My Private Meeting with President Barack Obama, the Clarion Call to VOTE!

Philadelphia PA – One of the most beloved, and possibly, the most liked U.S. President in American history, is Barack Obama. He recently visited Philadelphia on October 21, 2020 to stump for Presidential candidate Joe Biden and running mate Kamala Harris.

The Gallup Poll and other major national polling groups voted President Obama the Most Admired Man in the World. Because of his enormous global popularity, upstanding character and love of people, for me, Obama will always be America’s Perennial President!

During his recent visit to Philadelphia, President Obama made a surprise stop in North Philadelphia at the Hank Gathers Recreation Center, 2501 N. Diamond Street. This surprise visit to one of Philadelphia’s poorest communities is a testament to the compassion and care President Obama has for the disenfranchised, the least of these in America. I was one of approximately 25-30 community leaders invited in on this private meeting; this will remain one of my greatest life moments as a journalist, an esteemed honor and privilege indeed to be in a private meeting with one of the greatest U.S. Presidents ever.

President Obama urged us to not take this election for granted and to not become complacent with Biden being ahead in the polls. President Obama’s task as hand was to push voter turnout in Philadelphia and especially throughout Pennsylvania, a battleground state. In 2016, Trump surprisingly won Pennsylvania by 44,292 votes out of more than 6,000,000 votes cast. 

In the meeting with community leaders - Congressman Dwight Evans, State Senator Sharif Street, City Councilman Isaiah Thomas, William Hart (Temple University Community Affairs) and other grassroots leaders – President Obama stated that his baseline reason for getting into politics was “to help lift up communities that had too long been ignored - that continue to deal with a legacy of discrimination.”

Under the current Trump administration, his failures, ineptitude and bad leadership has negatively affected America in enormous ways. Here are just a few of Trump's hallmark failures: 

• Over 20 million people are unemployed in America, most are African Americans; 
• Over 200,000 people have died from COVID-19 and almost 9 million Americans are infected by the Coronavirus, many are African Americans; 
• Indecency and uber partisan politics; 
• A corrupted Republican led U.S. Postal Service has slowed mail, delayed mail, lost mail, and removed mailboxes in predominantly Black and Democratic neighborhoods during a time in American history that 90-100 million mail-in ballots have been cast; 
• Over 500 Mexican children have been caged and displaced from their parents; 
• There was no retaliation/major response from the Trump administration for Russia placing a bounty on our U.S. troops; 
• Trump’s racist and divisive rhetoric continues to divide and strain America; 
• Trump continues to erode environmental policies that will adversely affect our environment; 
• Trump has given the top 2% wealthiest Americans the greatest tax breaks while decimating and burdening the middle and lower classes with his inept and imbalanced tax policies; and 
• Trump seems to be embroiled in ever evolving scandals!  

Trump is a colossal failure as an American President and he’s ruining our nation like he's ruined many of his failed business ventures.

Such shenanigans can frustrate and extinguish the zeal to participate in the voting/election process, as a result, many young adults are turned off, become apathetic, and decide not to vote.  President Obama shared that young adults “have a lot of distractions…When I was 20 years old, I wasn’t that woke.”– he understands their apathy and lack of enthusiasm to participate in the voting/election process. “I’ve met too many young people, boys and girls, young men and young women, who so often felt like they were outside the fence, and the opportunities for them would be blocked.” 

President Obama suggested an ideal approach to engage apathetic young adults in the voting process, he recommended taking the time to ask young adults about what they care about the most. Once they reveal their important concerns and issues, it's our responsibility to connect their concerns to related political or policy issues that directly address their concerns. He suggested this tactic as the best way to persuade apathetic young adults to vote.

There are many concerns atop the list of young adults in this country; the Center for American Progress reports that "While people of color make up about 30 percent of the United States’ population, they account for 60 percent of those imprisoned; Students of color face harsher punishments in school than their white peers; and African American youth have higher rates of juvenile incarceration and are more likely to be sentenced to adult prison."  The Pew Foundation cited that "Black households have only 10 cents in wealth for every dollar held by white households; There has been a steady increase in the share of Americans who view racism as a big problem in the U.S. – especially among black Americans; and An overwhelming majority of black Americans (92%) say whites benefit at least a fair amount from advantages that black people do not have!"

President Obama commented “Who knows what’s going to happen after the election?” He urged us to control matters that we have influence over, which is casting our votes at the polls, and urging others to do so, too. “If you look at every study of voting patterns, people vote when they see other people vote; when they see their peer group vote.”

This is not the time for people to turn their backs and snub this Presidential election. People must vote! The morality, decency, health, economic recovery, safety, environment, peace, civil rights, jobs and fair justice in America are at stake. In the words of James Baldwin, one of America’s literary geniuses, “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” 

#VOTE!

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 ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Rev. Michael Robinson, M.S., is a Lansdowne, Delaware County resident; an award winning university administrator; senior pastor of Greater Enon Missionary Baptist Church in Philadelphia, PA, and a freelance journalist.