Senator Barack Obama Addresses Youth at Chicago Benefit

On May 5, 2006, keynote speaker Senator Barack Obama addressed over 1,000 guests at the largest-ever Chicago Benefit Dinner about the importance of combating indifference with empathy and action. The benefit, chaired by Penny Pritzker and Bryan Traubert and Sandy and Jim Reynolds, raised one million dollars for Facing History's programs.

Barack Obama has dedicated his life to public service as a community organizer, civil rights attorney, Illinois State Senator, and now as a leader in the United States Senate. He and his wife Michelle, who is on the Chicago Advisory Board, are strong supporters of Facing History and Ourselves. He directed his comments to the youth in the audience:

"I hope you don't mind I address my speech to all the young people here, because they're the ones who now bear the responsibility to take what they've learned to make a difference. I want you to know that the central lesson you take away from Facing History and Ourselves...is one that's eluded so many for so much of our history. Its absence has lead to wars that have ravaged entire continents, to the extermination of untold millions...and perhaps most of all, to a quiet indifference to the suffering of our fellow man...

"It's a hard lesson, but one that every parent humbly tries to instill in their children through words and example. It was Atticus Finch, Harper's Lee's hero in To Kill a Mockingbird... who may have put it most simply and eloquently to his daughter. He said: ‘If you just learn a single trick Scout, you'll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view. Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it." It is of course, the lesson of empathy, the ability to see the world through someone else's eyes. To treat others as you would wish to be treated."

A highlight of the evening were Facing History students from Maine West and Walter Payton high schools who read Obama's autobiography, Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, in preparation for the benefit program and engaged in conversation with him about it.

Derrick Clifton, an 11th grade student at Walter Payton prep said he found many connections in Obama's book to his own struggle to find his identity. He described how his Facing History class helped him think about himself and his relationship to others in a new way, "Because I have allowed myself to step outside the stereotypes of the average black man or the average teenager, I am now able not only to find myself, but to expand and find new destinations in life I would've never imagined," he said. "Being free to be an individual is something I value tremendously. If we all saw each other as individuals rather than stereotypes, how would our views of the world change?"

Guests were also treated to performances by the Chicago Children's Choir.