It’s 2008 and former US Secretary of State Colin Powell – a Republican – had just endorsed Barack Obama for the presidency. I can remember Powell being interviewed where he was challenged on the notion that Obama’s positive rhetoric was all very well and good, but ultimately wouldn’t add up to much. Essentially, the criticism was about style over substance. Powell’s response has always stuck with me and it popped into my head again this with the images of Jacinda Ardern and baby Neve at the UN General Assembly.

“Don’t underestimate the power of positive rhetoric”. It’s such an obvious truth, but it’s a reality of the human condition that we sometimes need repeated reminders of simple notions. The power of positive rhetoric. How depressing it would’ve been to have heard some of Obama’s stirring, articulate, graceful 2008 campaign speeches and been failed to be moved. To not comprehend the significance of the man who’d soon become the first African American President. To not appreciate the seeds that would be planted in young brains that positive change could happen and even more, that they could be part of it.

This corresponds with people whose staunch opposition to anything related to the Labour party means they’ve missed the boat on the importance of the images of Ardern with Neve at the UNGA in New York. Just as Powell said to not underestimate the power of positive rhetoric, nor should we ever underestimate the power of a positive image. Or any image for that matter.

To see Ardern shoulder to shoulder with something like 130 heads of state and to also have her baby daughter there isn’t just significant to Kiwis. Those images. There’s Ardern’s unfiltered grin at the surprise of seeing that Neve was indeed there in the General Assembly floor. She hadn’t expected she’d be there and that image tells the world – whether consciously or subconsciously – that parenthood and being a working professional don’t have to be mutually exclusive. Again with the seeds, but it also plants seeds that children aren’t a nuisance to be tolerated.

But included with the images of Clarke the full-time Dad, so too are the seeds planted in young, intelligent, socially-minded girls all over the world that maybe a career in politics could be for them. And for the blokes, the honour in being a stay-at-home dad if those are the cards you’ve been dealt or have chosen to play.

Most of us, when push comes to shove, will know the influence of images; the idea that a picture paints a thousand words. There’s Dame Whina Cooper leading the hikoi in the mid-70s, clutching the hand of her grandchild. The walking stick, the unsealed road, the distance ahead, the sense of a collective and multi-generational responsibility. All that and so much more.

As a music fan, I also think of things like Bruce Springsteen’s Born To Run album cover with the Boss pictured leaning on the huge shoulders of his best mate and E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons. Bruce is smiling and the mutual love between the two is there for anyone willing to see it. Over the years, Bruce has spoken at length about the significance of the cover: “a friendship and narrative steeped in the deep history of America”. Two men, one wiry and white, one big and black, and to think that didn’t intentionally convey messages of brotherhood and Bruce’s opinions about race relations is to not understand Bruce.

If Labour are politically not your bag, go hard on rebutting policies you disagree with and search for alternatives you believe would make New Zealand a better place. But don’t waste energy forcing yourself to be blasé about those wonderful images out of New York.

Tim Roxborogh hosts Newstalk ZB’s Weekend Collective and is filling-in for Andrew Dickens this week from 12pm-4pm.