Posted on 09/13/2008 8:01:04 PM PDT by Plutarch
(09-13) 04:00 PDT Chicago -- - The young man who walked up to her battered office at the notorious Altgeld Gardens housing project in 1987 looked too green to be of any real help, Hazel Johnson remembers. An environmental activist, Johnson needed help to fight the authorities to get toxics cleaned up around Altgeld's homes - not some idealistic community organizer from uptown, out to make a mark and leave.
Then the 25-year-old Barack Obama stuck out his hand for a firm shake. He promised he'd work hard to get asbestos and other contaminants torn out of the project's houses. He had steel in his eyes.
"He was such a young man, but Lord, was he smart," Johnson, now 74, recalled at her home in Altgeld Gardens, where she continues to battle for environmental reform. "And before long, he was doing a little of everything - he knew how to get people together, and he knew how to make the managers listen. He surprised me."
Over the next five months, Obama helped Altgeld's 8,000 residents get toxics swept away from many parts of the sprawling housing project. It was one of many projects he took on, between 1985 and 1988, as a community organizer helping residents in Chicago's impoverished South Side district fight to get potholes filled and job programs started. In his speech last year announcing his run for president, he recalled that, "It was in these neighborhoods that I received the best education I ever had."
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(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Actually, Obama Did Not Play College Ball
Bethlehem ShoalsPosted Aug 17th 2007 4:38PM by Bethlehem Shoals (author feed)
Filed under: Eastern, Western, NBA Gossip, NBA Media Watch
It’s been a big week for Obama-as-baller, from tales of his days as Occidental’s leading scorer to this video I posted earlier of the man in action.
But wait, what if Obama never actually played college hoops? Nate of Hoops Is Global happens to be an Occidental alum and Obama supporter. He couldn’t recall Obama mentioning his NCAA career in Dreams From My Father, and decided to do a little investigative reporting:
I emailed Oxy’s head basketball coach, Brian Newhall, who was a freshman at Oxy in 1979 - so he overlapped “Barry” for that one year. Coach Newhall said that Obama never played varsity basketball at Oxy. “My recollection is that Barry played in open gym pre-season pick up games and then chose not to continue. Various stories have been floating around. My memory is bad, but I do not remember him playing on our JV team.”
I also heard from Oxy’s Sports Information Director who said that no records exist linking Obama to the Occidental basketball team.
So that settles that, and I guess tells us that the YouTube clip was from high school after all. Whatever, dude’s game is still nicer than Bill Bradley’s. And I have a bunch of questions about Hawaii high school ball in the 1970’s, too.
Update: Or did he? This Washington Post article includes a long, detailed explanation of Obama’s role on the Oxy team, courtesy of coach Mike Zinn.
BS - He used this as a ploy, it’s been debunked. He never finished the job, never showed up on site (barely), and in the end a Republican had to finish the job.
Lying liberal pablum.
OK, the guy loves innuendo and implication but nothing he claims he did he did.
A puff piece from the SFC. Expected, but not appreciated.
If Obama is so good at community organizing, perhaps he should go back to the job after the election.
The Presidency, on the other hand, requires different types of skills.
One who has no core values and beliefs will ‘adapt’ to anything.
I hope he adapts well to losing in November.
Who cares, it’s just a small town of 8,000...
GAG!
Ooooh, so this is what they call in the business a “puff piece”.
evolve and adapt...sociopath
evolve and adapt...sociopath
Golly gosh and jeepers, if it’s in the Chron, then it must be true.
This will make an interesting side-by-side comparison.
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