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Journalism of Courage
Stating that he will continue to fight the forces of discrimination and racism, former US President Barack Obama said that for the rest of his career, he would work on training the next generation of leadership all over the world. Speaking at a town hall organised by the Obama Foundation in Nehru Memorial, where he addressed young leaders from across the country, he remarked that India holds an important place for him.
“India-US relationship could be a defining partnership of the 21st century. Charting the course for the future will also depend on the young people of the two countries,” he said. To a question from a transgender who rued discriminatory laws in India, Obama said he would not get into specifics of local laws but advised her to find her voice and tell her stories so that the perception that she was different was broken down.
“When I was in college in the early 80s, many states in the US had discriminatory laws against lesbian and gay communities. Now even many conservatives acknowledge that people should not be discriminated against due to their sexual orientation,” he said. He advised young leaders to work to make things better and embrace incremental changes as they will never get 100 per cent of what they want. “You should not only be an online activist but work among the people and listen to them as well,” he said.
