Author: Gabriel Bernadett-Shapiro
Most students at Oxy have a favorite professor. One who took you rock climbing, or came to have lunch with you while you studied abroad in Madrid. Maybe this professor had an impact on you that forever changed the way you think, or set you on a career path that would eventually culminate in your being elected to the most powerful echelon of influence in the entire world. A place where you sit enthroned in authority and three million people hang on every perfectly formed word that comes from your lips. Are you Barack Obama? Probably not. You’re probably just one of the thousands of Oxy students who won’t become president. But, you should still read this.
This past Friday I had the privilege to speak with Politics Professor Roger Boesche, President Obama’s favorite professor at Oxy. Professor Boesche has occupied the same office in Swan since 1977. From floor to ceiling, the walls of his cramped room are laden with books about political and philosophical theory. Squeezed into the space above the shelves are portraits of the great philosophers: Marx, Foucault, Paine, just to name a few. From his place of honor, a Benjamin Franklin action figure stares out with a plastic grandfatherly smile. Boesche explains that he’s always wanted to teach a class about our clever and sadly syphilitic Founding Father (a pox upon 18th century French prostitutes!).
A cursory glance around the office would reveal little, a few loose papers scattered among pictures of family. If you weren’t looking closely you’d miss a single framed photo of Professor Boesche shaking hands with the President of the United States.After finishing his dissertation at Stanford, Boesche migrated down south and to the welcoming arms of our great institution.
Teaching at Oxy provided Boesche with the opportunity to move back to his wife’s hometown, where they raised their daughter.You can tell why Boesche is Obama’s favorite. His smooth manner puts you at ease and belies his southern roots. His almost imperceptible accent tinged our conversation as he described his early years living with Rheumatoid Arthritis. By age 14, he had his first surgery which left his leg immobilized in a plaster cast for months.
“The most pleasure I have ever felt was getting that cast off and scratching for the first time,” he said, smiling. I was curious, I’d never met anybody with his condition and he made me feel comfortable asking about his experience. In the 1980s, Boesche underwent ten surgeries. It was clear that this man was no stranger to pain or discomfort.
To Boesche, the current health care crisis isn’t just another bill to analyze academically.
The decisions made on Capitol Hill will affect him in ways most of us cannot imagine. Speaking with him, I began to understand what I’ve been taking for granted these past few months. “I have a preexisting condition,” he said, looking at me gravely. “My greatest fear is that something happens and I get placed on disability leave.”
I asked Boesche how he felt about the health care debate.
“I was watching Rachel Maddow the other day – she was discussing health care statistics in Illinois. They’re abysmal – infant mortality, women’s health. They really need a health care program, probably more than any other state. Their representatives are resisting it in any form because of the big donations from health care companies. It’s the same here at Oxy. Sometime around October, the company that insures the college [United Healthcare] sends a representative out. They come and say their costs are up; we need to raise your rates, raise your co-payments and raise deductibles. Then I read in the business section: record profits for shareholders,” Boesche said.
As a faculty member, Boesche receives health coverage from the college. Without coverage, the costs of multiple corrective surgeries (for something as necessary as walking) are depressingly unaffordable.
However, Boesche is hopeful. He says of his former student, “He is, I think, the greatest orator since William Jennings Bryan; he has the ability to change this country.”
I was curious about Obama’s early years and asked Professor Boesche what he was like in class. “I remember him as a good student, articulate, engaged, did the reading. One of the ways I remember him was ’cause he had a funny name and a big afro-that wasn’t the style at the time. Most people had shaved those by ’79,” Boesche said.
We talked briefly about the campus climate at the time that Obama attended school. I wanted to know what the big issues were for students at the time.
“Obama was involved in activism on campus in 1979. I would not say the whole campus was energized by the divestment movement. There was a coalition against Apartheid that had meetings, showed films. Fifty people or more would come.”
I asked when people started getting involved.
“In the fall of ’79 Iran took hostages; you gotta understand the time here. Carter is president and the Soviets had invaded Afghanistan. The newscasters made it sound like the Soviet Union would go through Afghanistan, Pakistan, get a warm water port and take over Yugoslavia. In January, Carter says that all 18 year olds, men and women, would register for the draft. This changed a mostly apathetic campus to 500 people crowding what was then the ‘academic club’ to listen to Professor Newhall give an informative speech about the draft . . . People get interested in politics based on ideas and self-interest. Mostly self-interest,” Boesche said.
What he said stuck with me, and I was glad to know that Boesche was not without an academic’s cynicism. I looked at my watch, time had flown by and I had not even asked about his meeting with the President, but, Boesche was a step ahead.
“So we went into his office,” he began.
“Obama said, ‘Professor, its good to see you after all these years.’ He’s taller than I remember, he’s lean too. That means his knees will last longer to play basketball.” (Watch out Professor Newhall, he might have an answer for that legendary three point shot of yours.)
“He introduced himself to my wife and daughter. I told him, ‘Last time I saw you I called you by a less formal name.’ He laughed, ‘You can still call me that if you want.’ I stopped short of saying, ‘Ok then Barry.'” Boesche chuckled to himself.
“I met with him for about 12 minutes,” he said. “I have trouble standing for long periods of time because I cannot straighten my legs. It’s actually much easier to walk than it is to stand. I was getting tired about halfway through, but it was clear that we wouldn’t be able to sit down. I had to kinda hike myself up and sit on his desk a little.”
I asked, laughing, “You sat on the president’s desk?”
Smiling, he replied, “Yes I did.”
“Besides pleasantries, what did you guys talk about?” I asked.
“I gave him my tyranny book and told him that if everybody in the State Department read it they would completely understand places like North Korea. He was looking at the book, studying the cover.”
The cover has the word “Tyranny” in bright bold letters against a background of famous tyrants: Mao Zedong, Stalin, and Hitler.
“[Obama] said, thoughtfully, ‘Some people would think that my photo should be on this,'” Boesche recalled.
“You try and get something like health care and you get called all sorts of names. I found myself trying to cheer him up,” said Boesche. “I told him he was the best orator I’d ever seen, that he could persuade people. I thanked him for his passion for health care. I’ve always dreamed that there would be a president who would push for health care for people with preexisting conditions.”
He looked at me and shook his head, “I hope that word disappears from the English language. It means a lot to me; my daughter has Gastritis, which causes ulcers. That’s a preexisting condition . . . She’s going to have to get a job that has good insurance coverage; we all hope this bill will pass.”
It was clear Boesche has deep respect for his former pupil. There is a
seriousness in his voice when he talks about the challenges that Obama faces, as well as an empathetic and personal concern for his well-being. I asked him how he felt about teaching Obama, and being cited as a positive influence in his life (Boesche is mentioned in Obama’s autobiography). He thought about it, then picked a quote that fit the situation well: “Foucault said, ‘I know what I do, but I don’t know what I do does.'”
I ended the interview by asking Boesche how he feels about the future of this country.
“I’m in an anxious, fearful state right now, ’cause there are so many crazies. People who don’t know what they are talking about, people who are going to presidential rallies with guns. I can’t imagine the disaster that there would be for our country if somebody assassinated President Obama. I hope everyday that the Secret Service can protect him.
“There is so much hatred that gets stirred up by these talk shows, Glen Beck, Hannity, Limbaugh. People who preach racism, hate and intolerance. It’s sad, it’s not a majority, but it could provoke somebody. Last week Nancy Pelosi tried to calm people down and some of the Republicans stoked the fires even more – they were saying that they’re in rebellion, that they were in revolt.”
Hopefully Boesche’s lectures and lessons from years ago will help Obama transcend the noise.
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