There's a new story on Barack Obama in the March 31 edition of Newsweek. It's a long one, seven pages long, and generally positive but in spite of what they say is two recent interviews with him, there's not too much new information on him and his life that most of his supporters who have delved into his history didn't already know.
They relate a couple of anecdotes from his life in Indonesia that flesh out his mother a little more and give us a better idea of how warm and generous she was.
He moved there with his idealistic mother—whom he has described as a "lonely witness for secular humanism"—when he was 6. The Asian archipelago was an eye-opener for a child who had been raised in the relative comforts of Hawaii. He didn't know what to make of the leper who came to his door, who had a hole where his nose was supposed to be and made a discomfiting "whistling sound" as he asked for food. He had to learn how to deal with street beggars of all types. Obama's bighearted mother gave easily.
There's a blurb that I'm afraid might get jumped on by some of his detractors and cause Barack some grief in much the same way as his 'typical white woman' comment did. I can understand the point that he's making and think it and other lessons his mother taught him are a large part of the reason he is so gracious and seems to connect with people of all stature, but it's a little clumsily phrased.
She also taught him "to disdain the blend of ignorance and arrogance that too often characterized Americans abroad," and made sure he was respectful of Indonesians and their culture. "My mother always distinguished between certain aspects of Americans abroad that she was embarrassed by: the expats who would never eat in a local restaurant or never socialize with Indonesians or had a patronizing attitude," Obama recalled to NEWSWEEK. "She was always concerned about me never thinking I was superior to Indonesians in that way."
The article does a whole lot of amateur psycho-analyzing of Barack, making assumptions of how he 'found himself' and in the process of discovering who he was, became Barack instead of the childhood Barry. To me, it sounds like a relatively normal path of life and maturity that most of us travel. I can't remember exactly when I asserted I wanted to be called Pat instead of Patsy but I imagine my decision was pretty normal for most people who grow out of their cute childhood names. Then again, I'm not running for the presidency so nobody really cares about me and my names! But Newsweek makes a fairly big deal of the supposed statement Barack was making about his race and his identity.
They talk to a few of his friends from Hawaii and several classmates from Occidental College. As has been written before, he has always been well respected and highly thought of by his friends and fellow students and teachers. He also apparently always had a presence that made people stop and listen to what he had to say.
He cites as an example Obama's speech during a rally of the Black Student Alliance and other groups concerning divestment from South Africa...... Then he saw Obama take the stage. He seemed so calm. People slowed down to listen. "He had this booming voice," Moore says. "It helped that people knew who he was [because he was popular on campus], but he also had this commanding presence." Moore says he was reminded of that moment when Obama gave his breakout speech to the Democratic National Convention in 2004. "I remember calling friends, saying, 'Are you watching this? That's our boy from school'."
All in all, a fairly interesting read. He's led such a very interesting life, I enjoy finding out new little details about the man who is going to be our next president.