The main building of the Obama Presidential Center, the tower, resembles a cavity-riddled lower incisor, one in dire need of extraction, but which, unfortunately, will remain in place for generations to come, a monument to Barack Obama’s ego, and rotten to the core.
— John Vukmirovich, Lemont
Obama center is terrific
The commentary and hype about the Obama Presidential Center in the Tribune have been excellent. Praise is due to all of the staff involved, but particularly for Christopher Borrelli’s June 14 article (“‘Hope has a home‘”), supplemented by Brian Cassella’s photography. Plus, a full page editorial that day (“Why Chicagoans should welcome, and care for, the Obama Presidential Center”) and Scott Stantis’ funny/sad cartoon. But special praise for Borrelli: comprehensive descriptions of the center’s features, its location (controversial but hopeful), cost, the works of art and more.
Many of us are wondering about presidential museums. How does this one stack up? Borrelli gives that important history of other presidential museums. (I have visited only two others: Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s in Hyde Park, New York, and Lyndon B. Johnson’s in Austin, Texas.)
The Obama center is simply terrific: the presentations, the art, the hugely uplifting and positive message, the variety of people attending, the well-informed staff, the breathtaking views, the stunningly gorgeous granite cladding of the building and courtyard, and more.
A two hour-visit was tiring for this octogenarian, but I’m eager to return.
— Rebecca Dixon, Chicago
South Side museum campus
In its editorial about the Obama Presidential Center, the Tribune Editorial Board states that the center’s proximity to the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry led Obama Foundation head Valerie Jarrett to say there will now be two museum campuses in Chicago. These are not the only two museums in the area. On the University of Chicago campus, visitors can tour the Smart Museum of Art and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House.
Just west of the University of Chicago campus is the DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center. A family could spend multiple days enjoying all the museums in the South Side museum campus.
— John Regan, Lemont
Hope for renewed optimism
Reading all the letters to the editor about Barack Obama in the June 17 issue was very moving and brought back such good and positive memories for me, too.
I know that all leaders are not the same. Each is a different person with their own hallmarks, but the striking contrast between Obama and Donald Trump couldn’t be more obvious. Obama genuinely cares about others. That is so clear in the letters published in the Tribune. He doesn’t disparage anyone — not even his foes. Trump, on the other hand, belittles and degrades people every day. There is no empathy. No hugging. No thoughtful gestures. Not much thoughtfulness, period.
I had such optimism for America when Obama was elected president both times. I felt real pride in our country. Now I grieve for that optimism and pride.
I hope with all my heart that someday we can get back there.
— Judy Weik, Oak Park
Revisiting South Side home
Last fall, with my adult daughter, I returned to the city of my birth to show her where I grew up and what I had always loved about Chicago.
My biggest surprise was that the red-brick apartment building where I lived with my parents and siblings from 1944 to 1952 was still standing and still in use. And from the kitchen of the third-floor apartment, which I had long ago shared with my parents and four siblings, the new Obama Presidential Center was clearly visible.
The building, on the east side of Blackstone Avenue and just north of 67th, was much the same, as I recalled. The one difference was a new layer of red bricks over the faded previous layer. The neighborhood was also much the same.
In 1944, when I was a boy, most of our neighbors were European refugees — Germans, Irish, Poles and a few Jewish families like mine. A few years after the war, when I was in elementary school, we began to see Black families who had left Southern states for the better jobs that Chicago offered.
Today, this part of the South Side seems to be almost entirely peopled by Black families.
As an undersized boy, I often played, alone, in Jackson Park, making a bow and arrows from branches taken from smaller trees and enjoying the cool shade in summer.
I was warned that my old neighborhood was now dangerous, but I found no danger. Only friendly and usually helpful residents who showed little surprise that after almost 80 years, I had returned to my childhood community to share it with my daughter.
We enjoyed every day of our week in Chicago and expect to return soon.
— Marvin J. Wolf, Asheville, North Carolina
On my bucket list of places
With the weekslong anticipation of the Obama Presidential Center opening, I cannot think of a better time than to be in the third most populous city in the United States. And, yes, Chicago is my kind of town. The nostalgia of this center’s opening is too overwhelming. This summer is certainly a fantastic time to visit Chi-Town.
The selected works of art, particularly the unveiling of a Njideka Akunyili Crosby-commissioned portrait, make planning a trip to Chicago more exciting.
From the looks of things from afar, visiting Chicago is surely on my bucket list of places to go.
Welcome, Obama Presidential Center!
— Wayne E. Williams, Camden, New Jersey
Obama led hearings at UIC
In 1998, Illinois legislators held hearings at the University of Illinois Chicago regarding reports of racial bias in the College of Medicine. I attended those hearings as a university administrator, and the chair of the hearings was a young legislator with a name I had not heard of.
As I watched him lead the hearings and listened to him speak, I leaned over to one of my colleagues and commented how impressive he was and that I thought we would hear that name again in the future.
Of course, the man was named Barack Obama.
— Michael Ginsburg, Northbrook
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