital recovering from a lung infection.

Obama’s message came as Mandela’s youngest daughter Zindzi said her father was making “remarkable” progress, and as admirers around the world prepared to honour the former South African president’s legacy with a wave of charitable acts.

Obama, who visited South Africa last month but was unable to see Mandela because of his illness, was fulsome in his praise of the former statesman, referring to him by his clan name, Madiba.

“Our family was deeply moved by our visit to Madiba’s former cell on Robben Island during our recent trip to South Africa, and we will forever draw strength and inspiration from his extraordinary example of moral courage, kindness, and humility,” Obama said in a statement.

The president called on people to honour the elderly leader by taking part in Nelson Mandela Day on Thursday, when admirers around the world will uphold his legacy with charitable acts.

Biker gangs will clean the streets, volunteers will paint schools and politicians will spend 67 minutes on worthy projects — all to mark Mandela’s 67 years of public service.

“Let us return Madiba’s sacrifices and contributions through our own efforts to build a better society,” said South African President
Jacob Zuma.

Near Pretoria, Zuma himself will try to channel Mandela’s cross-community appeal by delivering government housing to poor whites.

Children in schools around the country will kick off the day by singing “Happy Birthday” to the former prisoner, who also marks 15th anniversary of his marriage to third wife Graca
Machel.

The government will also host a ceremony for the symbolic handing over of Mandela’s new high-tech ID card, which will be received by Zindzi.

The event is laden with symbolism in a country where apartheid was enforced by pass books, which black citizens were forced to carry and which limited movement to certain areas at certain times.

The United Nations declared the Nobel Peace laureate’s birthday Mandela Day in 2010, but for many this year it takes on extra poignancy.

Mandela has spent the last 41 days in a Pretoria hospital in critical but stable condition after being admitted for a recurring lung infection.

Family and friends have said he is now responding to treatment and breathing with the aid of a machine.
Zindzi said her father was making “remarkable” progress in hospital.

“He responds very well… with his eyes, and he nods and sometimes he lifts his hand like to shake your hand,” she told Britain’s Sky News on Wednesday.

Mandela’s successor as president, Thabo Mbeki, has even suggested he might be discharged from hospital soon.

“There was a time that we were all extremely anxious and worried, and we were prepared for the worst,” said Zindzi. “But he continues to amaze us every day.”

– ‘Make the world a better place’ –
Global luminaries, pop stars and ordinary people around the world have joined South Africans in pledging support for Mandela on his birthday.

“I will also be giving my 67 minutes to make the world a better place, one small step at a time,” British business magnate Richard Branson vowed in a recorded message.

In Manila, capital of the Philippines, 50 abandoned street children will get a television studio tour and see performances by local artists.

On Saturday, the Australian city of Melbourne will hold a concert featuring local and African artists, while a music festival later this year in Norway will promote equality in schools.

Born on July 18, 1918, Mandela fought against white rule in South Africa as a young lawyer and was convicted of treason in 1964.

He spent the next 27 years in jail.
It was in part through his willingness to forgive his white jailers that Mandela made his indelible mark on history.

After negotiating an end to apartheid, he became South Africa’s first black president, drawing a line under centuries of colonial and racist suppression.

He then led reconciliation in the deeply divided country.
Mandela’s peace-making spirit has won him worldwide respect.

“Never before in history was one human being so universally acknowledged in his lifetime as the embodiment of magnanimity and reconciliation as Nelson Mandela,” said Archbishop Desmond Tutu, himself a Nobel Peace laureate.

But the sunset of Mandela’s life has been somewhat eclipsed by bitter infighting among
his relatives.

A row over his final resting place has seen three of his children’s graves dug up and their remains moved amid public brawling and legal action among his children and grandchildren.