Dreams from my father By Barack Obama Term Paper

Dreams from my father By Barack Obama - Term Paper Example Actually, mixed heritage presents many challenges and unanswered complexities to the people and President Obama shrewdly explored many of those complexities, while taking care to present the facts to the common public after interpreting them in his own unique way. President Obama’s mother was a white American and his father was a black man who had come to America all the way from Kenya. That is why, mixed heritage raised interesting questions for him related to race, and as he grew up, his curiosity for finding an answer also strengthened. President Obama naturally gravitated towards the African half of his identity as he grew up, despite having the privilege of living with his white American mother and maternal grandparents. This shows that race impacts an individual in a phenomenal way and no person can remain uninfluenced from his/her racial background, because racial background is a stark reality which plays a major role in making the identity of a person. President Obama has offered the readers a broad range of thoughtful meditations on race and inheritance with special regards to his own racial background and racial experience while growing up in America. President Obama has also presented his views regarding whether a person who is half-black, like himself, should accept America’s designation of black people or not. ... The significance of father in the building up of that foundation can not be underestimated. Fathers serve as tutors and counselors. They are to be idealized. They are both successful themselves and also serve as a constant source of motivation for us to be successful. Obama says that if we conduct our self analysis as men, we shall come to realize why our society lacks too many fathers. In fact, the fathers are there, but they are behaving like boys rather than responsible men. The weakness of the foundations of family in the contemporary society can fundamentally be attributed to this fact. This, according to Obama, is specifically true for the African American community. It is a fact that a vast majority of the African American children are brought up by a single parent. Obama compares his own case to the people without fathers in the society in general in these words: I know what it means to have an absent father, although my circumstances weren't as tough as they are for many you ng people today. Even though my father left us when I was two years old †¦ I was luckier than most. †¦ I screwed up more often than I should've, but I got plenty of second chances. And even though we didn't have a lot of money, scholarships gave me the opportunity to go to some of the best schools in the country. A lot of kids don't get these chances today. There is no margin for error in their lives. So my own story is different in that way. (Obama cited in Shepherd). 3. What is the key role that mistakes play in his decision making? Obama has been committing a lot of mistakes in the childhood. He says that he used to be very mischievous and would be mostly found in the principal’s office. Teachers used to teach him to

The Proponents of the Monument to Forrest Research Paper

The Proponents of the Monument to Forrest - Research Paper Example Courts of law have held that it is up to the judicial system to decide if certain acts carried out in private capacity under the First Amendment are publicly acceptable. Court rulings provide that private acts under the First Amendment are acceptable as long as they do not encroach on the rights of other citizens (Mitchell). For example, a person can decide to shed their clothes in private, but this behaviour cannot take place in public since it leads to obscene behaviour. Under the First Amendment and the right to public expression, a person could theoretically shed their clothes and go public, but under court rulings, this has been exposed as public indecency (Mitchell). In the current situation, the monument to Forrest is being erected on private land, but this private land is publicly exposed to the town centre. The monument to Forrest would be clearly visible from the town centre, and so it would become a public affair. If Nathan Bedford Forrest was recognized as a hero by membe rs of all communities living in Selma, it would be acceptable to erect such a monument to pay homage. However, Forrest is a disputed personality in terms of his historical acceptability to various communities and may provoke outrage in African Americans living in the town. Erecting such a monument in Selma may lead to racial strife between black and anti-black groups, which may trigger violent outcomes. In order to prevent violence and racial friction, it would be pertinent to ensure that the monument to Forrest is not erected near major public centres.