Barack Obama was born and raised in Honolulu Hawaii. Much is made of his Harvard Law Review days, his community organizing work, his constitutional law classes, but there is not much talk of his early formative years in Hawaii, Obama’s Hawaiian roots are deep and important to understand who he is today.
Those who were blessed by a Hawaiian childhood feel the deep connection to nature and the spirit of Aloha that are the gifts Hawaii offers freely to all who are able to receive it.
An article written in 1999 by Obama in his Honolulu high school alumni bulletin gives insight to the place that Hawaii holds in his heart.
The irony is that my decision to work in politics and to pursue such a career in a big mainland city, in some sense grows out of my Hawaiian upbringing, and the idea that Hawaii still represents in my mind.
I missed being born in Hawaii by 8 months. I was taken to the Islands as an infant, stayed for 5 years, went away for 6 years, then came back, much the way Obama was away for a few years in his early grade school life. Honolulu is my hometown. I know that little corner of a neighborhood where he grew up, nestled between the University of Hawaii at Manoa and Punahou School, the college prep school he attended he attended from 5th grade onwards. Our house was not far away, up the hill, near UH. Hawaii is in my blood and bones, it sustains me.
..Wherever I go in Chicago, people ask me two questions. First they ask me how a nice guy like me ever got involved in politics. Second, once they’ve found out that I grew up in Hawaii, they ask me what the heck I’m doing in a cold place like Chicago.
I admit that there are times when I ask myself the same questions.....I think about the show and sleet and darkness....in Chicago, and the pressures and tensions of the next campaign, and wonder if I’m certifiably crazy to have left Hawaii.....I admit...that on those cold, windy January mornings in Chicago, when I’m heading out to a hard day of meetings and negotiations, I let my mind wander back to Sandy Beach, or Manoa Falls, or Punahou School. It helps me, somehow, knowing that such wonderful places exist, and that at some level, I’ll always be able to return to them.
UH, in the early 1960’s, home of the new East-West Center that brought so many people together from all over the globe was a hotbed of cultural exchange. Honolulu is a small town and an international city, the crossroads of the Pacific. Eventually, it seems, everyone in the world would come by, from Elvis, to the Beatles, Segovia, and Frank Zappa.
Hawaii in the 1970’s was in turmoil, as native Hawaiians began to embrace their heritage, taking a page from Native American and Indigenous Peoples movements to seek Hawaiian sovereignty. Locals, as those whose families have lived in Hawaii for generations are known, are often of mixed ethnicities – Hawaii’s famous melting pot. Less welcome than Asian and Pacific peoples, Caucasians and military families often struggle with racism and discrimination directed towards them. Africans and African Americans are rara avis in Island life.
..when I look back on my years in Hawaii, I realize how truly lucky I was to have been raised there. Hawai'i's spirit of tolerance might not have been perfect or complete, but it was — and is — real. 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.
Punahou School was built by missionaries from New England in 1841 so that they wouldn’t have to send their children around the Horn back to the US for their education. Children would be gone for years, sometimes never making it back home to see their parents. Over the next 100 years the school grew to become the best college prep school in the West; it still ranks in the top 10 in the USA. I feel certain that Obama’s family chose to send their son back to Honolulu so that he could attend this school, a sacrifice gladly made. My father also chose to stay on in Honolulu and send us to Punahou, so that his children would have the opportunity for the best education he could provide.
Chapel is required for all at Punahou, but it is non-denominational. Christian, Jew, Muslim, Hindu, Toaist, Shintoist, Buddhist, Mormon: all meet together in the chapel over the lily pond. In this setting Obama was intent on finding his place in the world.
I believe that the carefree childhood I experienced in Hawaii, and the wonderful education that I received at Punahou, should not be left to the luck of the draw, but should rather be every child’s birthright. I believe that only in a country in which we can appreciate differences of race and religion and ethnicity, while still insisting on our common humanity, will my own soul feel rested.
Aloha is the core of Hawaiian expression. As children we lived and breathed it every day. Lanakila Brandt, the noted Hawaiian Kahuna, gave a wonderful definition of Aloha in an issue of the Whole Earth Review in 2000.:
Aloha is a meaningful expression of the spirit. Although the word is Hawaiian, its message is universal...love, enriched by tenderness, compassion, consideration, charity and understanding.
Aloha is all of the above, and much more. Aloha is that innate quality which permits us, whatever our circumstances, to revel in the inalienable wealth with which our benevolent god(s) have endowed us....It is communicating with, and receiving inner guidance from, the Earth, the sea, the winds and the sky, from the creatures that swim, crawl, and walk.
Aloha is .... the urgent message of the spirit touches the greatest and the least, equally and impartially...and all are enriched, both those who give, and those who receive.
Aloha is "a complex and important word" of near unlimited powers. But its greatest power and beauty is that, by whatever name, we all have it! We need only to open the floodgates and let it flow; let it inundate all within our individual spheres. Then truly will each of us be living within "that internal paradise, the spirit of aloha."
Barack Obama’s Hawaii connection runs deep. I see that internal paradise that lights the way, and I feel that the deep response he arouses is in large part due to the spirit of Aloha.