{"id":6066,"date":"2017-02-21T12:07:55","date_gmt":"2017-02-21T18:07:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=6066"},"modified":"2017-02-21T12:08:59","modified_gmt":"2017-02-21T18:08:59","slug":"can-obama-save-chicago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/02\/can-obama-save-chicago.html","title":{"rendered":"Can Obama save Chicago?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File%3AMichelle_and_Barack_Obama.jpg;<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what Heidi Stevens, in a column in Sunday\u2019s Tribune<\/a>, imagines.<\/p>\n

Soon enough, Jackson Park will give rise to the Obama presidential library. How about embarking on an even bigger legacy?<\/p>\n

How about taking your community organizing, your diplomacy, your law degrees, your friendships, your networks, your gift for compromise, your desire for social justice and pointing them our way?<\/p>\n

Come home. Bring your ideas and your knowledge and your power and get people to the table.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In the meantime, some updates on the Obama Library:<\/p>\n

\u201cBarack Obama\u2019s presidential library may need $1.5 billion<\/a>\u201c:<\/p>\n

The Barack Obama Presidential Center in Chicago could require a $1.5 billion endowment, its architects say, three times what was raised for the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas. . . .<\/p>\n

The Obama Center is due to be so expensive because it will require the construction of both a presidential library and a museum about the lives of Barack and Michelle Obama. And federal requirements now stipulate that former presidents must have larger endowments to pay for annual operating costs at the libraries.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(The \u201clibrary + museum\u201d bit doesn\u2019t seem new to me \u2014 all such complexes now contain a museum and a library, unless this reflects a more ambitious construction, but I had read the bit about the higher endowment requirements before, though a tripling of the cost seems much higher than I\u2019d read before. \u00a0What this all means isn\u2019t clear to me \u2014 is this money that needs to be in the bank before they can break ground?)<\/p>\n

\u201cObama Library to be \u2018Center for Citizenship\u2019<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

Hours before the inauguration of Donald Trump, President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama released a video outlining their plans for the future Obama Presidential Center.<\/p>\n

The South Side center will be \u201cmore than a library or museum,\u201d Barack Obama said in the video. \u201cIt\u2019ll be a living, working center for citizenship. That\u2019s why we want to hear from you. Tell us what you want this project to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

The center will have projects \u201call over the city, the country and the world,\u201d he added.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And today, \u201cWoodlawn sees another chance at revival in Obama library<\/a>\u201c:<\/p>\n

More than 400 people showed up in the [Church of God in Woodlawn]\u2019s banquet hall recently to talk about the prospect of a neighborhood renaissance \u2014 a painfully elusive goal for the long-idle South Side enclave but one that its backers say is within reach now that the Obama Presidential Center will be built next door in historic Jackson Park.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Could Obama actually use his library-museum to make a real difference?<\/p>\n

The statement of \u201call over the city, the country and the world\u201d doesn\u2019t bode well \u2014 if they spread themselves too thin, if they don\u2019t have defined objective other than \u201cmake a difference\u201d or \u201ccreate a legacy\u201d then\u00a0it\u2019d be much more difficult to end up with something of lasting value. \u00a0Could Obama, as local boosters hope, persuade his donors to engage in redevelopment projects that extend outside the walls of the museum itself into the neighborhood? \u00a0I don\u2019t know \u2014 it seems unlikely, but, then, I have a hard time imagining getting $1.5 billion in donations in the first place, when big-money donors generally want to get something out of it, even if it\u2019s just the building-naming when you donate to a university or a hospital. \u00a0(Maybe it\u2019d be the \u201cPritzker Obama Library\u201d?)<\/p>\n

Could Obama come up with the right set of policy solutions, and work together with civic leaders to implement them? \u00a0That\u2019s doubtful. \u00a0There\u2019s nothing in his resume to suggest this.<\/p>\n

But there is a large segment of the population around here for whom Obama is virtually a god. \u00a0Heck, there were proposals to create a state holiday<\/a> in his honor. \u00a0(One more day off for state workers \u2014 but at least it would have been in the summer, rather than additional school day off.) \u00a0And charismatic leaders can make a difference, to the extent that individual young men feel personally inspired to change their ways, with the fervor of a religious conversion. \u00a0That\u2019s how, after all, the Nation of Islam recruited its converts. \u00a0But it can\u2019t be done on a part-time basis. \u00a0It can\u2019t be a project to pass the time in retirement. \u00a0And, while I think that the right person, at the right time, could indeed\u00a0lead a movement of non-violence in Chicago, I don\u2019t see Barack Obama being that person. \u00a0In fact, seems to me that that sort of movement cannot just be with a religious-like<\/em> conversion, it only happens if it is<\/em> a religious conversion.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Image: \u00a0https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File%3AMichelle_and_Barack_Obama.jpg; By Pete Souza (White House (021913PS-0395)) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That\u2019s what Heidi Stevens, in a column in Sunday\u2019s Tribune, imagines. Soon enough, Jackson Park will give rise to the Obama presidential library. How about embarking on an even bigger legacy? How about taking your community organizing, your diplomacy, your law degrees, your friendships, your networks, your gift for compromise, your desire for social justice […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":6071,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5,55],"class_list":["post-6066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-obama","tag-obama-library"],"yoast_head":"\nCan Obama save Chicago?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"That's what Heidi Stevens, in a column in Sunday's Tribune, imagines. Soon enough, Jackson Park will give rise to the Obama presidential library. 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