President Barack Obama came home to Chicago - briefly - Aug. 3 for a fundraiser at the Aragon Ballroom, 1106 W. Lawrence, and to celebrate his 50th birthday. The event was sponsored by the Democratic National Committee.
But as
jubilant of an occasion as it should have been, the president was also taking a
quick breather from the rancor in Washington. In the days before he arrived in
Chicago, the president was in a showdown with Republicans and was putting forth
what he called “urgent efforts to avoid default and reduce our deficit.”
Default
would have meant the U.S. would not have been able to pay its bills, cut Social
Security and veterans' benefits checks, or pay contractual obligations. The
president conceded that what was going on in Washington was “a mess.” Then with time running out to
avoid default, on July 31 Obama announced that Congress had broken the impasse
and a debt ceiling deal was struck.
But at
the Aragon Ballroom, as he referenced the current Washington wrangling and
reflected back on the country he took command of in 2008 - one on the cusp of a
historic economic recession - Obama admitted things were a bit tougher than he
expected.
“I have
to admit, I didn’t know how steep the climb was going to be,” the president
said to the audience where people were briskly fanning themselves to stay
comfortable in the muggy hall.
But, “you
did not elect me president to duck the tough issues,” Obama said.
A lot of
what the president said at the event was a repeat of other speeches. He
itemized some of the issues that were before him at the start of his presidency
and he went on to provide a bulleted list of how his administration had dealt
with them. And again, as he did in last fall's midterm elections, he asked his
supporters for more time - in the form of 2012 reelection - to continue the
work he has started.
“So it’s
been a long, tough journey. But we have made some incredible strides together.
Yes, we have. But the thing that we all have to remember is that as much good
as we've done, precisely because the challenges were so daunting, precisely
because we were inheriting so many challenges, that we’re not even halfway
there yet,” the president said at the Wednesday fundraiser. He added that “these challenges weren’t
made overnight and they aren’t going to be solved overnight.”
Clearly
Obama was among supporters, with some paying $50 and others paying over $35,000
to attend the fundraiser inside the Uptown community venue. Musician Herbie Hancock and R&B
singer and actress Jennifer Hudson were among the night's performers. Mayor
Rahm Emanuel, Obama's former chief of staff, introduced the president to the
stage.
The
roster of elected officials in attendance included Gov. Pat Quinn, Sec. of
State Jesse White, Sen. Dick Durbin, former state Sen. President Emil Jones and
city Treasurer Stephanie Neely.
Support
for the president in his hometown was inside the ballroom and out.
In the
face of Tea Party Republicans set on making Obama a “one-term” president, and
some African American leaders and columnists who point to an Obama and
Democratic Party too quick to compromise, many who lined the streets outside
the Aragon Ballroom told the Defender they are set to give Obama the second
round in the White House he is campaigning for.
“I think
he’s facing a hard situation and not necessarily one that he created,” said
Mark Kowal, 32, a single, white male who plans to vote for Obama next year.
Kowal looked skyward to find a criticism of the president but could only come
back to his belief that Obama has acted “to the best of his ability” since
taking office.
Kowal
lost his job last year and was out of work over eight months. He's newly
re-employed and feels things are “getting better.”
Obama
spoke on immigration at the fundraiser, explaining that the U.S. was a nation
of “laws and we are a nation of immigrants. And we want to ... have a legal
immigration system that works for everybody.”
That
would bode well for Rose Adigbli of Togo, who has been in the U.S. for seven
years. Speaking limited English,
the mother of four explained that she is “working hard” to get on a path to
citizenship. Adigbli points to education and said the system here is better
than in her African homeland. She said she is proud of Obama and if she were
able to vote, she would cast a ballot for him. “God put him there,” she said with a big smile.
Unemployment
in the U.S. still hovers at 9 percent and is at 16 percent and over for African
Americans - especially males - and young adults age 16 to 19, according to U.S.
Department of Labor data. Job creation heads the agenda of politicians,
community activists, Obama supporters and his critics alike.
Femi
Idreez, 24, pursued the American Dream and thought that his college degree
would land him a job soon after graduation. But Idreez, a single, African
American male, told the Defender outside the fundraiser that he finally found a
job after a yearlong hunt that followed his December 2009 graduation from the
University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. His bachelor’s degree in economics
didn’t give him an immediate leg-up in the tough economy, he said. The
government job he was able to get, though, was not in his major.
Still, he
supports Obama, he said.
“I think
he’s trying his best,” Idreez said of the president. “I wish that (the wars)
would stop” and that money would be put into education and jobs.
Obama
ended his speech sounding like a preacher delivering a Sunday morning sermon.
“For all
the frustrations and the challenges and resistance we have to bringing about
change, when I’ve got you guys behind me, when I’ve got the American people
behind me ... we're joining hands, Black and white and Hispanic and Asian and
Native American and gay and straight, when the American people join together,
we cannot be stopped.”
The
deafening applause was his amen from the crowd.
Copyright
2011 Chicago Defender
