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One More Mystery |
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On February 9th, 2010, I received the following email
from "Northeast Elizabeth":
On your site's "Education" page, you post a
photograph identified as "Barry, 3rd Grade, 1969" which is identical to
this one appearing in the Honolulu Star Bulletin in December, 2009 (in an article revealing that Obama spent at least part of third grade in Hawaii and not solely Jakarta as widely reported). Did you add it to your site after that date, or was it there before? I ask because in the article, Obama's former classmate Scott Inoue indicates that he didn't receive the photo back from Obama until November 2009, and I had assumed that Star's publication of the picture the next month would have been the first appearance of it. However, the page on your site on which it appears indicates copyright, Beckwith, 2008" at the bottom so I wasn't sure if it was from back then (and if so, how you would have it if it were a private picture of Inoue's, unless Inoue got it elsewhere and was playing a trick).
Scott and Barry 3rd grade 1969
Unfortunately, I have no memory of when I added that photo. However,
I checked the properties on that image and it was created on Sunday,
October 18, 2009 -- so it was clearly before. So, I had it before it was
returned to Inoue in November, 2009.
However, it's clear I acquired the photo
without the back story, prompting me to archive the photo as an
Indonesian-Besuki-period
artifact.
Somehow, I missed the Star Bulletin report.
This was the first I'd heard of Obama being in
the 3rd grade -- and in Hawaii? He was supposed to be in Indonesia
-- the report contradicts Obama's own autobiography, as well as multiple
biographies, that say he attended grades 1 through 5 in Jakarta,
Indonesia. From the report:
A former Manoa resident sent President Barack
Obama an old photo of the two of them taken while they were third-grade
classmates at Noelani Elementary School, requesting an autograph more
than six months ago. He recently received the autographed picture back,
as well as a personally signed thank-you note.
Widely published biographies say Obama lived in Indonesia from 1967
through 1971, and none mention his third-grade year at Noelani, Inoue
acknowledges. But he said Obama attended at least part of his
third-grade year at Noelani in 1969, perhaps during a visit back to
Hawaii, and moved away.
When Obama decided to run for president,
Inoue had his mother dig up the photo and sent an enlarged copy to
Obama's senatorial office in Illinois with a request for his autograph. There was no response. He tried again after the inauguration, and
several months later an envelope from the White House arrived.
He
was surprised by the warm note -- typewritten, but personally signed by
Obama -- that accompanied the photo. Dated Nov. 6, 2009, the note said:
"Dear Scott:
"This is just a quick note to thank you for your
kind letter. It is good to hear from you. ... I am pleased to enclose
your signed photograph. Thank you again for your thoughtful note, and I
wish you all the best.
"Sincerely, Barack Obama"
That note reads like general-purpose package for White House
correspondents that comes out of Obama's 14-million member database -- a
boilerplate note, and a photo of Obama.
There's a second
report on Record.net that contains an
image of the letter, and this cryptic comment -- "His family
moved to Indonesia sometime during the school year" -- his biography,
and all those autobiographies disagree -- the Soetoros moved two years
previously -- Maya Soetoro-Ng, Obama's
half-sister
places Obama and family in
Jakarta, Indonesia, from 1967 through 1971.
And,
this is not a personal note -- look at it -- it's your basic
graphics-printer produced (Obots are skilled at that) "thank you" note -- there is no personal
comment or allusion to the 3rd grade photo, so I don't read that
response from "Sincerely, Barack Obama" as an
acknowledgement, by Obama, that he attended 3rd grade at Noelani in 1969
-- it's like all the other questions -- ignored!
I also assume
his 3rd grade records have been lost like his
kindergarten records?
Now I'll have to update
my list of lost and missing Obama records,
and send an email to Hawaii
Department of Education to see if they have records of this.
This is bizarre -- I did a Google "Books"
search of "Dreams...," and there is no mention of Noelani.
I'm tellin' you -- nobody knows anything about this guy -- every day
it's a new mystery. I've said it before, the more I learn about
this guy, the less I know about him.
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©
Copyright Beckwith 2010
All right reserved
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