Father Of The Blog

Barack wasn’t placed in a church’s revolving baby bin but he was basically abandoned by his parents. Around kindergarten age, after several years of becoming accustomed to life in Indonesia with his mother and stepfather, building relationships with neighborhood friends and growing fond of his family, he was dumped by his mother to be raised by his grandparents. Only knowing his father through fabricated stories and one single two week visit when he was ten years old, Barack was essentially on his own at an early age. Is anyone teary eyed yet? Well you won’t need a box of tissues for this read. Devoid of any real emotion, Barack explains his story matter of factly in linear fashion from his earliest memories up until a trip to Africa (right before Harvard) to visit family and reconcile a graveside peace with his father.

I sort of, but not really, feel sorry for young Barack, abandonment, culturally uncertain adolescence, and if not for his grandparents, alone. But the guy is intelligent, athletic, ambitious, and handsome. When forsaken with irresponsibly neglectful parents he combated the unfortunate circumstance and came out a winner. So, instead of feeling sorry for him, I admire his tenacious character.

I respect his devotion to the impoverished during the years spent walking the trenches of Chicago’s most dilapidated neighborhoods as a community organizer. He did help people. He did make peoples’ lives better. He knocked on many doors. Through action he did get things done. This was actually the most uplifting and inspiring portion of the book.

The third and last section of the book involved a dreadfully boring (to read about) journey to Africa where he bounced from family member to family member, piecing together the puzzle of his deceased father. The book ends with Barack at his father’s simple grave sobbing. Sounds sad, but written unemotionally, which only served to dehumanize himself.

I picked up this book hoping to gain insight, maybe find out what’s been added to the cool aid and figure out why he is so captivating to so many. What I found out might be alarming to some people because his life experience and questioning spirit is a bit ethnically charged and in some instances hinted at racism during his undergraduate college years.

This book is written well and in small doses interesting however leaves me feeling no different about Barack Obama than I had before picking it up which is closely aligned to my persona of neutrality and skepticism.

Dreams From My Father – A Story of Race and Inheritance
By Barack Obama
Copyright 1995
First Edition
Published by Times Books a division of Random House
ISBN 0-8129-2343-X