BREAKING: OBAMA PRESIDENTIAL CENTER OPENS IN CHICAGO, AND TRUMP WASN’T ON THE GUEST LIST
A rare moment in American civic life unfolded today in Chicago. The Obama Presidential Center held its dedication ceremony, and for once the country saw something it rarely sees anymore: a joyful gathering of presidential history showcasing America’s diversity.
Former Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Joe Biden showed up alongside Barack and Michelle Obama, and they didn’t come alone. Hillary Clinton, who served as Obama’s Secretary of State, Laura Bush and Dr. Jill Biden stood with their husbands. Three Democratic administrations and a Republican one, together, at a rare joyous occasion instead of a state funeral.
The crowd was packed with names most Americans would recognize on sight. Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Tom Hanks, David Letterman, Stephen Colbert, Conan O’Brien, Anne Hathaway, Jill Vedder, and former Vice President Kamala Harris were all in attendance.
The entertainment lineup told its own story about who America actually is. Bruce Springsteen, Eddie Vedder, Stevie Wonder, John Legend, Jennifer Hudson, Common, Marc Anthony, Bono and The Edge, and Tems all shared the stage. Bono led U2 through “City of Blinding Lights,” a callback to better days.
As I listened to Christina Aguilera’s rendition of “What a Wonderful World,” Obama’s favorite song, I thought back to covering Obama’s 2008 campaign in South Carolina, when I once asked him whether Barack Hussein Obama could actually be elected president. “That’s the question we’ll find out in the coming months,” he told me. “So far, we’re doing pretty good.” Indeed we did.
I later covered his presidency and reelection from Ohio, and was occasionally critical, including of his record cracking down on whistleblowers. But watching everyone come together today, I was reminded of what this country looks like when it values diversity and hope.
The most powerful moments of the day came from both Obamas. Michelle called his two terms “eight years in the crucible,” saying “not once did you melt from the heat. Not once did you let it harden you. Instead, you used it to reveal your truest essence, your stubborn optimism and unflinching courage, your dazzling brilliance and unpretentious decency, your ferocious work ethic and absolutely unshakable moral fiber.” She added that his accomplishments came as the nation’s first Black president, with “the higher standard that comes with all that.”
Barack Obama, in his own remarks, offered words that landed like a rebuke without mentioning a single name: “In the United States there will be no Kings, or Lords, or subjects, but only citizens, each of us free to pursue our own version of happiness. We the people is not some of us, but all of us.”
Donald Trump was not there, and he was not invited. Two weeks ago Trump posted an AI image showing the new center as a dumpster surrounded by homeless encampments, months after his own account posted a video depicting the Obamas as apes, a racist trope his party’s only Black senator called the most racist thing he’d seen from that White House.
The Obamas are a reminder of what America can be when it comes together, and what it can be again once this administration’s attack on diversity is behind us.
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