Obama returns to public stage at Chicago forum

CHICAGO — Former President Barack Obama lifted the veil on his retirement Monday at a University of Chicago forum, engaging students with a message calling on them to use empathy and listen to those with whom they disagree.

“I have to say that there’s a reason why I’m always optimistic when things look like they’re sometimes not going the way I want. And that is because of young people like this,” Mr. Obama said in wrapping up the 80-minute forum, the closest he came to addressing his successor, President Donald Trump.

Indeed, there were no direct references to Mr. Trump, the Republicancontrolled Congress or the continued attempts to repeal and replace his signature Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, or a host of executive orders the new president has used to overturn Mr. Obama policies.

Instead, the discussion with six younger people, including four students, featured Mr. Obama largely delivering bromides from a historical perspective of his years as an organizer, state senator, U.S. senator and president.

“I am the first to acknowledge I did not set the world on fire, nor did I transform these communities in any significant way,” he said of his days as a community organizer on the South Side.

“But it did change me. This community gave me more than I was able to give in return. This community taught me that ordinary people, when working together, can do extraordinary things,” he said.

“Listen to understand rather than listen to respond. That will save you a lot of heartache and grief,” said Mr. Obama.

Mr. Obama also counseled students who have an interest in politics to be careful about their use of social media, but also to “own” any mistakes the unforgiving medium may show from their past.

It was Mr. Obama’s first public visit to Chicago, his adopted hometown, since he delivered a presidential farewell address at McCormick Place in January. And it was Mr. Obama’s first public event since leaving office Jan. 20, ending a threemonth vacation that included jaunts to foreign lands and launching a series of talks and paid speeches and appearances both in the U.S. and internationally.