The Pen And A Song
The Pen and the Song
I watched Trump sit with children at Easter telling the children the pen he had was Biden’s auto pen. South Lawn. White tents. Kids with baskets and patent leather shoes. A boy points at the Sharpie in Trump’s jacket pocket. Trump pulls it out, holds it up, and says, “You know what this is? This is Biden’s auto pen. He used this because he didn’t know what he was signing.” A few adults chuckle. The kids don’t. They’re waiting for him to draw a bunny. He puts the pen back. Photo op over.
The moment wasn’t about them. It couldn’t be. Not when the first instinct is to turn a kid’s question into a grown man’s score-settling. There was no insight into speaking. No pause to think, “What does a six-year-old need from me right now?” There was no empathy, no compassion. Just a pen, a punchline, and a chance to make the day about someone who wasn’t even there.
Obama and Michelle not the same singing with children showing a beautiful connection. I keep that clip in my head. Easter Egg Roll. Michelle’s on the grass in flats, jeans, sleeves rolled up. Barack’s cross-legged with a toddler half-asleep on his knee. They’re doing “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” with a hundred kids and the Sesame Street crew. Michelle locks eyes with a little girl who’s shy and whispers the words with her until the girl yells them. Barack misses a lyric, laughs at himself, keeps going. No cameras feel like cameras in that moment. It feels like a cookout. Like somebody’s aunt and uncle showed up and actually liked kids. That’s connection. That’s reading the room and deciding the room is five-year-olds.
And recently Obama and the mayor of New York, Mamdani, sang “The Wheels on the Bus” with preschoolers. Classroom in Queens. Construction paper on the walls. Twenty kids on the rug. Zohran Mamdani’s on the floor, tie loose, doing the hand motions. Obama’s next to him, sleeves rolled, “the wipers on the bus go swish, swish, swish.” No speech. No policy. No “let me tell you about City Hall.” Just two grown men who decided that for ten minutes the most important job was to be silly in front of kids who don’t vote yet. The kids don’t care who signed the bill. They care that you know the verse about the babies going “wah, wah, wah.”
That’s the line. Trump sat with children and gave them Biden’s auto pen. Obama sat with children and gave them himself. One made the moment about a grievance. The other made the moment about the kids. One showed them a prop. The others sang a song they already knew and let the kids lead.
Give me the leaders who get on the rug. Give me the ones who remember the words to “The Wheels on the Bus.” The pen can stay in the pocket.
Until next time,
Cathryn Murray Harris
