New York [U.S.], Apr. 25 : A visibly relaxed and casual Barack Obama made his first public appearance after bidding farewell as the 44th U.S.
President, and addressed a group of university students saying that he plans to focus on encouraging young people to engage in local politics in Chicago- the city from which he launched his political career.
Smoothly steering clear of current President Donald Trump, who is nearing his 100th day in office, Obama appeared on the University of Chicago panel.
The former president went on to say that his time as an organizer taught him that "Ordinary people, when working together, can do extraordinary things," adding that, "This experience taught me that beneath the surface differences of people, that there were common hopes and common dreams, and common aspirations and common values that stitched us together as Americans." Talking about the direction his life was going to take after the White House, Obama said, "although there are all kinds of issues that I care about, and all kinds of issues that I intend to work on, the single most important thing I can do is to help in any way I can prepare the next generation of leadership to take up the baton and to take their own crack at changing the world." The only time Obama made a direct reference to his successor was when an undergraduate spoke about the difficulty he had getting day laborers involved in a research project he was conducting, saying they feared becoming victims of Trump's crackdown on undocumented immigrants.
To which Obama gave sound advice and called on the student to find someone who was stood by the immigrant community so they would be more open to answering his questions.
The event was peppered with Obama's classic humor as the former president displayed his trademark wit and managed to keep the students in splits, while doling out pearls of wisdom at the same time.
Source: ANI