Barack Obama: Our Diversity Defines Us Rather Than Divides Us
By U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawaii
I first met Senator Barack Obama’s father at the Manoa Campus soon after my arrival there following statehood in 1959. Barack, Senior had just arrived from a newly independent nation— Kenya. Everyone was drawn to his dynamic, energetic manner. His intellect was as brilliant as his smile; his personality was every bit as magnetic and charismatic as is his son’s.
Shortly thereafter, Senator Obama’s mother appeared, scarcely eighteen, quiet yet intense in her demeanor, outwardly calm but possessed of an adventurous spirit and openness of heart toward everyone. They met and married, and in time, little Barry, as we knew him then, was born, perhaps destined to become President of the United States.
Barack Obama’s story could not have started anywhere else in the world but Hawaii. The values of the Senator Obama we consider for that office this coming Tuesday are grounded in the Aloha Spirit. The foundation of his character was shaped by Hawaii’s multi-cultural, multi-ethnic society informed by the meaning of Aloha. Above all, Senator Obama embodies the message of Hawaii to the world: Our diversity defines us rather than divides us. [more]