Dreams From My Father
LaserWolf
Portland Oregon 11,517 Posts
The whole Obama love thing is starting to get old so I wanted to talk about this book before it completely jumps the shark. Is there already a thread? I assume a few of us have read the book. One thing I have been thinking about a lot since Monday is the story he tells about trying to get city hall to care about their neighborhood problems. At first no one will talk to them. Then they get people calling them. Finally Harold Washington comes to talk to their neighborhood. After words Obama is furious that people were so awed by Washington that they just clap and try to get a handshake or autograph. We are a bunch of amateurs he complains. It illustrates to me how ready he has been to start work and how he is not the least bit awed by the pomp and office. Another story is about their success getting the city and HUD to take the problems at the housing development seriously. When they finally sit down with the feds the feds say, we can give you money for asbestos removal OR for all the other problems. There is not enough money for both. I think he wants to make government work so those kinds of choices don't have to be made. My last question is about his very large Kenyan family. I heard that they were at the inauguration, but beyond his direct family I only saw his brother and mother in-law. Who knows where his Kenyan family was and how close they are now?
Comments
I don't believe he's that close to his Kenyan family - either overseas or those in the States. Given that his father ghosted out on him and his mom, he's much close to his mom's side of the family, including his half-sister (who had her family at the inauguration).
I did see his maternal sister and family at the inauguration.