Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Barack Obama both made their way to Washington at almost exactly the same time from opposite ends of the planet, Ali from Somalia and Obama presumably from Hawaii.
Before arriving in D.C. to work at the American Enterprise Institute, Ali endured genital mutilation, malaria, a nearly fatal beating by her Quran teacher, a brutal civil war, unspeakable poverty, parental rejection, a knife attack, a coerced marriage and several months of forced hiding after her film collaborator, Theo Van Gogh, was murdered and her life threatened.
Before arriving in D.C. to serve as U.S. senator, Obama endured a pleasant childhood in Indonesia, posh private schooling in Hawaii, a subsidized education at America's best universities and law schools, a comfortable life in Chicago and, oh yeah, a few raised eyebrows about his mixed heritage along the way.
So why was it that when each of the two sat down to write his or her respective memoirs, it was Ali who wrote about her blessings and Obama who wrote about his grievances?
In the traditional hero saga, like Ayann Hirsi Ali's brilliant up-from-Islam memoir, "Infidel," the individual is expected to overcome hardship and injustice.
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