Former U.S. President Barack Obama returned to public life Monday, urging young people in his adopted home town of Chicago to be activists in their communities, much like he was before running for political office.
Obama said that as a community organizer three decades ago in Chicago he learned that “ordinary people, when working together, can do extraordinary things,” a lesson “that stayed with me.”
The 44th U.S. president said he hopes to “help and prepare the next generation to take up the baton and take on the world.” He said such pressing problems of income inequality, climate change and unfairness in the criminal justice system are “serious, they’re daunting, but they’re not insoluble.”
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Obama has stayed out of the public eye since leaving office three months ago, ignoring the political controversies of Washington. Obama, a Democrat, derided his successor, real estate mogul turned Republican politician Donald Trump, during last year’s national election campaign as unfit to assume the presidency, but Obama has declined to offer any commentary on Trump’s performance since he took over the White House.
As he greeted people at the University of Chicago, where he once taught law school classes and where his presidential library is planned, he joked, “What’s been going on since I’ve been gone?” But he offered no thoughts on Trump’s often controversial early months of his four-year tenure.
While staying out of the public eye, Obama has spent time on vacation with his wife, former first lady Michelle Obama. He was spotted kitesurfing at airline titan Richard Branson’s Caribbean island retreat in February. More recently, the Obamas spent time aboard the luxury yacht of film studio magnate David Geffen in French Polynesia, alongside rock star Bruce Springsteen, actor Tom Hanks and talk show host Oprah Winfrey.
Both Obamas also signed multi-million-dollar deals to write their memoirs.
The former president first ran for political office in Chicago, elected as an Illinois state senator, and is appearing Monday at the University of Chicago, where he was a law professor and where his presidential library is planned.
The event program says the town hall-style meeting is part of Obama’s “post-presidency goal to encourage and support the next generation of leaders driven by strengthening communities around the country and the world.” Before entering politics, Obama was a community organizer in Chicago.
Shortly before leaving office in January, Obama gave his farewell address in Chicago, telling supporters to remain engaged in public life.
“Democracy can buckle when we give in to fear,” he said then. “Our democracy is threatened whenever we take it for granted.”
In the coming weeks, Obama is accepting a Profile in Courage Award in Boston, giving private paid speeches in the U.S. and Europe and attending an event in Berlin at the Brandenburg Gate with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
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