Barack Obama

Obama comes to hear from DuPage County

Saturday, May 28, 2005

DAILY HERALD
Senator impresses Addison students

U.S. Sen. Barack Obama made a stop in Addison Friday at a town hall meeting to listen to the needs of DuPage County residents.

Hundreds of Addison Trail High School students, administrators and community members greeted Obama with thunderous applause in the school's auditorium.

Humorous through most of the discussion, the Chicago Democrat joked about his high school days in California. He wasn't class president, he said, but he played basketball and "chased girls a lot."

That drew a shout of "Yeah!" from one of the students in the crowd.

"That's what you're doing, too," Obama responded, as the crowd laughed.

But the discussion soon shifted to more serious issues in what was Obama's 23rd town hall meeting since he was elected in a landslide last November.

Obama, who has been in the national spotlight since his election, said it's his chance to listen to the concerns of the people so that "I don't go 'Washington' on you."

"One of the things that has a tendency to happen, I think, is when people go out to Washington, they start representing Washington to their constituents instead of representing their constituents in Washington," he said.

Students, residents and teachers asked questions ranging from the war in Iraq to the privatization of Social Security to education.

Obama described the security in Iraq as "horrible."

He said U.S. troops should come home if the Iraqi government is functioning properly and the Iraqi troops are trained correctly.

"Our young men and women have been incredibly brave and effective in very difficult situations," the senator said.

Linda Alarian, an Addison Trial special education teacher, asked Obama what adults can do to inspire young people. She also asked if he's going to run for president, which drew applause from the crowd but failed to get a response from Obama.

"Young people are excited about the opportunity to do meaningful work," he said. "One of the things older people don't do is to give young people an opportunity."

Teachers and students said they were impressed with how genuinely Obama answered their questions.

"We don't normally have superstars here every day," sophomore Mariela Ajazi said.

Historically, DuPage County has voted Republican. But Obama showed his appeal in the GOP stronghold when he received 64 percent of the vote against Alan Keyes in November.

Before the town hall meeting, Obama held a breakfast meeting with several DuPage municipal leaders.

Addison Mayor Larry Hartwig said most participants expressed concerns about transportation and the loss of sales tax revenue because of Internet commerce.

"These issues that affect people day-to-day are not partisan issues," Hartwig said, "but rather issues worth dealing with and that we're together on."