The Obama Library

This article first appeared in New English Review. 

This past week's opening of the Obama Presidential Library on Chicago's South Side was a real masked ball as we all expected it to be. There was Hillary Clinton, the Empress Dowager, wearing some preposterous black hat she probably stole from an Oktoberfest. She was even accompanied by her erstwhile husband, Bill. In addition, there were Jill and Joe Biden, and the optics were predictably terrible. The most embarrassing scene was ex-President Obama and Jill walking off the stage, Obama pretending to play a guitar with poor Joe left behind to wander alone across the stage with his now famous "Land ahoy" imitation. It was funny and sad at the same time. Unfortunately, he has a wife who will drag him all over the country so she can be seen by her adoring public.

Also present was Los Angeles mayor and current front-runner in the November mayoral election, Karen Bass. The day she flew to Chicago, another big fire broke out in the Boyle Hts. area of the city. Unlike the Pacific Palisades fire, where two communities burned down, it was just a factory this time. The LAFD estimates it should be extinguished by Friday!!! During the previous fires, Bass was in Ghana attending a presidential inauguration, which couldn't go off without the mayor of Los Angeles present. She was warned before she left that weather and wind conditions were making a major conflagration highly likely, but she went anyway.

Our California governor, Gavin Newsom, was there, interrupting his busy schedule running for president in 2028. Oprah Winfrey, Stevie Wonder, Nancy Pelosi, the list goes on and on.

But I am seriously digressing here.

Back on topic, I am not a fan of presidential libraries to begin with. Not every president can get their mug on Mt. Rushmore, but they can all have their own presidential library, a monument to their ego.  There are currently 15 presidential libraries in the US, beginning with Herbert Hoover and not including President Trump (location as yet to be determined).

In the case of Chicago, particularly the South Side, the last thing they needed was this library. The city is bleeding-literally and figuratively. Its NFL team is leaving town, if not the state entirely. Its political leadership is horrendous, largely thanks to one-party rule, and the murder rate is a national scandal. No doubt there will be a lot of homicides committed in and around the spacious library grounds in the days, weeks, months, and years to come. What the city needs are more quality schools, hospitals to treat the gunshot victims, and jails to hold its burgeoning criminal population.

But instead, the city can proudly show off its Barack Obama Presidential Library. Or can it? I don't know who designed this thing, but I'm guessing he or she is a graduate of the Albert Speer School of Architecture. It looks like a cross between Hitler's Berlin bunker and the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City. If you are actually planning a visit, be forewarned that you may never be able to get back out. There don't seem to be a lot of doors and windows. Hopefully, there is at least a fire exit.

Albert Speer, Hitler's architect (left).

"Where are the windows, Albert?"

And then it is crowned, if you will, with a series of famous Obama quotes, like "You didn't build this. I did." Or something like that.

Now I know some wise guy is going to come along and say, "What about Trump? Have you seen that massive ballroom he is building at the White House? What about that Arc de Trump supposedly celebrating the country's 250th birthday? Have you seen the design?"

Fair enough. Most presidents have massive egos, and Obama and Trump are both champs in that regard. People like that tend to build monuments to themselves. But in the case of Chicago, could they not have at least built a structure that was attractive-something that would have added a touch of beauty to a part of the city that badly needs it?