The new Obama Presidential Center in Chicago opened in time for this year’s June 19th Juneteenth holiday, and from all accounts, it’s something important to see. At this point it doesn’t matter whether you admired, supported, or loathed our nation’s 44th president and his wife Michelle; when the dust settles, I suspect this historic couple will be judged as much by what they did as what they did not do.
The Obamas, their girls, her mother, and their dog captured the world’s attention as the nation’s first African American presidential family. For many African Americans, their election in 2008 was a dream hardly anyone expected to see lived out in their lifetime.
Mrs. Obama challenged us to get moving and eat healthy, locally grown foods. She invited ordinary people to the White House and explained her first job was Mommy-in-Chief. She was smart, well-spoken, fiercely protective, and charming.
Her hair and clothes were incessantly discussed and emulated, and when the name calling and distractions kept coming, her response was firm but positive: “When they go low, we go high.”
During her dedication remarks, she applauded her husband’s care and steady hand with the nation’s finances and resources—especially military personnel and their families. She said he was civil, kept his cool under pressure, respected people of all races, abilities, and genders, and worked tirelessly to leave the nation better than he found it.
The crowd seemed to agree that President Obama’s calm demeanor and vision for a more perfect nation would be his legacy. She said he made it look easy.
He did, and while there were crises, his successful re-election in 2012 confirmed that his love and care for conditions around the world were never far from his thoughts.
In his remarks President Obama said he’s pretty sure we, all of us, are looking for “fairness and common sense, and mutual respect,” not perpetual anger, despair, and division. He’s right.
The $850 million center, located in Jackson Park on Chicago’s South Side, is not a monument to the Obamas but rather a gathering place for the community and those who want to “find a way to turn toward each other again and not further away,” he said.
Ten years in the making, the facility houses a public library, a basketball court, garden, and museum. The three living former U.S. presidents, world and state leaders, entertainers, and “massive crowds,” attended and celebrated the opening.
News reports indicated that President Donald Trump wasn’t invited. Mr. Trump, in his first term, tore up the Obama 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran and was vocal about his dislike for President Obama’s policies around Iran and its nuclear capabilities. The comparison of the two agreements remains an issue for Mr. Trump as he works to end the current war.
During the G-7 summit in France earlier this month, Mr. Trump reportedly called President Obama a “stupid son of a b—h” while criticizing Obama’s Iran deal.
Center admission is booked through October but I pray its high ideals for inclusion, respect, civility, dignity, and healing are realized in every visitor; like the Obamas, however, we, too, will be judged by what we do or don’t do to bring hope and healing for our fractured world. Let’s aim high…
