Editor’s note: We asked you to share your memories of former President Barack Obama as the Obama Presidential Center is set to open to the public on June 19. Here is a selection of those letters. More letters will appear in Wednesday’s edition.
A conversation in coach
In 2006, I was on a flight home to Chicago from Washington. I wound up sitting in an aisle seat directly behind then-U.S. Sen. Barack Obama. (We were not in first class; we were toward the back of the plane, in coach.)
Across the aisle from me was a young woman who was Black. At some point before takeoff, Obama turned around and began talking to her. I didn’t want to eavesdrop, so I caught just a tiny bit of the conversation. It appeared that she was a college student. Two things struck me about this interaction. One was how thrilled and excited she seemed to be about talking to the senator. She had this look on her face that said: “Can you believe this is happening?” But the other thing that struck me was how genuinely interested Obama appeared to be in asking questions and hearing what she had to say. There was such calm, quiet sincerity on his part.
I have no idea if he gave her advice or just wanted to learn more about her. But I feel he displayed genuine interest in her. And I suspect she will remember that conversation for a long time.
When we landed and stood to deplane, I thanked the senator for not reclining his seat. His response was along the lines of “we tall guys have to stick together.”
I then told him to keep up the good work, and that was that.
— Jerry Goldman, Chicago
Encounter at a grocery store
Way back in 2007, just before then-U.S. Sen. Barack Obama announced his candidacy for president, I was shopping at Jewel in Barrington. I heard on the intercom that he was visiting the store on his way to Barrington High School.
A big fan, even then, I went searching and found the senator all by himself in the produce section. I told him that Barrington was a tough neighborhood for a Democrat.
“That’s OK,” he said. “I’m used to tough neighborhoods.”
He saw my camera and said let’s take a picture. A cherished moment for me!
— Mary Ann O’Rourke, Barrington
Engagement at Loop event
In 2006, I attended an autographing session in the Loop for then-U.S. Sen. Barack Obama for his recently published book “The Audacity of Hope.” After brief remarks, he patiently engaged a long line of well-wishers and autograph seekers. His casual and nonpatronizing engagement with the crowd put everyone at ease. You felt you were interacting with a friendly neighbor, not a celebrity.
The young man seated next to me, a teacher from Highland Park, whispered to me: “I had to come; this guy is going to be president some day.” How right he was. It was a classic lesson in how an important figure can speak and engage with a crowd without talking down to them.
That is a huge part of the Obama legacy.
— Jeffrey Nelson, Urbana
That pantsuit proved a keeper
After spending an awful day of media training, where I was told I have the fashion sense of a slug, I fled the Diamond Building at Randolph Street and Michigan Avenue. I needed to get home and burn my suit that was described as making me look like a big grape. Not an orchid. Not lavender. A big, purple grape.
When I walked out of the revolving door that July afternoon in 2008, there was no traffic and not a single person to be seen. Weird.
I started to head for the Green Line train when three black SUVs pulled up on Randolph in front of the Cultural Center. I found that intriguing. I was still the only person anywhere, so I stopped near the curb and just stood there. I figured someone important must be arriving, and since no one was telling me to move, I continued to just hang out.
The Cultural Center doors opened, and out walked Barack Obama smiling and looking right and left. There was nothing to see. No people. For a moment, he looked a little perplexed. Then he spotted the sole person standing out there in her wrinkled grape pantsuit. His huge smile returned, he waved and said, “Hey! Hi ya!” Since I knew he had to be talking to me, I waved back and returned the greeting.
He started for his car but decided to walk around the back of it to open the car door on the street side. His men in black were banging into each other trying to get there first, but he stopped and asked me how I was doing. I said fine and shouted, “I read your book!” He cranked up that smile of his a few more degrees and said, “What did you think?” I responded, “I think you’ll win.” His response was, “Will you vote for me?” “You betcha!” I shouted back.
He got in his car, waved goodbye to me and rode west into the sunset. From that moment, I was on the Obama bandwagon. Still am.
Later, more in-the-know folks told me that the crowds were on Washington Street waiting for Obama to exit the Cultural Center. Never knew why his people took him out the north doors, but I saved that purple pantsuit.
— Susan Burritt, Chicago
The ascension of a ‘rising star’
It was the fall of 2002 when I returned to Chicago to attend the popular Power of Nursing Leadership luncheon sponsored by my alma mater, the University of Illinois College of Nursing. Faculty members insisted that I sit with them to have lunch and meet “the rising star from Illinois.” I passed on the opportunity.
Besides, I was not familiar with his unique name since I relocated to Maryland. I sat elsewhere to gossip and hear the speaker Maya Angelou. Unbeknownst to me, this “rising star” would go on to become the 44th president of the United States.
Years later, I did get the opportunity to sit in the gallery to hear Barack Obama speak during my time on Capitol Hill as a Robert Wood Johnson health policy fellow assigned to U.S. Sen. John D. Rockefeller’s office. That was amazing.
Thank you to Obama!
— Janice Phillips, Flossmoor
Experiencing a dream fulfilled
I can’t wait for the days when the excitement subsides and I’ll be able to visit the Obama Presidential Center on Chicago’s great South Side. I’m well into my golden years, but I still look back fondly on the years 2008 to 2016 when Barack Obama was our president. I had a certain lightness in my step when I realized America had elected its first African American president. Despite all the rhetoric and race-based hatred I grew up with, America was better than all that.
I remember all the highly qualified and educated individuals Obama filled his Cabinet with and the beautiful family that he adored and stayed true to. I’m glad I still have my memories of that time because, unfortunately, history documents a dramatic shift in Washington following the Obama administration. But, in any case, thank you to Obama for allowing us to experience a dream fulfilled.
— Harry M. Politis, Wilmette
Unique name didn’t stop him
Soon after the 9/11 attacks, while I was still living in Chicago, I remember walking into my condo building — a big two-tower building with a huge lobby. As I walked through the lobby to enter my tower, there stood a man. He was tall and handsome, and he explained he was running for a state position and required signatures to put him on the ballot. He respectfully asked for mine. Without hesitation, I gave it.
Afterward, I asked, “Oh, by the way, what is your name?” He responded, “Barack Obama.” I replied, “Good luck with that name.”
That was my one and only encounter with the former president.
— Anne Janet “AJ” Crane, Riverwoods
From professor to top office
Along with many of my classmates, I had the privilege of taking a course at the University of Chicago Law School with Barack Obama when he was an Illinois state senator. He was a wonderful teacher, and, given his intelligence and charisma, I thought at the time that he would go places politically — maybe even become mayor of Chicago.
Little did I know then that he would one day become our 44th president.
— Andrew Abrams, Northbrook
I felt safe under his watch
I had such hope for our country when we chose Barack Obama as our president. I recall his inauguration speech and the joy we felt, especially in Chicago. I knew that Obama as president would do everything in his power to keep us safe.
He knew the importance of being a caring and compassionate world leader. Our president wanted the U.S. to be the greatest country in the world, not just for ourselves but for the rest of the world as well.
Every night, I went to bed feeling secure knowing our lives and safety were in the hands of a man who was not selfish nor hell-bent on war nor on making millions of dollars for himself.
He left the highest office with his head held just as high.
Thank you to Obama.
— Barb Feig, Northbrook
He turned his back on Chicago
Barack Obama came to Chicago in 1985 and became an activist. He later attended Harvard University and became a civil rights lawyer and an academic teaching at the University of Chicago. In 1996, Chicago residents elected Obama to the Illinois Senate. In 2004, Chicago and Illinois elected him to the U.S. Senate. And as we know, Illinois helped elect him president of the United States for two terms.
He spent decades as a Chicago resident. While maintaining a home in Chicago after his presidency, he spent little time here. Washington was his home. In 2019, the Obamas purchased a home in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. Goodbye, Hyde Park.
Obama was not born in Chicago, so he cannot be referred to as the city’s “favorite son.” He turned his back on those who gave him the good fortune he had and is still enjoying.
These token appearances in Chicago are just a facade. There is no reason to name streets after him. Or anything else. He could have done so much for Black America, possibly as a successor to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. I believe he had that much power and influence. He chose Martha’s Vineyard, where the Black population is 3%.
I had high hopes!
— Joseph A. Murzanski, Orland Park
Foreign policy high, low points
As a member of the peace community seeking to end perpetual U.S. warfare, I looked forward to Barack Obama’s presidency. He had an opportunity to pivot away from forever wars under George W. Bush. Expectations Obama would promote peace were high.
His eight years largely disappointed but accomplished one of the most important diplomatic achievements in modern U.S. history: the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
The JCPOA was the seminal agreement between Iran and the U.S., Russia, China, Germany, the United Kingdom and France to limit Iran’s nuclear program and prevent it from building nuclear weapons. In return, these nations and the European Union would provide sanctions relief and eventually resume normal diplomatic relations.
Alas, the opponents of any détente with Iran, led by Israel, politically motivated Republicans seeking to undermine the Obama presidency and U.S. war hawks, conspired to destroy the JCPOA. Sadly, they captured the narrative and the White House. Donald Trump as president withdrew from the JCPOA in May 2018. Obama’s greatest foreign policy achievement was destroyed. Today, we are at war with Iran, threatening worldwide economic collapse.
Obama’s foreign-policy low point was his regime change operation against Libyan strongman ruler Moammar Gadhafi. Obama intervened in the Libyan civil war, greenlighting military strikes on the Gadhafi regime in 2011. After insurgents killed Gadhafi, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gloated, “We came, we saw, he died,” possibly the most grotesque public statement ever by a top American diplomat.
Today, Libya is a failed state. Its failure has bled into warfare and political and economic destabilization throughout Africa. Even Obama realized the damage his misguided intervention caused. He stated that his decision to intervene in Libya was the “worst mistake” of his presidency.
When the Obama Presidential Center opens June 19, there will be little to celebrate or revere regarding his foreign policy. His low point will haunt Libya and much of Africa for years to come. His high point will be long forgotten, disastrously undone by his successor to plunge the world into recession, if not depression.
— Walt Zlotow, West Suburban Peace Coalition, Glen Ellyn
He brought honor and decency
Regrettably, with all of the chaos and mayhem that haunts the Oval Office today, it’s just too easy to forget the grace and dignity that Barack Obama brought to the presidency.
Whether it was articulating his stance on racial inequality or honoring the victims of yet another mass shooting, Obama handled it all with class and style, including his own unique take on “Amazing Grace.”
The 44th president of the United States brought honor as well as an unmistakable sense of decency to his country and his city, and that alone is worthy of celebration on June 19.
— Bob Ory, Elgin
Obama fostered my activism
I have never met former President Barack Obama. But in early 2009, I did meet with longtime Obama associate John W. Rogers Jr., co-chairman of Obama’s inauguration committee. We met to discuss possible volunteerism advocating on behalf of seniors and others seeking to appeal healthcare insurance decisions, especially those involving rejection of coverage based on pre-existing condition circumstances.
Previously, I had success appealing insurance company rejections on behalf of family members and thought I could help others beyond my family as a new era in grassroots activism was being fostered in America by Obama the candidate and Obama as president.
While my pitch to Rogers did not lead to any particular path for pursing this cause in a formal way, I was gratified to learn that the Affordable Care Act would cover pre-existing conditions, rendering appeals on the subject moot.
My one-and-done meeting with Rogers made me feel that I was on the same page as many others who prevailed in getting this very reasonable, humanistic solution approved.
The impetus for the meeting with Rogers and a willingness to get involved as a volunteer gave me a true sense of how democracy can work toward a better future for all of America.
— Mark Grenchik, Chicago
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