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IL US Senate candidate has Hawai'i roots
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| Contributor | Gerald Farinas |
| Last Edited | Gerald Farinas Mar 19, 2004 12:59pm |
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| Category | News |
| News Date | Friday, March 19, 2004 06:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | IL US Senate candidate has Hawai'i roots
The Honolulu Advertiser
Illinois state Sen. Barack Obama, who made national news this week with his victory in the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate, is also a local boy from Hawai'i. Obama, a former civil rights lawyer, was born and raised in Hawai'i and graduated from Punahou School in 1979. Obama and his family spend every Christmas in Hawai'i, where his grandmother and sister still live.
He has drawn national attention because Democrats consider the Illinois Senate seat he is seeking as key to the party regaining control of the closely divided Senate. Also, if he wins, Obama would be just the third black U.S. senator in a century.
The staff and faculty at Punahou are excited to see him do well, said Laurel Bowers Husain, Punahou's director of development and communications. "I think everybody's just so proud of him and just so pleased," she said, adding that people remember him as a friendly, lively, bright person who liked to have fun. "You really get excited when you see somebody who's done what he's done with a real commitment to the community."
His black African father and his white mother, who both graduated from the University of Hawai'i, were able to marry in part, Obama said, because "Hawai'i was as close as America got to being the world's mythical melting pot. Hawai'i's spirit of tolerance might not have been perfect or complete, but it was — and is — real," he wrote. "The opportunity that Hawai'i offered — to experience a variety of cultures in a climate of mutual respect — became an integral part of my world view, and a basis for the values that I hold most dear." |
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