 Obama: A Compelling Hollywood Movie By JOHN REINIERS In My Own Words Published: Apr 24, 2008 And we all thought Bill Clinton had a quirky family history, what with his mother being married five times to four men and — just like Barack Obama — having had a father and stepfather.
Clinton's four times married biological father was killed in an auto accident before Bill was born, and his step-father was a violent abusive drunk. Wow! What a story.
But Obama's life and ancestry make Clinton's look like a Franklin W. Dixon Hardy Boys novel. Obama's father, a Muslim, married a girl named Kezia in Kenya, and then using an American scholarship in economics went to the University of Hawaii, leaving behind his wife and their newborn son. He then married Obama's 18-year-old American mother, Ann, who gave birth to Obama in 1961. He then deserted Ann and son to go to Harvard. (Coincidentally, Barack and his wife are Harvard graduate lawyers.)
Ann then divorced her bigamous husband and married a Muslim Indonesian, Lolo Soretoro, who ironically also became a drinker and womanizer and moved to Indonesia, a Muslim country, with Obama. Meanwhile, Obama's father went back to Kenya as senior economist in Kenya's Ministry of Finance, fathered a couple of more children by Kezia, and married once more to another American, a teacher whom he met while at Harvard — all the time being married to two other women.
Got it?
But wait. His father, had two more kids with Kezia, and two with his second American wife, when he lost both his legs in a DUI accident. Then had an eighth child by another woman, and finally died in another drunken auto accident when Obama was 21.
Hard to believe. And this was but the beginning of what could be a riveting Hollywood movie.
Obama, then known as Barry Soretoro, was enrolled into a Roman Catholic school in Jakarta, Indonesia, in 1968, as a Muslim, when he wrote his first essay, “I want to become President.” He then transferred to an Indonesian school several years later where he wrote his second “I want to become president” essay. As a Muslim, he would have been required to study Islam and recite from the Koran. (This is understandable. We all are brought up in our parents' religion.) It is interesting that Nicholas Kristof, New York Times columnist, reported in 2007 that Obama could still recite the Muslim call to prayer with a first-class Arab accent, saying to Kristof, “It was one of the prettiest sounds on earth at sunset.”
His mother later decided that Barry needed an American education, so he was sent back to Hawaii, enrolled in a prestigious school and lived with his Caucasian grandparents. One of his classmates said Barry was “easygoing, well liked” and a star basketball player. Hawaii is such a melting pot that race didn't seem to be an issue, yet years later, when talking to black author Debra Dickerson for a New York Times story, he described himself as an African-American, and said that as a young man, he yearned to be accepted by black Americans. His wife Michelle is an African-American from Chicago's south side. One of his Indonesian friends said, “He was quite religious in Islam but only after marrying Michelle he changed his religion.” He was married in 1992 and converted to Christianity in the same year. Ms. Dickerson said, “Obama isn't black... He married black.
He acts black. But there's a lot of distance between black Africans and African-Americans…”
In fact — and Hollywood couldn't write a script like this — author Kenneth E. Lamb says Obama is not even legally an African-American as defined by United States law, of “at least 12.5 percent of the racial component you claim for minority status … Obama is 50 percent Caucasian from his mother's side. He is 43.75 percent Arabic and 6.25 percent black from his father's side. His father was the last generation that could honestly claim African-American heritage.“
It would make sense for him “to yearn to be accepted by black Americans,” and even more sense for his wife to insist he convert to Christianity. (Coming under the influence of the racist left-wing preacher Jeremiah Q. Wright.) While there are a lot of black Muslims in his old Illinois Senate district, he could never hope to be elected to the U.S. Senate or presidency as a Muslim. (In a way this is the story of America and choices immigrants make to fit in.)
This racial/ethnic identity issue is eerily similar to a situation I ran into some years ago as an Army lawyer. An enlisted WAC discovered after her marriage to a black sergeant, and after seeing her birth certificate, that she wasn't black. She apparently was deserted in a southern city, and adopted by a loving black woman. She was offered some money (let me be even more vague here) to tell her story and came to me for advice. They were living off post in a southern state that was still enforcing anti-miscegenation laws. In fact, in this state, interracial marriage was considered a felony! My advice was for her to move on post to get within federal jurisdiction, if she accepted the offer. They were a deeply committed couple, so she declined. While not as multi-layered as Obama's story, here is another story about someone wanting to be black.
If a president is anything he is our thought-leader in chief. Obama's thought patterns — and he makes no bones about this — had to be shaped in his early years by when immersed in his unusual multi-ethnic/racial/religious childhood. His experiences undoubtedly enriched his thinking. And both of his fathers were Muslim. All this is the stuff of Hollywood movies, and not necessarily negative, but as one who aspired to be president of any country as a child in Indonesia, he could hardly pull it off in the U.S. as a Muslim.
John Reiniers, a regular columnist for Hernando Today, lives in Spring Hill. |
