What African Americans Expected of Barack Hussein Obama II!

During the 2008 election season I heard many African Americans making reference to how great their lives were going to be if he wonthe election. Well, he won the election. After November 2008, I heard them saying how their lives were going to change because the new president was Black was going to make the world a much greater place for African Americans to prosper, be successful, and become richer than they had ever been before. Realistic thinking? No, I think not, but there are those who actually expected President Obama to move into the White House and change their lives overnight. None of these people stopped to think of the fact that the president does not make laws. Congress enacts laws. True, the president does have a certain amount of powers to sign some things into law with the stroke of a pen. But if there is little or no cooperation from those in congress to cross the aisle and work for a consensus the president can do nothing except to keep trying. So, now, some African Americans have become disillusioned with President Obama. They feel that he has betrayed them. Why? Their expectations were much higher than his capabilities. Let's give the man credit for all that he tried to do. Many things that he tried we are not even aware of. The reason for that being the fact that we don't pay attention to what is actually in the news or stop to listen to all the facts. We rely on what others are saying so we hear all the negative stuff and we believe just about everything that we hear. If we happen to hear someone on the radio or television say that the president has not kept his promise to perform a certain act that he promised to fulfill we believe it. Hell, there are some African Americans who even believe that the president is not an American. I was told point blankly prior to the 2008 election by someone close to me in no uncertain words, "I'm not voting for him because he was born in Africa." She proudly announced after the election that she had voted for Senator John McCain. Now, this was a member of my family. There was nothing that I could say to her that convinced her that the president was born in Hawaii which to the best of my knowledge is a part of the United States of America. Yet, she chose to believe the naysayers. This same relative still firmly believes that. Now, she is complaining that the president has not done enough for Black people. So I asked her just recently what she had expected the president to do. Although her answer was not a total shock to me it did start me to thinking that maybe there were others who felt the same as she did. One lady in her 70s told me that he had messed up her Medicare with "that health care stuff" and no matter how much I tried to explain to her how the Affordable Care Act would help her she just would have none of it. Why was this? To paraphrase her words, ‘I spent 6 months with a group who showed me where he was going to make it harder for me. We even went to the White House and they explained too. And that White Congressman that is the head up there even said that was how it would work.’ I spoke with this woman for about 15 minutes on this and she firmly believes that I did not know what I was talking about and the congressman knew what he was talking about because he is a congressman. She also said, "I voted for him then but you can bet I ain't voting for him now." I respectfully walked away from her and then laughed at the rigid absurdity of how she was thinking. Others have said, "I lost my job and the president hasn't done anything to help me get another one." Okay, lying in bed until 10:00 am in the morning and then getting on the telephone looking for a job hasn't gotten you another job; riding around in your car looking cool hasn't gotten you a job; not taking a genuine job that has been offered to you at less pay than you were making before hasn’t gotten you a job; and your refusal to take advantage of any idea to retrain for something else hasn't gotten you a job either. So, how is that the president's fault. The president has tried to get a jobs bill passed but congress has bucked him. So, what would you have the president do about that?

Look, my fellow brothers and sisters, Barack Hussein Obama II, is the president. He has to be president for all people - NOT JUST YOU, the African American! He is the President of the United States of American and he just happens to be a Black man. The laws that he signs into effect must be a law that applies to every single American and that law must give every single American the same benefits that it would give you. Stop listening to all the negative things about what the president hasn't done and open your ears up. Listen to the things that he has done that are putting this country on the path to rebound from the worse recession that this country has seen in a very, very long time. No president facing as much opposition as he has could have done a much better job than he has done. But if you think that Governor Mitt Romney and Congressman Paul Ryan are going to make your life any better than it is now, go ahead and vote for them. BUT DON'T START BITCHIN' AND MOANIN' WHEN THE REALITY CHECK SETS IN! Keep in mind, however, that neither of them has had to suffer your hardships during the current economic crisis. In the meantime, get up tomorrow morning before daybreak and hit the pavement and accept whatever job is offered to you. Believe it or not there are some jobs out there but you - YES YOU – must make the effort to get them. It may not be what you earned that college degree in, or have experience for, but the job is there. So what if you have to clean a toilet today in order to earn a paycheck. So what if you have to sling hamburgers today to earn that paycheck. So what if you have mow someone's lawn to earn that paycheck. President Obama did not cause you to lose your job but he has been credited with the high unemployment rate.

It is time for African Americans to take a reality check on what the real facts are. Wake up, brother. Wake up, sister. The economy was in very, very bad shape when President Obama took that Oath of Office in January of 2009. Yes, he made a lot of promises while campaigning in 2008 but the reality of life is that he found a much worse condition in the country's state of affairs when he began the job we elected him to do. So, many of those promises have not been met. Some may never be met unless there is more cooperation between the members of congress and him. The man has been fighting an uphill battle every day since. GIVE HIM THE CHANCE TO COMPLETE THE JOB WE ELECTED HIM TO DO!!!! STOP LISTENING TO ALL THE LIES AND BS THAT IS BEING HANDED TO YOU!!!!!! Hear the real facts and pay attention to them. I am an African American woman in my 60s and - HELL YES - I'm voting for Barack Hussein Obama II, again.

This article may also be viewed at https://sites.google.com/site/juanitasackey/