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Our Voices will be Heard When We Vote in November

America is the land of the free and the home of the brave. One of the greatest privileges that we have is our right to vote.

Because we are in this great country, we probably take a lot for granted. Don’t let voting be one of them.

We are now experiencing tremendous unrest in our society. Our political environment is in a constant state of flux. Initiatives that we thought could never become enforceable are now laws. Take HB2, for example, in North Carolina.

We can now discriminate in 2016 no less on the basis of who is going to use the restroom. Some estimate the controversial law will cost the state of North Carolina millions of dollars. Recently, the state dropped a lawsuit against the federal government. The reason was that it would be too costly to litigate.

Some years ago now the state of South Carolina was embroiled in a controversy regarding the Confederate flag. As a result of their stubborn and discriminatory practices, they lost millions of dollars. Last year, the governor and the legislature saw the light and now South Carolina is on more stable ground because they voted against it.

It is my hope and the hope of many others that North Carolina can learn a lesson from its neighbors to the south. Don’t continue to be the laughingstock of the nation.

Those that support North Carolina’s HB2 are hiding behind divisive language and overall poor judgment. You can’t make wrong right, not now, not ever. Wake up, North Carolina!

Make America great again? Really! Have you known America not to ever be great? In fact, America is the greatest country in the world.

Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free quote is on the Statue of Liberty. It comes from Emma Lazarus’ sonnet New Colossus.

Immigrants have come to this country for years wanting a better life. Don’t be fooled and don’t be hoodwinked when you hear a candidate empty on policy knowledge but full of venom and vitriol start to spout off giving you misinformation.

Donald Trump has taken narcissism to another level. I have never heard nor seen any person so full of himself. He is an embarrassment to his supporters yet he continues to plow through his own rubbish.

Most of us are rational and thoughtful people who are not swayed by chaos and confusion. However, we cannot think that this wolf won’t bite because he will.

Each time I listen to Trump I am even more convinced that he belongs in his house and not the White House.

My college tennis coach at Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte N.C., Joseph L. Alston, always told our team that you have to kill a gnat with a sledgehammer. In other words, we must beat our opponents convincingly and give them no hope of winning.

The same phrase applies to defeating Trump. We must show up at the polls on Tuesday, November 8, 2016 in record numbers. Our sledgehammers will be our power to cast our ballot against him.

We must suffocate him with our voting power so as to give him no chance of winning.

We cannot stay at home on Election Day. Our neighbors and friends won’t vote for us. We must vote for ourselves.

It is my opinion this election will go down in the history books. Yes, electing Barack Obama president of the United States of America in 2008 was historic, but we cannot pass on this election.

When elected, Hillary Clinton will become the first woman in history to be president of the United States of America.

Do you want a chance for hope and opportunity? If you do like I do, don’t squander this opportunity to vote.

Wherever we live, work and worship, we must sound the clarion call to get out to vote. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

There is simply too much riding on this election. Think about those who have shed blood and lost lives in order that we could have the right to vote. When we vote, change happens. Don’t be silent at the polls.

Let us exercise our right to vote on Tuesday, November 8, 2016.

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