Scholastic Student Reporters, Illinois
 Illinois Senate candidate Barak Obama with Scholastic Student Reporters Mitchel Hochberg and Ivonne Benetiz. (Photo: Suzanne McCabe) |
Obama is the face of the new America, admirers say. His mother is from Kansas. His father is from Kenya. Obama has overcome many hardships in his life to become a state Senator from Chicago's 13th Senate District. His memoir, Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, is currently on the New York Times best-seller list.
The young Democrat will be the only African-American in the Senate if he wins on November 2. And he will most likely win. His first opponent dropped out of the race earlier this year due to a scandal. Republicans chose Alan Keyes to run in the vacated spot. Keyes ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for President in 2000. He is a resident of the state of Maryland.
Two Scholastic Kids Press Corps reporters recently met with Obama at his campaign headquarters in Chicago.
Mitchel Hochberg: When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up, and why?
Barak Obama: Well, I guess it depends on how old I was. I mean, I think I'm sure that when I was 4 or 5, I wanted to be an astronaut like everybody else. And then I went through a phase where I thought I wanted to be an architect because I really liked building designs. And then I thought about being a basketball player until I realized I wasn't that talented. And I guess by the time I got out of college I thought possibly about being a lawyer a little. I wasn't sure at that point. But I wasn't one of those people who at the age of 5 said to myself, "I want to be in politics and be President." That wasn't sort of how I thought about things.
Ivonne Benetiz: Why did you decide to go into politics?
Barak Obama: Well, what had happened is that I—when I went to college I started becoming interested in public policy issues, and I started reading more and paying more attention to the news and thinking that some of the ways that our society is structured is unfair to people who are poor or to children or to minorities or women. So I thought that I would like to, in some way, have an impact. But I didn't immediately decide to go into politics. I actually worked as a community organizer in low-income neighborhoods to set up job-training programs for the unemployed or after-school programs for youth. And then I went to law school, got my law degree, and I worked as a civil rights attorney. It wasn't until I had been an attorney for five or six years that I decided that maybe politics would be a good option for me.
Mitchel Hochberg: What surprises you the most about being a politician?
Barak Obama: Um, you know, I think how little . . . let me think about that a second before I answer. I think I'm surprised at how the general public isn't paying attention to a lot of difficult issues that are going on and how little the media reports on those issues. You know, a lot of the issues that get debated—issues like health care or how to handle the economy—are really big and complicated, and it's hard to simplify them. The media doesn't spend much time focusing on these issues until election time, and then it's in very short 30-second sound bites. So I think there's probably not as much participation by the public as there should be in thinking through some of these issues. I think that's part of the reason why politics can be so mean, you know, is both sides just stake out these very simplistic positions without digging very deep into the issues and trying to solve the problems.
Ivonne Benetiz: Why do you think kids should be interested in politics?
Barak Obama: Well, because politics really ends up having an impact on your lives whether you like it or not. If you look at who makes decisions about how much money will be going to [your school], that's a political decision.
These are all issues that are going to directly affect students. If you look at who makes the decision that we're going to spend $100 billion on a war in Iraq instead of spending that $100 billion on health care in your neighborhoods or on college scholarships or on rebuilding the park around the corner from your house. Those are all decisions being made by somebody—by politicians—and the U.S. Senate is the highest legislative body in the country. So it's making decisions about whether your grandmother gets prescription drug coverage or not; whether you're going to have to pay taxes when you get a job and how high those taxes are; and what's being used with that money you earned. So those are all issues that really have a direct impact on you. Somebody is making a decision about everything that you see around you and the question is, "Should young people want to have some input in that decision?" And I think the answer is yes.
Mitchel Hochberg: How does one member of the Senate make a difference for his or her state and for his or her country?
Barak Obama: Well, there are a hundred members in the U.S. Senate, so obviously one member can't do everything by [him or herself]. They've got to work with other people. It requires 51 votes to pass a law and usually it actually requires 60 because there's a rule in the Senate called the filibuster that allows one Senator to block a debate on a bill. There are very complex rules called "cloture" and others that prevent people from moving their agenda forward unless they have a strong majority. So you have to be able to work with other people, but one Senator I think can make a big difference by proposing new ideas and helping to organize people around those ideas. They can ask tough questions about proposals that are being made by, say, the President, and create a dialogue about whether one policy is smart or not smart. You know, they can raise issues that nobody has paid a lot of attention to. And hopefully they can also pass some legislation that has a concrete impact on people's lives. You know, I think there are a lot of ways that Senators can have an impact, but they can't do it by themselves. They have to work with other people.
Ivonne Benetiz: What advice would you have for kids interested in becoming involved in politics or making a difference?
Barak Obama: Well, I think the most important thing is to—even as students—start reading the newspapers, watching news programs, just learning more about the world around you because the most important office in democracy is the office of "citizen." If people are passive and don't pay attention then that's how we get into trouble and powerful special interests end up controlling and dominating the debate. So the first thing is to get informed.
The second thing is to find issues that you care about personally—that you have some connection to. So if your grandmother is sick and she doesn't have the drugs she needs or has to pay too much money for them, that might be something that you want to learn more about because it has a personal impact on you, and whenever something has a personal impact on you it's going to make you more energized about trying to do something about it. You can start participating at a local level through your church or your synagogue or through a community group in terms of trying to make your own neighborhood better.
And then, if you continue to be interested in issues, you can always volunteer on somebody's campaign and pass out flyers and lick envelopes and do all those things that people do to get elected. Find somebody that you like, and by doing that it will give you some experience and make you more aware of the political process, and maybe you will decide that you want to run someday.
Ivonne Benetiz: Can getting involved in politics make a difference?
Barak Obama: Oh, it certainly does. I mean, if you think about all the changes that we've had in this country, from the civil rights movement to the women's movement that gave opportunities to women, to the involvement of people in unions that helped create the laws that restrict child labor or require public schooling or clean up the air and the water and protect our environment. Those were all issues that were impacted because people got involved.
Mitchel Hochberg: What would be your main role as Senator from Illinois? How would you represent us, your constituents, in Washington, D.C.?
Barak Obama: Well, there are a couple of issues that I think are really important. One is I'd really like to help improve our education system. We still have the best education in the world for some people but not for all our people, and we're now getting to the point because the global economy is getting more competitive where all our people—all our young people—have to be educated, not just some. And all of them need to go to college, or at least have a skilled trade. Those are all dependent on us having good teachers and smaller classrooms, so that's an area where I think I can have an impact. I also think on the area of health care that there's a lot of people who have no health insurance, and when they get sick they get into big financial trouble. They could lose their house or they could lose their car. I think that we should be able to create a system where more people have basic health care coverage and are protected from those kind of tragedies.
Ivonne Benetiz: Growing up, who were your heroes?
Barak Obama: I think probably Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, and Cesar Chavez who organized the farm workers, and Abraham Lincoln.
Mitchel Hochberg: There are currently no African-American Senators. Why don't more African-Americans run for the Senate?
Barak Obama: Well, historically it's been hard for African-Americans to run statewide because statewide races usually require a lot of money because you have to get on television. The African-American community historically has been poor and so it's harder to raise money from that community. You know, issues of race have played a role. It's only been recently that white voters have been willing to vote for black candidates. That wasn't true back in the 40s and the 50s and even in the 60s and 70s. But I think that we're making real progress and I think that I have a very good chance of winning, and that will give us one African-American, and hopefully my success will convince others that it's worth pursuing as well.
Ivonne Benetiz: Do you think we'll see a minority elected President soon?
Barak Obama: Yes. I think in my lifetime, that will happen.
