the CHAMP

This honorable man is not just a representative of his father’s birthplace, Kenya (Africa), but he is a representative of all. No doubt he emerged as the first African-American President of the United States to represent not only the Americans or Africans but especially those unheard, discriminated because of one’s race, color or beliefs, poor, or even those ‘forgotten‘ (to quote the word he used in his November 4 Victory Speech).

 

The victory of a humble Democrat Barack (“blessed” in Arabic) Obama against Republican John McCain meant only one thing: change has come. In his speech, he said: “If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.”

 

Barack, the elected 44^th US President, is an African-American, who, more than a hundred years ago, Africans were treated slaves in the shores of America until the 20^th century.

 

Background

 

He was born on August 4, 1961 from a union of his Kansas-born mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, and his Kenyan-born father, Barack Obama Sr. Two years later, his father left to study at Harvard, who returned when he was 10 already.

 

He spent his childhood in Indonesia, the homeland of his stepfather Lolo Soetero; the exposure to Third World poverty, disease and beggars.

 

And then, after his mother’s second marriage broke up, the return to Hawaii. When his mother’s work as an anthropologist took her back to Indonessia, Obama – then known as Barry – stayed behind for high school, living with his maternal grandparents, Madelyn, known as Toot, short for tu-tu (Hawaiian for grandparent), and Stanley, or Gramps.

 

He played golf and poker, sang in a choir, wrote for the literary journal, listened to the music of Earth Wind & Fire, and lived for basketball. He kept a photo of his hero, pro star Julius Erving, on his bedroom wall, played on the high school team (his nickname was Barry O’Bomber) and practiced his left-handed pump shot into the night. “At least on the basketball court, I could find a community of sorts, with an inner life all its own.”

 

His life was shaped by this circumstances – living without a father, and with a mother who was often far away. I could summarize what his sister Maya has said about him: “He ended up being the kind of man who would solve problems on his won. He always has been a lone traveler, a gregarious guy and love people but he doesn’t expect those closest to him to be all things to him. He is deeply focused and has a sense of humor of humor.”

 

After high school, Obama entered Occidental College in Los Angeles, where he started using his birth name, Barack. He also attended Columbia University in New York because he wanted broader horizons. He graduated with a political science degree and held a few jobs in New York. And then a call from an aunt notifying him of an auto accident that killed his father. This eventually led him to Kenya.

 

After New York, Obama moved to Chicago, and worked in a low-paying job.

 

Working for the Developing Communities Project, Obama met black pastors and tried to mobilize people to agitate for them. He called this organizing work “the best education I ever had.” He became gradually a skilled conciliator. “He became very effective at getting people who initially did not get along… to work together and build alliances,” Gerald Kellman, the man who hired him.  

 

He also wrote fictional stories that evocatively captured the feel of the streets. He would alter write two best-selling books. He took the role of a father on Maya, after her own father died. He escorted her on college tours, introduced her to jazz, blues and classical music and consoled her when their mother died of ovarian cancer at age 53.

 

Then he attended Harvard Law School, the training ground for America’s elite, where he made history as the first black president of the Harvard Law Journal, a prestigious law journal. After his first year, Obama worked in a summer at a corporate law firm in Chicago where his adviser was Michelle Robinson, another Harvard law graduate and a product of a working class family. They later married, and had two daughters, Malia, and Sasha.

 

On the more positive side, Obama also impressed a wide number of influential Democrats and party donors who have proved invaluable in his campaigns. Among them is Abner Mikva, a former Illinois congressman and federal judge. “He likes to get along with people, listen to them, and has great talents and skills to build coalitions. He does nothing that’s different from most politicians, even the reform politicians. The difference is he is extraordinarily gifted. And he never makes the same mistake twice,” said Rose, the political strategist.

 

He became a lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School where he taught constitutional law. Richard Epstein, a law professor, said: “he is a great conversationalist and a good listener” while Sen Danny Jacobs said: “he was very inquisitive. He wanted to know why and ask a lot of questions.”

 

My Personal Admiration on him

 

If you would give yourself a time to read the entire transcript of his victory speech (which was available at CNN website), you will really admire him the way I do. For me, he is “very universal” for he includes all including those forgotten. I admire him so much not only for being an excellent speaker or whatever but really for possessing that good heart for those people being cared less. His heart has eyes that could see all of us as well as his eyes have a very loving heart. I believe that change has not only come to the UNITED States of America, but his victory brings change to the entire world. Give yourself a few minutes to read the transcript or even listen to his speech (at Youtube or CNN), and you will see how great and honorable this man is. I pray that after reading or listening, you, like me, will also say to yourself that really this man inspired the world. I wish him good luck and only the best. May God bless him and all his good plans for the US and the entire world. Barack Obama is really an inspiration to me, to you, to the Americans, Africans, and to the world.  Thanks God I am still alive when the historic rise of this great man to US presidency happened.