blog assiment # 18

Barack Obama

According to http://www.biography.com/people/barack-obama-12782369 Barack Obama was born on August 4, 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii. He was a civil rights lawyer before pursuing a political career, first as Illinois State Senator, and later as the first African-American president of the United States. President Obama continues to enact policy changes in response to the issues of health care and economic crisis. Also Obama's mother is Ann Dunham.His mother was born on Novermber 29,1942.

Obama's early life

Obama's parents separated when he was two years old, later divorcing. Obama, Sr. went on to Harvard to pursue Ph.D. studies, and then returned to Kenya in 1965. In 1966, Dunham married Lolo Soetoro, another East–West Center student from Indonesia. A year later, the family moved to Jakarta, Indonesia. Obama also has a half sister Maya Soetoro. he also growing up he herds goats.

Excelling in school

While  living with his grandparents Obama enrolled in the esteemed punahou Academy. He was excelling in basketball and graduating academic honors.As one of only three black students at the school, Obama became conscious of racism and what it meant to be African-American. He later described how he struggled to reconcile social perceptions of his multiracial heritage with his own sense of self.

Law career
During this time that Obama, who said he was not raised in a religious household joined the Trinity United Church of Christ. He also visited relatives in Kenya which included an emotional visit to the graves of his biological father and paternal grandfather. For a long time I sat between the two graves and wept.I saw that my life in America the black life the white life the sense of abandonment I felt as a boy  the frustration and hope I'd witnessed in Chicago—all of it was connected with this small plot of earth an ocean away.

Entry into Illinois Politics 

Obama's advocacy work led him to run for the Illinois State Senate as a Democrat. He won election in 1996. During these years, Obama worked with both Democrats and Republicans in drafting legislation on ethics, expanded health care services, and early childhood education programs for the poor. He also created a state earned-income tax credit for the working poor. Obama became chairman of the Illinois Senate's Health and Human Services Committee as well, and after a number of inmates on death row were found innocent, he worked with law enforcement officials to require the videotaping of interrogations and confessions in all capital cases.