Articles Submitted by Members in 2008

2008-11 Personal Thoughts about the Making of a President By Bob Curry

During each of the last eleven summer sessions I taught Asian Economic Development at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. After class I often took a bus from campus to central Honolulu that traveled down Wilder Avenue where it made a stop at the Punaho School and picked up an assortment of noisy students. The driver proceeded to carry a mass of restless and overactive youngsters toward city center. Watching them I often thought about what Barack (Barry) Obama was like when he was at Punaho during the 1970s. The combination of riding with the students and teaching at the University made me reflect upon two influences that contributed to making him the person who he is today.

One influence was the character of his late mother Dr. Ann Dunham. When she moved from Kansas to Hawaii she entered UHM as an undergraduate. It was there that she met his father, a foreign student from Kenya. They married, Obama was born, his father left Hawaii, a divorce ensued, his mother went to Indonesia where she remarried and gave birth to his sister. Barack spent the first four years of his schooling in Indonesia before returning to Hawaii. His mother periodically returned to Indonesia and he and his sister were raised and nurtured by their maternal grandfather and late maternal grandmother who unfortunately died on election eve. Although his mother often was away doing doctoral research, her influence on her son was profound and long lasting. Not only did she make certain that he took his studies seriously, but beyond that she insisted that he gain insights into injustices and inequalities and also instilled in him a sense of personal responsibility.

Ann Dunham was a remarkable person: her turbulent life included two divorces, a separation from her children and a long-term battle against cancer. Through it all she persisted with her research and ultimately earned a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Hawaii. She worked on her dissertation for about a decade and completed a 1,000 page manuscript that focused on the need to provide credit to the rural poor, particularly women entrepreneurs who owned small businesses. The Anthropology Department is located just below where the Economics Department is housed in the social science building and I found myself thinking about her working there and helping to raise a future president.

Upon earning her doctorate, she returned to Indonesia where she became an advocate for human and women’s rights, worked on rural development projects and helped to create micro-credit institutions that provided start-up capital and credit flows for less advantaged entrepreneurs. She also helped to organize Javanese handicraft artisans assisting in the creation of a marketing center. In addition she promoted village industries in rural areas as an adjunct to her work on micro-credit.

Dr. Dunham lost her fight against ovarian cancer at 42, cutting short the life of an impressive scholar who was dedicated to community organizing as a way of eradicating poverty in both rural Indonesia and Pakistan. Although her life was short, with the help of her parents, she left behind someone very special—Barack (Barry) Obama who emulated her commitment to improving the lives of other people via community organizing.

Another and related influence was Punaho School where he entered as a fifth grader in 1971 and stayed until he graduated from high school in 1979. Similar to other young people who began to mature during the 1970’s, he encountered problems with alcohol, marijuana and a degree of inattentiveness to his studies. Despite their limited means, his mother and her parents “stayed with him” and he responded by earning sufficiently high grades that enabled him to study at Occidental, Columbia and Harvard Law where he received his degree and edited the law journal.

After his formal education he moved to Chicago, became a community organizer, served in the state senate and eventually was sent to Washington as a U.S. Senator. His decision to forego corporate law and go to Chicago as an organizer mirrored what his mother had done in Indonesia. The content of his organizing and political work reflected what he learned from her and from his experience at Punaho. Together they provided a confluence of ideas that provided a foundation upon which he built his adult life.

Punaho is a highly regarded academic institution whose mission is to instill moral and spiritual values, affirm the worth and dignity of each individual, develop intellectual and physical potential to its fullest, enhance creativity and an appreciation for the arts, acknowledge and appreciate cultural diversity and develop a sense of social responsibilities.

The school’s mission statement is a virtual replica of the substantive contents of President Obama’s debate points and speeches, particularly the one he delivered before the 2004 Democratic National Convention. It was at Punaho that he began to read, think, speak and write about serious social issues and how to confront them. His years began to take him on a pathway that gave his life character and personality. His former school mates recall that he also loved to discuss issues with them. As a person from a multi-cultural background he had a distinct insight that now serves him well. His insight was into the nature and composition of his fellow students at Punaho and into the mosaic of people who made up the population of Oahu. The region is rich in diversity among cultures, religions, races, ethnicities and social and economic stratum. Growing up within Hawaii’s social, economic and political environment reinforced his understanding of diversity, how different peoples can blend into a society and how the blending process is imperfect. While the imperfections were clear, it was also apparent to him that genuine cooperation and effective organization could resolve (or at least lessen and manage) conflict.

On a less serious note, his school friends recall that Barack (Barry) Obama had a great deal of fun at school. This was partly due to his love of basketball. He was a starter on Punaho’s senior high school basketball team and it was through basketball that he received his nickname. When he began playing basketball one of his coaches had trouble remembering his name so he called him Barry. The name caught-on and similar to many other kids in Hawaii, it stuck. Nicknames in Hawaii are important because they come from friends and even now, more than thirty years later, he remains Barry to his friends and acquaintances.

President Obama displays a distinct Hawaiian trait: his calm demeanor reflects the Hawaiian saying “Hang Loose.” However, while the President is often seen as cool and measured, behind this appealing aspect of his personality, he is “one tough cookie” Growing up the way he did went a long way towards toughening him.

One final thought about Barack Obama, who I believe will be a great president: when I hear parents and teachers lamenting that their sons, daughters and students don’t “get it,” I think of the person we elected as our 44th president. My hunch is that during his challenging years at Punaho and at home, he “got it” even though his teachers, mother and grand-parents might have occasionally thought otherwise. He was “getting it ” because he was becoming a listener. Our new president is clearly a great listener and this capacity will help him and all of us as he moves through the years of his presidency.