First Lady Michelle Obama was on top of her game yesterday, 9/16/2016, when she stumped for presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.  She slammed Republican standard bearer Donald Trump for his incessant lying, efforts to incite divisiveness and hate, and lack of ability to control his need to always punch back at all costs whenever provoked.  A president [of the United States of America] can’t afford to just “pop off”, she said.  Then, further along in her speech she said, let’s roll up our sleeves; let’s get to work!  “Are you with me?” she asked!  The crowd enthusiastically responded in the affirmative.  Just for the record, even in the privacy of my home, I added my enthusiastic ‘YES’; I am with you, as well.

During her speech First Lady Obama expressed that she sensed how during this election that many of us would probably like to hide under our beds and not come out until it was all over.  I immediately mentioned to my wife how Mrs. Obama had, in effect and in essence, articulated my feelings.  I had told her in the recent past how Donald J. Trump has a way of just wearing people down and that he had, for all intents and purposes, done that to me.  That is when I also told her that I would just be glad when this election was over and that I hoped that Secretary Clinton would win.  That was my way of saying that I just wanted to hide under my bed and not come out until the election was over.  But isn’t it amazing how someone, who just happens to be a woman, can be the wind beneath one’s wings?

Most of the time when men talk about someone being the wind beneath their wings it ultimately ends up that the someone that they are talking about is a woman.  President Obama is a really fortunate man to have someone as supportive of him, as sharp, articulate and as capable as the First Lady.  But I digress.  Anyway, First Lady Michelle Obama brought me back to reality; the real world where we cannot afford to hide under our beds until this election is over.  So those of us who have retreated to this hiding place need to come out.  And once we come out, we need to get to work!  We cannot risk the chance that Donald J. Trump will become president of the United States of America!

I watched Mr. Trump’s so called press conference and as an American I was saddened to see all of those Americans who stood behind him and to hear about the veterans who supported him, which were not included in the edited piece that I saw, as he announced that he now believed that President Obama was born in the United States of America.  And as an African American – in light of all of the race-baiting, pitting of Americans against one another, and all that he has done in an effort to delegitimize the first African American president of the United States – I was especially saddened to see those African Americans who stood on stage behind him to demonstrate their support of him.

That Notwithstanding, I recognize and accept the fact that all of us as Americans have the right to support whomever we please for president.  Although I disagree with those who support him but at the same time would willingly give my life for them to have the freedom to make the choice that they made, I can only hope – as disheartening as that is for me, that those African Americans who were standing behind him on that stage truly believe in him and his message and were not standing there just to gain a few minutes of fame.  If they were standing there just for those brief moments of fame it would be a shame.  Because if they do not believe in him and his message that would mean that they capriciously made a frivolous choice not realizing that their names will always be associated with that event and that what they did will live forever in infamy.

Polls indicate that Mr. Trump has closed the gap between himself and Secretary Clinton in a number of the battleground states.  That means that with only a short time left until Election Day that he is frighteningly close to having his fifty-fifty chance to become president culminate in him occupying the Oval Office.  That thought horrifies me!  I have no doubt that it horrifies a great majority of Democrats and likely horrifies Washington Republicans and many other Republicans all across America.

But we cannot only be horrified at the prospect of Donald J. Trump becoming president and expect that our horror at this thought will prevent him from achieving his goal.  The only way that we can assure that he does not succeed in his quest to con America is by way of our vote.  We must turn out in greater numbers than we ever have before and vote for Hillary Clinton. A vote for the Libertarian Party candidate or the Green Party candidate does not help Secretary Clinton.  As a matter of fact, it might even help Donald Trump.

We must vote for Secretary Clinton like our very lives depend on it!  And with that thought always in mind, I encourage and implore every single Democrat and all of those Republicans who believe that Mr. Trump should not be president to be sure to vote.  I further ask that you contact all of your relatives, friends and acquaintances and encourage them to be sure to vote as well.

Eulus Dennis – author, Operation Rubik’s Cube and Living Between The Line