With the re-emergence of a positive cult of personality in U.S. politics in the form of Barack Obama, interest in government has become cool again, not just for young people, but for everyone. The dynamic Illinois Senator has galvanized millions in America and around the world with a message of hope, of change and of sound social policy to fix a culture and economy hellbent on greed for fuel.
While the arch-conservative, militant Christian zealots and big business sycophants of the Republican Party use desperate negative politics in a vain attempt to rust his shine and elicit irrational fear in small town Middle America, Obama has consistently taken the high road.
But if we roll back on that road, where will it lead? Allow us to play virtual guide on the Barack Obama tour.
This small village in the Siaya District of Nyanza Province, Kenya is the birthplace of Barack Obama, Sr. Many of Barack Obama’s family members still reside in the village, his step-grandmother among them. Obama’s father came to the state of Hawaii to study at the University of Hawaii at the age of 23. There, he met Ann Dunham, Barack’s mother. After only two years of marriage and one son, the couple would divorce. Barack Obama Sr. went on to receive a Master’s from Harvard and upon his return to his native Kenya, took a government post as economic adviser to the Ministry of Transportation. Subsequent strife with then President Kenyatta hurt his career and a downward spiral, marked by alcohol abuse, led to two violent car accidents – the second one fatal in 1982.
Barack Obama’s home state is Hawaii. He was born in Honolulu and spent many of his formative childhood and adolescent years in the city, where he went to Punahou School. For most of his time in Hawaii, Obama lived with his maternal grandparents and felt a sense of opportunity and multi-racial respect in the state that perhaps would not have been as apparent in other parts of the continental United States.
His mother’s relationship and subsequent re-marriage to a man from Indonesia is the only geographical interruption in Obama’s childhood and pre-college years. After a move to the vast capital of Jakarta at the age of 6, Obama spent three years at St. Francis Assisi Catholic school and one year at a state-run school.
Obama’s freshman and sophomore years of college were perhaps not the ideal picture of a future President. But then again, John McCain was almost dead last in his class at the U.S. Naval Academy and George W. Bush has the I.Q. of a lettuce leaf. The point is that Obama’s time at liberal arts Occidental College, in the shadow of Hollywood, set the stage for a prolific period of academic and career milestones.
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From one coast to the next, Barack Obama’s transfer to Columbia University thrust him into a world class Ivy League institution, where he would study political science and international relations with Manhattan as a backdrop. Upon graduation, Obama went to work for the Business International Corporation and New York Public Interest Research Group.
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After four years in New York City, Obama went to the Windy City, Chicago, in order to make his mark. With the Civil Rights Movement as a major source of inspiration, Obama was compelled to put his skills to good use as a charismatic and energetic community organizer and activist. Obama would later return to Chicago after his law degree to settle down with wife Michelle and forge a career at the law faculty at the University of Chicago and in city politics.
Cambridge and Boston, Massachusetts
The campus of Harvard University is where Barack Obama hit his stride in 1988 as a potential leader on a local and national stage. As the first black editor-in-chief of the venerable Harvard Law Review, he was thrust into the spotlight. Obama’s subsequent success and graduation at the top of his class drew the attention of the University of Chicago, where, in a move to lure him to teach at the institution, he was granted a fellowship to write a book.
Bali is a good place to search your soul for creative inspiration and with Michelle at his side, Barack Obama did just that. With the distractions inherent in Chicago out of the way, after several months, the manuscript for the future bestseller Dreams from My Father was complete.
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In his position as a state senator in the Illinois capital of Springfield, Obama in essence, set the foundation for a run at federal politics. Throughout his tenure in the attractive town with a metro population of 200,000, Obama’s style was conciliatory but tough, fair but firm. Springfield’s importance to him was evident when, in February of 2007, he made the now famous announcement that he would run for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States.
In 2004, Obama’s ran a successful campaign to represent Illinois as the state’s junior senator in Washington, D.C. His election meant a departure from Springfield and Chicago, but a great opportunity to lead on a national stage. Obama’s impression in the nation’s capital was soon felt, from his landmark speech at the Democratic Convention in 2004, to his vocal stance against the war in Iraq. It remains to be seen of course, how long Obama will enjoy the confines of beautiful D.C.
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