Let me start by saying I voted for President Obama thrice. Once in the Democratic primary against Hillary Clinton and twice in presidential elections.
I strongly support the President's leadership on gun violence in America. I applaud his effort to lead an intelligent conversation on the governmental restrictions and citizen rights associated with the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Polls indicate that Americans also support the President and urge legislators to reach agreement on assault style weaponry, universal background checks, and high capacity magazines. However!!! President Obama, you're from Chicago, man!!! And, Hadiya Pendelton is dead!
On Sunday, December 16, 2012, President Obama spoke at a prayer vigil in Newton, Connecticut in honor of the victims of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School. In that address, he stated,"We gather here in memory of twenty beautiful children and six remarkable adults. They lost their lives in a school that could have been any school; in a quiet town full of good and decent people that could be any town in America." But, President Obama, you're from Chicago, man!!! Is Chicago not "full of good and decent people?" Your girl, Hadiya Pendelton is dead...and the guns are in the streets!
Two weeks after the Newtown shooting rampage, the President, in an interview on "Meet the Press," described the event as the worst day of his presidency, and pledged to put his "full weight" behind legislation aimed at preventing gun violence. But, President Obama, you're from Chicago man!!! Your boy, Rahm Emanuel is now the mayor. And Hadiya is dead!!
Face it. Chicago is the murder capital of the United States. Gang violence has been rampant in the city for a decade or more. And, irrespective of the recent decision by Mayor Emanuel to place 200 new cops on the streets, there doesn't seem to be an end to the violence in sight. While Hadiya Pendelton is dead....and gun violence is rampant in the streets!!
Progressive thinkers, Cornell West and Tavis Smiley, have been uncompromising in their criticism of the President, and they openly question his lack of a poverty agenda, a criminal justice agenda, a social justice agenda, and his overall commitment to progressive ideals. Conservative columnist Walter Williams, Obama critic and frequent guest host for the "village idiot" Rush Limbaugh, stated in a column entitled "Should Black People Tolerate This," that life in a major American city is more dangerous for a young black man than a tour of duty in Iraq or Afghanistan. "Each year, roughly 7,000 blacks are murdered," he wrote. He's right! Well, Mr. President, here's a great opportunity to flex your progressive muscles in this gun debate, and quiet both your conservative and progressive critics.
Why? Because America needs you to do this! But, perhaps, just as importantly, Mr. President, you're from Chicago. And, Hadiya Pendelton was from Chicago. She was a great student. She attended a school named for Martin Luther King Jr., the person on whose bible the you placed your hand to take the oath of office...and whose birthday was remembered on the very day of the of your Inauguration. Hadiya was not a gang member...she attended and performed as part of her drill team at your Inauguration celebration, Mr. President!!!
All of America saw the tears you shed for the Sandy Hook victims. Yet, no tears for Hadiya....or the thousands who have tragically died in gun violence in your beloved city of Chicago. And...Hadiya is dead and the guns are still in the streets!!
Mr. President, while you battle the hypocrites who deny a "right to privacy" in the Constitution which would allow women the right to an abortion, but can clearly find a "right to self-defense" in the Constitution allowing citizens to possess any weapon of mass murder, find a way to win....and take the guns off the street.
And, if you can't shed any tears for Hadiya, at least force the National Rifle Association leader,Wayne La Pierre, to shed the "tears of a clown."
Until we rendezvous...
Peace
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