Editor's Note: In the spirit of this series the author will not falter in discovering and acknowledging the elements of God's image in today's subject. However, this author is not God, and will work hard not to dilute the subject's love-ability with his unfortunate policy ideas. He will try not to....won't he Mr. Writer? “Yes Mr. Editor. I won't even capitalize the o, e and s after the D in the title above.”
The biography website I've been using was done around 2006 or so. This outdated factor has not been much of an issue with previous subjects, but the life of Barack Obama has changed most dramatically in the past several years. (His story here ends with his being a US Senator, and with the prediction that he might possibly run for president in 2012 or 2016! ) For the purposes of my analysis, this latter part of his story does not matter; God's love is not influenced by an office gained or held. (Furthermore, I will not let the current unsettled questions about Obama's birthplace interfere with the facts claimed by the biography.)
[To see what I'm up to here, read this introduction]
[To see what I'm up to here, read this introduction]
Born in Hawaii in 1961, Barack Obama was destined to be the first US President younger than myself! His father was from Kenya and met his mother (who was from Kansas) when they were both attending school in Hawaii. (In the same way Raj Gandhi met Sonia in England.) This marriage was discouraged by Barack Sr's family and ended within two years. The father left for Harvard University, and the mother remarried an Indonesian man, where the new family moved when Barack was 6.
He returned to Hawaii at 10 and lived with his maternal grandparents. His teen age years were difficult, as the rare African American was forced to deal with life in an otherwise white world; including his own home. Referring to a time of loafing at school, wasting time and using drugs, he said:
"I was affected by the problems that I think a lot of young African American teens have," he reflected in an interview with Kenneth Meeks for Black Enterprise. "They feel that they need to rebel against society as a way of proving their blackness. And often, this results in self-destructive behavior."
After leaving Hawaii for college in Los Angeles, Obama got serious about school. After transfering to Columbia, taking time to travel to Kenya, and earning his degree in political science, he eventually became a community organizer in Chicago. Moving on again, Barack was accepted at the Harvard Law School and, in 1990, was the first African American elected president of the Harvard Law Review journal.
Declining prestigious job offers Obama returned to Chicago where he worked for a small firm specializing in civil-rights law. He began to date Michelle Robinson, who would later become his wife and the mother of their two daughters. Around the same time Barack was busy teaching college classes and with political projects such as voter registration drives. He published his autobiography when he was 31, and won a seat in the Illinois state senate in 1996.
In the senate, Obama wrote and worked hard to pass, a bill which required police to note the race of the driver at every traffic stop. He ran for the US Congress in 2000, and lost, but ran for the US Senate in
2004, and won! That summer, John Kerry invited Obama to give the keynote address at the Democratic convention where he wowed the crowd, and the viewing public at large with his great rhetorical skills. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey, when discussing his eloquence, Barack said that he always knew he would have a career in the persuasive arts: "I knew I could win some arguments. I knew I could get my grandparents and mom frustrated!"
What QUALITIES OF GOD are evident in Barack Obama?
As God originally allowed for so much variety within each species, Barack Obama represents a DIVERSE heritage. Not only are his parents from differing continents, but he has lived for long periods in exotic places. Having been exposed to the black and white, the Christian and Muslim, the western and eastern worlds, he was given a BROAD MINDED world view.
Struggling in a discriminatory world challenged Obama to OVERCOME, and that he did well. His DETERMINATION to turn around his teen age apathy, and to EXCEL in school carried him far as he began to take advantage of his INTELLECTUAL gifts.
As Jesus Christ is called The Word of God, we are given a sign that our spoken word may have some resemblance to the POWER of God's COMMUNICATING nature. Barack Obama has been well known for his use of speech to get a point across, and to PERSUADE his listeners.
Excellent article. The first thing I noticed about Barrack Obama during the Presidential Election was that he was an excellent speaker.
ReplyDeleteI typically turn cold on election propaganda, and in previous elections could not care who won, I didn't care for anyone. Obama however seemed like the man for the job, and he did seem to be turning the problems left by Bush around, until the Republicans turned bitter and sabotaged everything that he did.
I wonder what could have been accomplished had Obama not been cut down every time he tried to do something right.
I was excited when I learned Obama would be running for president. Having read his books and followed some of his career, I felt he was destined for the presidency at some point in time. I am as supportive now as I was before the election.
ReplyDeleteim not an obama fan, but I know God loves him.
ReplyDeleteHmmmmm. I know I wrote something earlier, but regardless, as I know I said then in my mysteriously missing comment (which may just have been unposted by me - it's been a real day of thinklessness), Pres. Obama has been granted many wonderful gifts by God as have you and myself and others. It's up to us to put them to use and to recognize their source. Some use them for the wrong reasons, but they do use them. Others never use them because they don't realize they have them. No matter, though, we have them because God loves each and every one of us.
ReplyDeleteHappy Easter!!
The shame of the Obama presidency is that while he is trying to unite us, too many people are working to destroy him and our unity. He still stands strong despite all the propaganda being spread around about him. I don't think a lot of men or women would have been able to withstand the hatred that repeatedly gets shot toward Obama. Great blog. Please find my A-Z Challenge here: http://myheartblogstoyou.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeletethis was enlightening to me - a different perspective. all i've had were his actions and now i know a little more of the why.
ReplyDeletegood post =)