University Of Chicago

Barack Obama Presidential Library/Museum To Be On University Of Chicago Campus

Ronald Leave a comment

Finally, it has been determined that the future Barack Obama Presidential Library/Museum will be built on the University of Chicago campus.

This is an appropriate location, as Barack Obama’s career as a community organizer, attorney, and college professor took place in Chicago, and he taught constitutional law as an adjunct professor at this leading private university for 12 years, while serving as an Illinois State Senator.

New York City and Columbia University (where Obama gained his bachelor’s degree) and Hawaii (where Obama grew up) lost out, but both might gain some kind of museum, particularly Hawaii.

But to have had the major library and museum in Hawaii would have been making it unlikely that many would have been willing to journey there for research, as although Hawaii is a great tourism location, it is not a justifiable site for a major research institution.

So the Obama Presidential Library and Museum will end up in the center of America in a great city, number three in the nation, and will make visiting Chicago an even greater experience, both for scholars and tourists alike!

Time To Plan Obama US MINT Presidential Medals And Obama Presidential Library

Ronald Leave a comment

Now that Barack Obama is safely a resident of the White House for a second term as President, it is time for the US MINT to issue a first term Presidential medal, and start planning for a second term Presidential medal, as they do for every President of the United States.

It is likely that they already have the first term medal ready for production, but we all, anxiously, await it, as there are millions of Americans, including this author, who are avid coin and medal collectors from the US MINT.

But also, more serious discussion of a Barack Obama Presidential Library and Museum should move forward now, with the likelihood of the library in Chicago, maybe on the campus of the University of Chicago, where Obama was an adjunct Professor of Law for many years; and the museum being in Honolulu, Hawaii, where Obama was born and spent many years of his youth.

Since Gerald Ford has separate locations for his library in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and his museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan, there should be no issue to having two locations to commemorate the 44th President of the United States!

So let’s get moving !

The Clashing Value Systems Of Mitt Romney And Barack Obama

Ronald 1 Comment

Last night, after proclaiming victory in five Middle Atlantic and New England state primaries, Mitt Romney declared that a person’s success in the business world, as he has had, should be respected, but also applauded as something to admire and praise.

This is Mitt Romney’s whole life, the acquisition of wealth for its own sake, no matter how it is gained, and it has shaped Romney’s value system of what is important in one’s life, economic success. And he wants us to tell him how impressed we are with his gaining of wealth!

Barack Obama, on the other hand, did not know what wealth was until he made money from books he wrote, an intellectual challenge not connected with the business world. He was a community organizer in Chicago, helping poor people in unpleasant urban environments to cope with a difficult world, and used his intellectual nature to be an adjunct professor of constitutional law at the University of Chicago. Along the way, he and his wife Michele borrowed money on student loans to make it through college and law school, and held comparatively low paying jobs where he was helping others, and educating others. And then he ran for public office with a commitment to the advancement of others.

One has devoted his life to profits and being admired and applauded for materialism, which he loves to brag about, while the other devoted his life to service to others, concern about others, struggling to pay off student loans, and wishing to make a difference to the masses of people who are not born to wealth, or become wealthy.

These different value systems and mind sets are the crux of the election that is coming up in November!

What kind of President do we want? A President interested in his own constant acquisition of wealth and constant glorification of his accomplishments and success? Or a President who wishes to leave a legacy of making life better for those less fortunate, those who are the backbone of what America is all about, the every day citizen who just wants to have a better life and a sense of security for his children and for his or her old age?

This is a battle for the soul of America in 2012, a crucial turning point in American history!

The Future Presidential Library Of Barack Obama: Chicago Or Hawaii? A Solution!

Ronald Leave a comment

With only two years down in the Obama Presidency, the debate is beginning as to where the future Obama Presidential Library should be located.

The alternatives are Honolulu, Hawaii, where Obama was born and lived in his early childhood years, or Chicago, where he he has spent the majority of his adult life, met his wife, married, had his two daughters, taught for 12 years as a adjunct law professor at the University of Chicago, and pursued his political career, and still has a home.

It is clearcut which location should be the choice, and that is Chicago by a massive margin!

Chicago is also in the middle of the country, and would be a major boon to scholars and tourists who will wish, in the future, to honor and commemorate the 44th President of the United States.

Hawaii may be the choice of Obama for vacations with his children, and his boyhood home may be there, but it is so out of the way that very few tourists or scholars would prefer it as the primary location for an Obama Presidential Library.

But a compromise to please everyone could be adopted, which would be to have the major Presidential Library in Chicago, and to have an Obama Museum and Birthplace in Hawaii.

This would be the similar compromise reached for the Gerald Ford Presidency, with his Library being at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where attended college, and the Gerald Ford Museum being in Grand Rapids, where he lived most of his life and represented the area in the United States House of Representatives.

That way, tourists who travel to Hawaii could visit the Obama Museum, but many more tourists, as well as scholars, would have the opportunity to be educated by the Obama Library in the Chicago area!

No decision will be made until a few more years pass, but the discussion and debate over the issue has unofficially begun, and the proposed solution of the author seems to be the best solution!

Senator John Cornyn’s Complaint About Supreme Court Nominees

Ronald 1 Comment

Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas had a complaint today about the Supreme Court after the announcement of the nomination of Elena Kagan to replace John Paul Stevens on the high Court.

His complaint is that her background, and basically that of most Supreme Court nominees for a long time, has been one of having connections to Cambridge (Harvard University), Hyde Park (University of Chicago), and Washington, DC!

Actually, it should be said, to be technically correct, that some of the Supreme Court Justices come from New Haven (Yale University), and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg from NYC (Columbia University)! Also, a good number have had their life experiences affected by New York or California residence.

And so, the thought is, is this a problem? NO, as the facts are that our leading legal scholars and brilliant judicial minds come from the Boston-NYC-Washington DC megalopolis, as well as from Chicago and California! These ARE the leading academic and intellectual centers in the nation, whether people from the hinterland and the South want to accept it!

Do we really want people on the Supreme Court who come from second level law schools? Do we want “mediocre” members in their education and experiences involved in interpreting our Constitution?

Senator Cornyn sounds too much like former Republican Senator Roman Hruska of Nebraska, who tried to defend Florida judge G. Harold Carswell, appointed by President Richard Nixon to the Supreme Court. Carswell proved to be by far the most mediocre and incompetent Justice nominee in many years, and was defeated in the Senate, but not before Hruska admitted Carswell was mediocre, but declared that were not “mediocre” citizens entitled to representation on the Supreme Court? The answer is obviously NO!

We cannot afford anything other than the best of our country on the Supreme Court, and it is time to recognize where our intellectual and academic best are found in this nation! No one should feel cheated by us gaining the highest quality nominees, even if they are primarily from three locations geographically! We deserve nothing but the best!