An Open Letter to Barack Obama

Dear Puppet Obama,

I am going to try and keep this letter to you, as disrespectful as I possibly can. First of all I would not like to take this opportunity to inform you that I foolishly voted for you not once, but twice. I voted for you the first time around because I protested the war in Iraq and the second time because the only alternative(other than not voting at all) was Mitt Romney. I knew that the Iraq war was based on lies long before the truth that it was indeed based on lies, ever came out.  So here you come along all fresh and new and young and spouting off about how you are against dumb wars. I sigh a huge sigh of relief because I’m thinking that finally, here is a person that is truly just as war weary as I am and so I went to the polls and voted for you. Many thought that I voted for you because….and wait for it…you’re Black! No, that wasn’t it. I’ll even let you in on a little secret. Since I was in Minnesota at the time and Minnesota is just overflowing with white folks and I am just bumping into them all the time, I was privvy to many conversations by those whose skin pigmentation is much lighter than my tan one. Many of them were voting for you and not because of your complexion but because they were thinking the same thing that I was, that you would be so war weary and would understand that we are too, that you would not get us embroiled in another conflict, another war that is. Others stated that they voted for you because John McCain was just too damn old!  How innocent and trusting we were. How completely naive we were to believe that you would be different, that you hadn’t lied and sold your soul to the puppetmasters. Oh, yes, you tricked us and you tricked us out.

But I digress. We watched while you decided to ensure that there would be health care for all and then we watched when you caved-in on the public option to the republicans. We watched and took note when you failed to do anything about the Bush bailouts that bailed out the biggest fraudsters in history, the Wall Street bankers, a bailout paid for by us and again, we watched those same crooks push bad loans on to people who were trying to realize the ‘American dream’ by seeking to become homeowners. We watched as report after report came out stating that those who were actual prime borrowers were steered into taking out subprime loans and we watched as churches were foreclosed on. We watched dreams shrivel and die. We watched the creation of homeless tent cities resulting from the criminal behavior by those beloved ‘too big to fail’ fraudsters on Wall Street who after we bailed them out, turned around and rewarded themselves with multi-million dollar bonuses.

So, I ask when will the statistics of the poor and the homeless, the uninsured and the hungry, the seniors who must choose between medication and food, when will their numbers, their statistics demand that they are too big to be left to fail? When will you concentrate on the little children in this country since you have so much compassion for the little children in Syria that you had decided to strike the hell out of them to prove it? You see, there was a child by the name of Deamonte Driver, twelve years old who was here in America, writhing on some floor in Prince Georges County, Maryland who died because an infection from a tooth spread to his brain and killed him. Yes, yes, I know, it was before your time in the White House, but we both know that there are thousands of Deamonte Drivers who are at this very moment dying or ‘writhing’ in pain because their parents cannot afford needed medical care even with the passage of the Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act(PPACA) because many remain unemployed and if they have medicaid, there is often a wait of several months to be seen. I know this because in a little town in Virginia where I was born, I spoke with parents of children who had serious dental issues and they were waiting months to be seen. Adults who had worked until retirement and saved for it are waiting for medical services from ‘free clinics’ because they cannot afford health insurance. Many times, it took a herculean effort from me to even look these people in the face because of how bad their teeth were. What about those people? Do they even matter? Every single one of them voted for you, stood in long lines to do so. What are you doing for them now?

As you know, the Black community overwhelmingly voted for you and even now, the majority of them will not hear one harsh word uttered against you. You are undeserving of such loyalty as you have done nothing to earn it. You have ignored their plight. You have spit in their face. How little did they know that you had nothing in common with them. Your skin color does not make you Black, only the white man’s ‘one drop’ rule made you check the box, “African-American” on your census form. You have nothing in common with the descendants of African slaves, that is not your heritage, but it is mine and it is theirs, the ones who voted for you, myself included. What did we expect from you? Certainly not what we got, total and shameless contempt for us. With every speech you have given about the Black community, you have deliberately pointed the finger at us and blamed us for not hiring ourselves. You have blamed us for the double digit Black unemployment figures.  You have blamed us for the disintegration of our families and our neighborhoods due to unmitigated poverty, drugs and crime and gang violence. You have blamed us for the discrimination that we face on a daily basis. You have blamed us for the mass incarceration of our young Black men when they cannot get a good education and instead turn to criminal activity. You have blamed us for a poor public education system that is found in inner cities all across America. You have blamed us for not following in your lofty footsteps. You have accused of us of not working hard enough. You have chastized us, disrespected us, blamed us, degraded us and denounced us and to make matters worse, you went so far as to do this when speaking at the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington.  The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., was so above you in stature, in integrity, in honor, humility and compassion that there is no comparison and you defile him when you even so much as utter his name. He would be ashamed of you! He would chastize you! He would have nothing to do with you! And as to why? We both know the answer to that!

Finally, you have your place in history, of that you are assured. But history will not look favorably upon you and neither do I. History will show that you were undeserving in being called the first Black president of the United States of America because that, you are not. Your history is not our history. You are the first  Kenyan/Caucasian American president of the United States because the so-called ‘African-Americans’ born in this country are the descendants of slaves and that, you are not. When you stated that you would be a “president for ALL Americans”, you did not include ‘African-Americans in that statement because your subsequent actions demoted that statement to a lie. And just as you lied about your reasoning behind military strikes on Syria, we have found that we cannot trust you as you are a proven liar. You even lied when you ran as an anti-war candidate and now you want to engage us in a war based on fabrications, lies and chemical weapons. You know the history of this country and you know that this country has used chemical weapons on numerous occasions and had no problem doing so. You are dropping drones on people as I type this. You are eradicating more of our rights. You are shredding the constitution. You? Anti-war? In the words of South Carolina’s republican representative Joe Wilson, “You lie!”

Wishing that we could impeach your sorry, worthless ass(but who of any worth could take your place?).

Signed,

Shelby I. Courtland