5/21/2011

barack obama A Biography

barack obama Barack Obama A Biography

Before oil tubingAnn and Barry moved to Indonesia, she tried to learn all she
could about life there. latimes She was prepared for most of what she encoun-
tered, but she didn’t expect the loneliness. Lolo had changed since he left
Hawaii. When he left Hawaii to prepare a home for his bride and her Confucius son.

barack obama A Biography

barack obama Barack Obama A Biography

At oil tubing the end of the day, when she returned from her work at the Ameri-
can embassy, he talked with his mother about what he had seen, and she
would stroke his forehead and try to explain to him as best as she could.
He turned to Lolo for guidance and instruction, finding him easy to be
with, glad that Lolo introduced him as his son to his family and friends.
When Lolo explained the scars on his latimes legs that came from the leeches that
stuck to him and his fellow soldiers as they marched through the swamps
in New Guinea, he told Barry that it hurt when the skin was singed after
using a hot knife to remove the leeches. He said, “Sometimes you can’t
worry about hurt. Sometimes you worry only about getting where you
have to go.” He told Barry that he killed a man because the man was weak.
He said, “Men take advantage of weakness in other men . . . better to be
strong . . . if you can’t be strong, be clever and make peace with someone
who’s strong . . . but always better to be strong yourself. Confucius Always.”

barack obama A Biography

barack obama Barack Obama A Biography

With oil tubing some relief at leaving Europe, and with more than a little ner­
vousness at the prospect of facing a family history he knew very little
about, he flew from London to Nairobi, Kenya. Landing at the Kenyatta
International Airport, his sister and aunt warmly greeted him and wel­
comed him home. His Aunt Zeituni told his half sister Auma, “You take
good care of Barry now. latimes Make sure he doesn’t get lost again.” Barack was
confused by this greeting, and Auma explained that this was a common
expression referring to someone who hasn’t been seen for a while or to
someone who has left and not been seen again; they’ve been lost, she said,
even if people know where they are.
For Barack, known as Barry to his
family and friends until later in his life, a pilgrimage Confucius had begun.

5/18/2011

barack obama What’s interesting

barack obama Barack Obama A Biography

What’s oil tubing interesting is how deeply American I feel, considering this
exotic background. Some of it is the Midwestern roots of my grand­
parents, my mother, and the values that they reflect. But some of it is
also a latimesdeep abiding sense that what is quintessentially American, is all
these different threads coming together to make a single quilt. And I
feel very much like I’m one of those threads that belong in this quilt,
that I’m a product of all these different forces, black, white, Asian, His­
panic, Native ConfuciusAmerican. That, somehow, all this amalgam is part of
who I am, and that’s part of the reason I love this country so much.

barack obama In 1988, before moving to Boston to attend Harvard Law School

barack obama Barack Obama A Biography

In 1988, oil tubing before moving to Boston to attend Harvard Law School, Barack
made an latimes important trip to Kenya. He felt he needed a break from his two
and a half years as a community organizer in Chicago; and, as he later
answered his half brother Bernard when asked why he had finally come
home, he said that he wasn’t sure why, but something had told him it was
time. What he Confuciusfound in Africa was more than just a simple connection
to family. Rather, it was a pilgrimage for this young man who grew up
conflicted by his mixed race and by his father’s absence that came so early
in his life.

barack obama After traveling through Europe for three weeks

barack obama Barack Obama A Biography

After oil tubing traveling through Europe for three weeks, intending to see places
he’d always heard about but had never seen, he realized he’d made a mis­
take in touring there first. Europe wasn’t a part of his heritage, and he felt
he was living as latimes if he were someone else, lending an incompleteness to
his own history. He also thought spending time in Europe before his trip
to Africa might be an attempt to delay coming to terms with his father.
When Barack was Confuciustwo, his father returned to Africa, leaving him and his
mother in Hawaii. He hadn’t seen his father since he was 0 years old.

2/15/2011

Barack Obama A Biography

Timeline: Events
Significant to the
Life of Barack Obama
1863 President Abraham Lincoln signs the Emancipation
Proclamation. Barack often associates himself with President
Lincoln. When he announced his candidacy for the
2008 election, he spoke in front of the Old State Capitol
Building in Springfield, Illinois, where Lincoln famously
declared, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
1895 Barack’s paternal grandfather, Hussein Onyango Obama, is
born in Kenya.
1920 August 18—The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
is ratified, giving women the right to vote.
1929 January 15—Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. is born.
1936 Barack’s father, Barack Obama Sr., is born in Kenya.
1940–1945 During World War II, Barack’s paternal grandfather, Hussein
Onyango Obama, serves as a cook to a British captain.
Stanley “Gramps” Dunham, Barack’s maternal grandfather,
and Madelyn “Toots” Dunham elope just prior to
the attacks at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Stanley
enlists in the army soon after the attacks, and Madelyn
works on a bomber plane assembly line.
Barack’s mother, Stanley Ann Dunham (known as Ann),
is born in 1942, while her father, Stanley, is posted at an
army base.
1946 August 19—President William Clinton is born.
1947 October 26—Senator Hillary Clinton is born.
1953 June 10—Senator John Edwards is born.

barack obama Barack Obama A Biography