Have you ever tried to get information of any kind to what America considers to be “important” Americans?  Let me be clear, I mean people like past presidents, past first ladies, past Senators and Representatives (current Senators and Representatives?)…and cable news talk show hosts?  I have.  It is virtually impossible!  In my case, it doesn’t matter whether I use high-tech mail or snail mail it just can’t seem to find its way to the person that I am sending it to.  Now don’t get me wrong, I know that “important” people have to be protected from gadflies, unlike the rest of Americans who can receive tons of junk mail each year and be subjected to salespeople or anyone else who wants to plug a bogus name into our caller ID – no matter how much we might complain to our elected officials about it and ask them to fix this problem, because they are “important.”  I have come to grips with the presumed fact that the rest of us are not “important?”  So I think that maybe I accept it?  However, I’m not yet sure about all of this so I am still working on it…it sure can be confusing!

I was moved to write this piece because I was so filled with pride and happiness when Mr. Barrack Obama was elected president that I wrote a poem about him and the First Lady.  I knew how I felt and I believed that virtually all Black Americans held these same feelings so I wanted the President and First Lady to have this poem and have the opportunity to read it, hear my interpretation of it and possibly vicariously feel the overwhelming pride and exhilaration that all of us Black Americans were feeling as a result of them leading our great country, America.  I was so filled with pride and excitement that I gave this poem to the head of the Democratic Party in Denver and asked her if she would see to it that the President and First Lady received it; she said that she would try to see that this happened.  In addition to giving my poem to her, I gave it to the major television stations in Denver and tried to convince them that it was newsworthy.  They didn’t buy it.  So here it is twelve years later and the President and First Lady still have not had an opportunity to read this poem or had the opportunity to be exposed to or even try to experience the great happiness and pride that overwhelms me, and I believe all Black Americans, every time that I think about them.

I acknowledge that there cannot be even the slightest comparison to what President and First Lady Obama tried to do during President Obama’s term in office – and are still trying to do – and the overwhelming pride that I feel and have expressed in my poem, but it is the most eloquent way that I can come up with to express the agape love and great pride that I, and I believe all Black Americans, have for him and our First Lady…so I ask that you will please indulge me this one time.  My point is that I have tried to the best of my ability to get this poem to President Obama and the First Lady but have been unsuccessful.  This leads to the perfect segue into the other “important” Americans, past and current Senators and Representatives and the cable news talk show folks.  Whenever I have tried to reach them my snail mail has come back to me marked “return to sender.”  How sentimental, I can’t help but to reminisce about an old Elvis Pressley song…you know it; “Return To Sender.”

Sometimes I can’t help but to wonder if it is not only because I am not on the “important” Americans list but maybe it is because I am on some “important” Americans’ bad guy list.  I do write a lot of articles about “important” Americans and I have heard that if you use certain names or words on the phone, via electronic mail or via any articles that you write on your computer and/or post to a website, that those names and words are picked up by those monitoring for them and may generate scrutiny by the monitors.  Whoa, just thinking about that scares me!  Just for the record, I’m not a bad guy.  Anyway, this regular American can’t seem to get in touch with “important” Americans: Maybe some regular Americans can but even if they can, they don’t seem to have any impact, especially with our elected officials.  If they can get in contact with them and have some impact, why are we having all of these protests and why does nothing seem to effectuate any change without such protests; why doesn’t it at least stem the endless tide of the divisive statements and incitement to violence based on race by The Donald J. Trump of the United States of America?!  Obviously, it has neither brought about his removal from office nor has it stopped him from publically exhibiting this shameful behavior, which makes his unfitness for the highest office in America painfully obvious!

Protests in every state in our country; with the way that things are going in our federal government right now, who would have thunk (not misspelled) it?!  I mean, just because the checks and balances on the Executive Branch of government have been pushed over the edge of the cliff – by the Executive Branch – and are hanging on solely by their metaphorical fingernails does not mean that the American people should panic, does it?  And that The Donald J. Trump of the United States of America has become completely unhinged, in large part, as a result of observing this, and attributed it to his grip on power; that should not give Americans pause, should it?  After all, he says that the coronavirus pandemic is under control and that the things that the press is saying about Russia placing a bounty on the heads of American soldiers is a hoax, that Americans should discount this “fake news” and move on with our lives.  With his track record surly we can believe and trust him…right?!

Think about it.  America is in very deep trouble and even if all of us do our civic duty and vote Mr. Trump and all of his enablers out of office in November, we will still be faced with a long and arduous uphill battle.  This is indeed a battle for the soul of America; and if we don’t vote him and his lackeys out of office then America will continue to be drawn by the siren call of The Donald J. Trump of the United States of America until she crashes upon the unseen rocks and her pieces will be carried away by the whim of various currents to a myriad of unknown places.  True, Sirens should still exist only in folklore; but Mr. Trump exists in a Trump World bubble and has become the siren of folklore personified in our modern day world.  He has lured many other elected and appointed officials into his orbit, mesmerized them and they now belong to him: they have completely failed to honor the oath of office that they took and have utterly failed to move America in the direction that the majority of the American people want her to travel.

Before I close, let’s address paragraph two of this article, a paragraph that to some might appear to be somewhat incongruent to this piece, and determine what in the world the poem that I wrote in honor of President and First Lady Obama has to do with the rest of the article.  Okay, here we go.

President Obama:

• Was the President of all of the people, not just those who voted for him
  • I’m proud of that
• Worked to pull us together as Americans, not to divide us and pit us against one another
  • I’m proud of that
• Was pensive, he put a lot of thought into what American policy should be
  • I’m proud of that
• Listened
  • I’m proud of that
• Valued all civil servants, their experience and expertise and thoughtfully weighed the advice given to him by heads of their departments and his cabinet members
  • I’m proud of that
• Did not tweet his way through domestic and foreign policy
  • I’m proud of that
• Was the first African American President of the United States of America
  • I’m proud of that
• As President, placed the interest of America above his personal interest…and the list goes on
  • I’m proud of that

I was extremely proud then and remain extremely proud now of President and First Lady Obama.  The fact that I am an African American only intensifies that sense of pride.  I really wanted to get that poem to them, especially, sense I was inspired by them to write it and wrote it in their honor.  I could not get it to them then and, to this day, still cannot get it to them: it’s sort of like the rest of the unimportant people who can’t seem to get through to the “important” people who represent them in order to bring about desired change.  Hence, protests and demonstrations.

Now that those of you who were scratching your head about paragraph two of this article know why it is there, your mind should be free to focus on and dwell on the final and urgently important message that I want to leave you with.  That message is this: whether you are a Democrat, Republican or Independent, always remember, your vote is the most important one of all…unless you don’t use it!

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