Obama library belongs in Hawaii and Chicago

The case for an Obama Presidential Library in Hawaii is historic and strong. President Barack Obama was born in the new 50th State in 1961. He was here for his early childhood, and graduated from Punahou School, where he played basketball. In between, he spent four years with his mother and stepfather in Indonesia, getting a glimpse of a very different culture.

These facts are well known to most Honolulu Star-Advertiser readers. Their place in American presidential history, however, is not so generally recognized. Relatively few presidents have been born west of the Mississippi River: Herbert Hoover (Iowa); Harry Truman (Missouri); Dwight Eisenhower (Texas) and Richard Nixon (California).

Obama stands out because Hawaii is the newest state and has a small population. Only one of our presidents had parents who graduated from a state university, and it was the same university — the University of Hawaii at Manoa. That couple was Stanley Ann Dunham and Barack Obama Sr., good students who met in Ellen Wiswell’s language class. Obama’s mother and half-sister also earned their Ph.Ds from Hawaii. His grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, served as vice president of the Bank of Hawaii for several decades.

Exhibits here in Hawaii could reflect the important roles that the president’s mother and grandmother had on the young Obama.

Building a library on the waterfront in Honolulu is desirable and practical. The Obama administration is trying in its second term to execute a "pivot to Asia" in its foreign policy. This location would reinforce that effort. We already have Pearl Harbor and the USS Missouri. This library would offer visitors to Hawaii, especially those from Asia, information about the president’s early years and the influence on him of Asia, Hawaii and the Pacific.

The case for a presidential library in Illinois next to the University of Chicago is also strong. Obama taught at the university for more than a decade. The roots of the first lady’s family, the Robinsons, are in Chicago. Obama did his community organizing on the city’s South Side, and began his political career — state senator and U.S. senator — there.

Scholars would find a library in Chicago, in the middle of the continent, convenient for their visits to examine the documents. Illinois is the "Land of Lincoln" and the birthplace of Ronald Reagan. Prominent presidential also-rans — William Jennings Bryan (three times) and Adlai Stevenson (twice) — were born there. Steven A. Douglas was also from Illinois. This populous state already has its share of presidential history.

There is an appropriate precedent for having a presidential library in two locations. Gerald Ford’s Presidential Library and Museum is shared by two cities 130 miles apart: Ann Arbor and Grand Rapids. Ford was a graduate of Michigan and a starter on its football team, but he was raised in Grand Rapids and served as its congressman.

The Ann Arbor and Grand Rapids facilities are in the presidential library system, and both offer research resources, exhibits and educational programs. The Ann Arbor library archives’ 25 million documents emphasize Ford’s White House years, and the Grand Rapids museum exhibits artifacts from the life and times of the president.

Having library facilities in both Honolulu and Chicago would reach a broad range of visitors and better reflect the president’s life and work. As Sen. Brian Schatz has said, there is no reason why the president "should be forced to choose between his two hometowns." Ultimately, of course, decisions about the library will be up to President Obama and his family.