Stephen “Hummer’’ Holmes, the soccer coach at the former Browne & Nichols School in Cambridge, was standing on a wind-whipped field in 1963 when he met the most talented soccer player he would ever work with. A new student at school, that young man had loped on to the field barefoot and without shin guards, ready to play just as he did back home in Kenya.
His name was Omar Okech Obama.
“He had been playing without shoes for so long that the bottoms of his feet were so deeply calloused they were like shoe leather. And his feet were so wide that he had to have special shoes constructed for him,’’ recalled Holmes. “But henever liked the shoes. He’d say, ‘Coach, I need to take the shoes off. Please, coach, I can’t feel the ball.’ ’’
That same Obama is now more famously known as the uncle of President Obama. He is an enigmatic presidential relative who rocketed into the news in August when he was arrested on charges of drunken driving in Framingham, and told the booking officer, “I think I will callthe White House.’’ As immigration officials consider whether to deport him, Obama, 67, finds his life in the United States the subject of intense curiosity not just by government officials and the media but among some family members and his old Cambridge classmates as well.
That spotlight has found him in the twilight of a meager life, nearly 50 years after he joined his older half-brother, Barack Obama Sr., the president’s late father, in Cambridge to seek aneducation. Notwithstanding the now-famous surname, his life here has mirrored that of countless others who have immigrated legally, but then simply stayed on, barely making do at the margins of American life.
Obama, who assumed his father’s name, Onyango, when he was a young man, seemed destined for much more. One of a hand-picked group of young Kenyans dispatched to the United States at the time their country achieved independence, Obama had the potential to be a key player in his country’s unfolding story. But when their homeland became riven by political infighting in the late 1960s and the great promise of independence appearedto founder, some Kenyans grew bitter. Like Obama, more than a few of those who left to further their education never returned home.
As the decades passed, Obama gradually lost contact with many of his childhood friends and family members. For the past twenty years, he has ignored a deportation order, living quietly under the radar until he allegedly ran a stop sign in front of a Framingham police officer. Obama, who works in a Framingham liquor store, now faces the possibility of an abrupt return to the country he left as a teenager, a place radically altered in mostevery respect. It is something he distinctly does not want.
http://articles.boston.com/2012-01-08/metro/30602200_1_president-obama-barack-obama-kenyan-family
Massachusetts police say they're discouraged by a defense lawyer's request to trawl through the record of the officer who pulled over President Barack Obama's half-uncle last year.
Onyango Obama, 67, was arrested Aug. 24 and charged with driving under the influence. Framingham police said he hit 0.14 on a blood alcohol test, nearly double the legal limit of 0.08.
Obama, who has foughtattempts to deport him to Kenya as an alleged illegal immigrant since 1989, briefly appeared Thursday in Framingham District Court, where his attorney, Scott Bratton, said he wanted a copy of arresting officer Val Krishtal's official on-duty driving record.
Krishtal was on duty when he lost control of his cruiser and crashed into a stone wall in November, according to records obtained by NBCstation WHDH of Boston . The investigation into that crash reported that "there have been numerous incidents investigated by the Framingham Police Department over the past several years involving Officer Krishtal and the operation of a motor vehicle while on duty."
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In court Thursday, Bratton said he wanted Krishtal's records to"see if there is a patternof conduct of bad driving behavior on the part of the arresting officer."
That request annoyed the Massachusetts police union, which saidthe officer's driving record was irrelevant to whether Obama was guilty of DUI.
"It's sort of discouraging," Fall River police Sgt. James Machado, executive director of the Massachusetts Police Association, told The Boston Herald .
"I understand defense attorneys taking tacks and questioning police officers' integrity, but to bring someone else's record out there? What influence would that have on him doing his job?" Machado asked."If you have motor vehicle violations, you can't give out citations?"
Framingham police Lt. Ronald Brandolini told the Herald that Krishtal, 44, has never been disciplined for driving infractions on duty.
But personal driving records obtained by WHDH reflect that Krishtal's license is"active non-renewal status" — meaning he must pay a fine or a fee before he can renew it.

o.o

Huh? What?

Oh, sorry.. reading it put me to sleep.

Ahem.

Question!

*raises hand*

..um, why should I care at all about Bama'nader's uncle?