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Barack Obama's Mother
In a well-researched article published in Time, Amanda Ripley explains, "In most elections, the deceased mother of a candidate in the primaries is not the subject of a magazine profile. But Ann Soetoro was not like most mothers." She points out: "Each of us lives a life of contradictory truths. We are not one thing or another. Barack Obama's mother was at least a dozen things. S. Ann Soetoro was a teen mother who later got a Ph.D. in anthropology; a white woman from the Midwest who was more comfortable in Indonesia; a natural-born mother obsessed with her work; a romantic pragmatist, if such a thing is possible." I urge you to read the article, and click on some of the links surrounding it for additional information. Barack Obama's mother was a very interesting woman, and, according to Ripley, he's very much his mother's son. Obama's mother, Stanley Ann Dunham Obama Soetoro (she later spelled it Sutoro) was a white woman from the Midwest who married and divorced not one, but two, foreign men (one from Kenya and one from Indonesia, both Muslim). She met Barack Obama Sr. in a Russian-language class at the University of Hawaii, where both were students. After one semester, at age 18 she dropped out of school and, three months pregnant, secretly married a man she met only a few months earlier. Young Barack was born August 4, 1961. At that time, interracial marriages were illegal in many states, and bi-racial children were ostracized by both ethnic groups as not "belonging" to either. When the infant Barack was not yet a year old, Obama Sr. left his new family for a Harvard scholarship to get a Ph.D. in economics. His plan was to take his new family and return to rebuild Kenya. He already had a wife there, although there was some question about the legality of the earlier marriage. Obama's mother decided she did not wish to go with him, and returned to her studies at the University of Hawaii. She graduated in four years while her parents helped care for her young son. In 1964, Ann filed for divorce from Obama Sr. Like many Muslim men, Obama Sr. had multiple wives. It has been reported that Barack Jr. was distressed to learn that his six siblings, whom he met on a trip to Africa, had four different mothers. (Islam permits up to four wives at one time.) At the University of Hawaii, Ann met another international student, Lolo Soetoro, who proposed in 1967. Ann and young Barack followed him home to Indonesia. Daughter Maya was born in 1970. In 1971, when Barack was 10, Ann sent him back to Hawaii to live with her parents and attend an elite prep school on a scholarship arranged by Ann's mother, an executive at Bank of Hawaii. Obama lived with Ann's parents until he finished high school. Ann and Maya followed a year later. Ann once again enrolled in classes at the University of Hawaii. Although Lolo visited often, they never again lived together, and in 1980, Ann filed for divorce. According to Ripley, Ann maintained a cordial relationship with her ex-husbands, staying in touch with both men. It is probably safe to say, however, that Barack Obama had very little actual influence from either man in his life. His father left before he was a year old, and he lived with his mother and her second husband in Indonesia for only four years, from age 6 to 10, before being shipped back to Hawaii for prep school. Which makes it even more remarkable that he has written a memoir titled, "Dreams From my Father." It has been reported that Ann read a draft of her son's book before her death in 1995, yet it was not published until 2004. One has to wonder how disappointed she must have been to learn it was about a father who abandoned him as an infant, and not about the strong and pioneering women who raised him. Ann Dunham Obama Sutoro studied anthropology in Indonesia, and helped thousands of poor women find better lives for themselves and their families. She is credited with helping to create the microfinance program in Indonesia, "which she did from 1988 to '92 —- before the practice of granting tiny loans to credit-poor entrepreneurs was an established success story. Her anthropological research into how real people worked helped inform the policies set by the Bank Rakyat Indonesia, says [her friend] Patten, an economist who worked there. 'I would say her work had a lot to do with the success of the program,' he says. Today Indonesia's microfinance program is No. 1 in the world in terms of savers, with 31 million members, according to Microfinance Information eXchange Inc., a microfinance-tracking outfit." Obama's mother died in 1995, at age 52, of ovarian and uterine cancer. As you ponder the question, ""Who is Barack Obama?" reflect on the remarkable woman who was his mother. We found a warm remembrance of Obama's mother by one of her best friends in Indonesia. Scroll down the page, as the English version appears below. You'll find her description of Obama's political career at the beginning to be quite different from what appears in the American press.
We've not had a chance to check its claims for authenticity, but in researching this article, found this interesting commentary on Obama's extended family, including a number of photos. We advise you to conduct your own check for authenticity.  Join our election discussion! Tell us which candidate you support and why. Related pages: Who is Barack Obama? The Real Candidate behind Obama's Superficial Appeal The 2008 Presidential Election Senator Joe Lieberman urges non-partisanship and explains why this election is so critical, and why we must vote as Americans, not Republicans, Democrats, or Independents. Of the major Presidential candidates, only John McCain has military experience. Will that be important in this election? Senator John McCain speaks with the voice of experience. Senator Hillary Clinton is a polarizing candidate. Most people either love her or hate her. Very few are ambivalent about her. To find out which candidate's views are closest to your own, take the survey at the Minnesota Public Radio site. You can also view the cumulative data and the candidates' positions on the major issues by clicking on the tabs. The issues covered include: the war in Iraq, Iran and nuclear power, immigration reform, tax cuts, collapse of the mortgage industry, education, social security, and health care, among others. Regardless of which candidate you support, be sure to VOTE! Voice Your Opinion! Tell us which candidate you support and why. Some previous reader comments:
You may also be interested in these pages: Anti-Military Activism in the US is becoming increasingly frequent and violent. The City Council in Berkeley, CA, takes an anti-military stance. Add your comments about Berkeley's anti-military-stance. Some previous reader comments:
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One of the interesting things about Barack Obama is that he is campaigning as a black man, appealing to the black voters of America, yet he was raised by a single mother and her parents, who were white. (Before you correct me that the politically correct term is "African-American," allow me to point out that all black people in America are not necessarily African-American.)
You may also be interested in the strong, pioneering woman who was Obama's "Tutu," the Hawaiian word for grandmother. The Honolulu Advertiser published remembrances of
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