Guest Post by Vincent Butler: I Disagree, Mr. President

"Our job is not to get those people who dislike us to love us. Our aim was to try to create the kind of America, legislatively, morally, and psychologically such that even though some continued to hate us, they could not openly manifest that hate.”

~ Bayard Rustin

I've stated before that I don't always agree with President Obama. Here's an area of possible disagreement. In his speech a little over a week ago he said that he's seen people cross the street, clutch their purses tighter, and/or lock their car doors when they saw him coming...as if they shouldn't do that.

My opinion is a little different. I'm a pretty good-sized guy (6'5"; around 240 lbs). If you see me coming down the street, especially if you're alone and at night, go ahead and clutch your purse tighter or cross the street or lock your car doors! That doesn't bother me at all. That IS your right. It's much better for you to be cautious, in my opinion.

Here's what bothers me. It bothers me when you stop exercising "your" rights and start infringing on "mine." When my voting rights are infringed upon, when my right to earn a living is infringed upon, when I can't attend the better schools, when I can't go into the restaurants and eat, when I can't get that job that I'm very qualified for (because of my skin color), when I can't get equal pay, when I can't exercise my right to choose (because it's been taken away), when I pay taxes at 35% and I see the RICH paying little or no taxes (while constantly complaining about the deficit)...those, among other things, show me that you don't consider me to be an equal who's also entitled to seek the American Dream.

The thing that some people don't understand is that this is Poor/Middle Class vs. the RICH; it's not all about Black vs. White vs. Other races. Minorities and the Poor/Middle Class SHOULD be United.

Do these themes in the above picture look familiar? We WILL NOT be going BACK(wards).

Vincent Butler, the author of this post, is an entrepreneur and business owner who lives in Wilmington, North Carolina with his wife, Phyllis Banks Butler. They have three children – Carla, Bryson and Eric – and a Malti-Tzu pup named Zoe'. Mr. Butler, who excelled at athletics, attended North Carolina A & T State University on a full basketball scholarship and earned an MBA from Ashland University in Ohio. His Facebook posts are always thoughtful and interesting.