There are many things that I love about this great nation that we live in. Two of the greatest are the freedom of religion and the freedom of speech. I now choose to exercise my right to the freedom of speech.

In the past year I have listened to the news on television, and I have heard him called a socialist and a communist just because he has the courage to stand up for freedom, justice and equality for all people.

I heard someone say that God hates President Obama, and I even heard one preacher say that he was praying that God would kill him.

That shouldn’t come as a surprise, because anyone old enough to remember the 1960s will recall that Dr. Martin L. King was called the same names, and finally assassinated, for the stand he took on injustice, segregation and discrimination that was so prevalent in this country at that time.

This leads me to believe that every time a black person speaks up on these causes they are not considered true Americans in the eyes of some people.

Doesn’t it seem strange that both men were so disliked in this country, yet each one of them received the Nobel Peace Prize? As I searched for answers, I began to wonder where all this hard-heartedness and hatred comes from.

I was especially perplexed because I had just finished studying my Sunday school lesson where someone said, “The mark of holy people chosen by God is love.”

Then I remembered some of the passages that I have read in the Bible where fear leads to hatred and then to evil actions.

It was fear that caused the Egyptians to make slaves out of the Hebrews in the Old Testament, and in the New Testament it was fear of losing their prestigious positions that caused bitter enemies like the Pharisees, Sadducees and the Herodians to join together and try to trap Jesus into saying something wrong every chance they got.

But when Jesus proved to be too smart for them, they plotted to kill Him by telling lies on Him and paying people to bring false accusations against Him.

This seemed to work because it got the people so stirred up that some of them who had shouted, “Hosanna, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord” on Palm Sunday, were shouting, “Crucify Him” five days later on Good Friday. That goes to show just how fickle and feeble-minded people can be when they always listen to others, rather than search for the truth themselves.

It may be that some folks in this country are so fearful that if true freedom, justice and equality were to become a reality here, the playing field would be so leveled that they could no longer compete.

I believe that if the real truth be told, we would find out that not all people, but an astounding amount of people in this country, just can‘t stand to see an intelligent black man sitting in the White House as the President of the United States of American, trying his best to straighten out this terrible mess that the previous administration left us in.

In 2000, when George Bush was elected president, this country was in good shape.

There as a surplus in the budget, thousands of jobs were being created every month, the banks and Wall Street were flourishing.

But within eight years, that administration had managed to get us into two wars, one that was totally unnecessary and that cost thousands of innocent lives, on top of not even being paid for, a trillion dollar deficit in the budget, thousands of jobs being lost every month and the banking system and Wall Street at the brink of collapsing.

If the Republicans can do that to us in eight years, surely we can give President Obama and the Democrats eight years to try to straighten this mess out.

In closing, let me say that in Dr. Martin L. King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech, he said that he dreamed that one day a person would be judged by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin.

It has been 47 years since Dr. King gave that speech and as we look around, we can see that particular part still hasn’t become a reality.

May God bless President Barack Obama and may God bless the United States of America.

Joe Fletcher

Ironton