WS Chronicle

James B. Ewers Jr.

Guest Columnist

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

Because we are in this great country called America, 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 HB 2, 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.

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, Mr. 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, Nov. 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, Nov. 8, 2016.

James B. Ewers  Jr. Ed.D. is a former tennis champion at Atkins High School in Winston-Salem and played college tennis at Johnson C. Smith University, where he was all-conference for four years. He a retired college administrator.  He can be reached at ewers.jr56@yahoo.com.