Under the baobab: Obama Presidential Center reminds us we can shape our country
“When young people from my old neighborhood on the South Side see the words ‘You are America’ on the exterior of the Obama Presidential Center, I hope they believe it. Because they matter. They belong. And they have the power to shape this country for the better” - Michelle Obama
Chicago.
A President, a pope, deep dish pizza.
Growing up on the South Side, I remember riding my bike through Jackson Park, dipping in Lake Michigan at the Point, serving as an altar server at St. Ambrose, bebopping du-wops on door stoops, chewing double-bubble and crunching hot sauce drenched potato chips.
On warm fall afternoons, after school let out, we would run down the street to beg for tickets at Comiskey Park from the quitters who left after the seventh innings if the team was behind, not because of traffic, but because of “wait until next year” syndrome. Our young, hope-filled hearts believed that the eighth inning could be next year.
It wasn’t — until 1959, when the Go-Go Sox did the impossible and won the American League pennant. Mayor Richard J. Daley set off air raid sirens and freaked out half the city.
After the games some of us headed east under the 35th Street viaduct and others headed west to Sal’s Pizza in the town that Martin Luther King would later call the “most segregated city in America.” We young war babies and boomers were the genesis of the modern civil rights movement.
My mom, an election judge, was a foot soldier who helped Harold Washington, the first African American to be elected mayor. I was at the March on Washington in ’63 and registered voters in my ancestral homeland, Mississippi, in ’64. I watched America’s first Black president get elected in 2008. My mom didn’t.
We were the head-under-the-school-desk kids who lived in constant fear of the inevitable atomic Armageddon. Coming from school, I used to walk past the Stagg Field reactor, which triggered the first controlled nuclear reaction. Later we became John F. Kennedy’s children, until his head was blown apart by bullets. Along with his successor, President Lyndon B. Johnson, we attempted to maintain his platform and principles. The Vietnam War blew holes in that ship. The present administration seems to be trying to sink it.
The urban President Barack Obama has built his presidential center and museum on the South Side. It explores the promise and power of democracy through dynamic exhibits and stories of social movements that made his and his wife’s work possible. Exhibits include memorabilia from the Obamas’ time in the White House, stories of iconic moments from the president’s administration and interactive activities for visitors of all ages and abilities. It is an enthralling and inspiring experience. It reminds us that we the people have the power to shape our country.
Pope Leo XIV, born Robert Francis Prevost, also grew up on the South Side of Chicago, cheering for the White Sox. He returned home after he became a priest to attend graduate school at the Catholic Theological Union, walking distance from the Obama Presidential Center. In Illo Uno Unum ... or, in the pope’s motto in English, “In the One, we are one.”
Deep dish pizza? Try it. Judge for yourself.
Around town & more
Congrats to Prof. Steve Broadnax III, head of MFA Directing at PSU, artistic director at Arkansas Rep and associate director at People’s Light Theatre Company for his production of “Ain’t Misbehaving” at People’s Light, which runs until Aug. 16 in Malvern, Pa.
The Lady Lions basketball team will be celebrating Hoops and Scoops from 4-6:30 p.m. Aug. 4 at the Bryce Jordan Center. It’s a chance to meet the new players on the team.
Vice President J.D. Vance said there are some people within the Israeli government “who are manipulating and trying to change American public opinion to keep the war going on indefinitely.” The United States has been in an undeclared war against Iran since Feb. 28.
Charles Dumas is a lifelong political activist, a professor emeritus from Penn State, and was the Democratic Party’s nominee for the U.S. Congress in 2012. He is a Lions Paw honoree. He lives in State College with his wife and partner of over 50 years.