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A Grand Dragon-In-Chief
ell, it's official. The
thing that I don't be- lieve anyone saw coming actu- ally happened. America handed the keys to the kingdom to the most despicable man on the
planet.... Donald J. Trump. As I'm writing this, I'm still trying to come to terms with the idea that he really won. The guy who openly bragged about using his celebrity to sexually assault women, who showed blatant dis- dain for almost every minority in the country and who's been sued by a countless number of indi- viduals who claim he ripped them off, is now the president of
the United States.
If I didn't watch it go down
with my own eyes on election night I would have sworn that someone was trying to punk me. But, incredibly, Trump's vic- tory did take place. And, today, we're living in a world that will soon be much different than the one we left behind 72 hours ago when Trump wasn't a threat to start a nuclear holocaust.
Make no mistake about it, this is all bad. If you're Mexican, Black or Muslim your life is about to become a little more
stressful because the person who promised to deport, incarcerate and kill you was elected to the highest office in the land.
To say the results from Tues- day night were a shock to the system would be a huge under- statement. Watching Trump win state after state by huge margins was like being sucker- punched by a nun during com- munion.
I mean I knew that Trump's strategy to scare white people to the polls could work. But, I never suspected that so many would fall for the bait.
There is no doubt that Trump's win was due in large part to the underlining fear he instilled into the white populace that they were about to be genet- ically annihilated and have their jobs taken away by nations of non-white people coming across open borders and those seeking political refuge. To them Trump was their savior from these black and brown hordes. And Trump, being the con man that he is, played his role to per- fection.
To me, Trump's sound de- feat of Hillary Clinton signi-
fied two things. First, it proved the election process isn't rigged because I don't think there's a clandestine secret society in the world who would choose a loud- mouth like Trump as their pup- pet. And, secondly, I believe it revealed that racism and sexism are as alive and well as they were 100 years ago.
By choosing a man who cam- paigned on a platform of hatred, incivility and divisiveness to lead them, a large majority of this na- tion has informed the rest of us that bigotry and intolerance are acceptable components of the society in which we live.
Of course, many of us al- ready knew that was the case. But, now that it's clearly under- stood that white supremacist groups like the Ku Klux Klan will have a direct link to the Oval Of- fice, to those who may have been asleep, this should come as a loud WAKE UP call.
The sad part of it all is that some people are truly convinced that Trump's ascendance to the presidency is going to move this country into the right direction. It's too bad that next year, when they wake up from their drunken stupor and realize how wrong they were, they'll have three more years to live with the consequences of their enormous miscalculation.
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Farewell To Beloved President Obama
trange that newscasters seem surprised regarding
President Barack Obama’s high rating among Ameri- cans of all ranks and races. But there is no doubt President Obama has been one of the most compassionate and effec- tive leaders to grace the White House, which is why almost immediately and to the chagrin of White American conser- vatives, he won a Nobel Peace Prize.
Despite Republicans’ efforts to render him impotent by refusing to pass any major legislation he submitted, Presi- dent Obama was able to implement policies through Execu- tive Order and often through compromise that helped pull a sinking economy from the brink of a depression. There is no doubt that historians will give America’s 44th president top marks among world leaders and will write about his tenure as Chief Executive in glowing terms. Here’s why.
Even though many Black Americans criticized him for not waving a magic wand that immediately changed their economic and social predicaments, President Obama brought changes that made a sharp improvement for African Americans. He passed a bill striking down the terms “negro” and “oriental” along with other offensive terms from federal laws and supported a policy that allows public housing programs to give ex-offenders a second chance to avoid homelessness.
Furthermore, he began releasing and reducing sentences of felons convicted of non-violent and victimless crimes. Along with reviving U. S. economy, unemployment fell to its lowest rate (4.9%) in eight years; while unemployment ben- efits were extended, military spending was increased, public works programs were increased, and minimum wage was increased while 20 million Americans were given affordable healthcare.
Other Obama accomplishments include ecology protec- tion and countless other initiatives that caused economic stability for future generations. That and more is why we’ll miss America’s first Black President.
America Faces A Time For Racial Healing
BY MARC H. MORIAL President and CEO National Urban League
wish I could say that racism and prejudice were only distant memories. We must dissent from the indiffer- ence. We must dissent from the apathy. We must dissent from the fear, the hatred and the mis-
trust...
Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall
As far back as June of last year, the National Urban League called upon all Presidential can- didates to refrain from using
racially divisive and disparaging language in their campaigns. In the ensuing months, we heard an unprecedented call to ban all Muslims from the na- tion, even United States citi- zens. That call was followed by more than two dozen anti-Mus- lim attacks in the United States. The level of vitriol against immigrants and racial and eth- nic minorities was amped so high during the campaign that the Southern Poverty Law Cen- ter, which tracks hate groups, coined the term “The Trump Ef- fect” to describe the alarming level of fear and anxiety among children of color over racial ten-
sions and their fears of being de- ported.
As we have said throughout this campaign, religious and racial bigotry are not core Amer- ican values. In fact, such bigotry is more than unpatriotic; it threatens our national security.
So, where do we go from here?
We are hopeful now that the heat of the campaign begins to cool, our President-Elect and his supporters will adopt a more sober approach to issues of racial justice. He has called for the country to unite, and we will take him at his word.
Our duty as citizens is to hold him to his word. We have the power to define patriotism in the 21st Century, and there’s no room in that definition for bigotry. Some have mused that this campaign has served as a poultice of sorts, drawing the poisons of hate and intolerance to the surface. This is our oppor- tunity to cleanse them away.
President-Elect Trump And The People Who Put Him There
To all the people of Florida – Blacks, whites, Latin His- panics, Gays, Lesbians and Tran-sexuals, women, Asian Americans, immigrants, physically challenged/mentally
challenged, senior citizens, millennials, Baby-Boomers, and others, who took the time to vote, these past weeks, we at The Florida Sentinel Bulletin take this opportunity to send our heartfelt love and thanks for your courage.
But for those of you who found it robbery to rise up and cast your ballot on one of the most crucial election days in the past century, we may only say that whatever befalls America in the next four years – if it is the nightmare that history predicts – may it fall at your feet.
But let us not be prematurely negative. So what if mil-
lions of Americans by the stroke of a pen will no longer have affordable healthcare, So what if Roe v. Wade is destroyed, or if the next generation of Supreme Court justices sound like Amer- ica before the Civil War or like Nazi Germany? Who cares what will happen when America turns its back on global warming, or when women’s rights are pushed back to the Dark Ages?
Does it matter if race-hate becomes “politically correct” on a daily basis, or Civil Rights ends up with Black Americans back on plantations or in concentration/death camps? At least, a certain “Secret Army” will have its White House back again!
So, to you who ignored your alarm clocks, we denounce your part in what may go down in history as America’s first successful coup d’état, as a modern-day Nero prepares to fiddle while our children and grandchildren burn.
And as these possibilities morph into reality, we have but one thing to say to you who hap- pily shirked your inalienable responsibility: WE HOPE THE FUTURE WILL FORGIVE YOU!
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