Dear President Obama!Have you heard the news in Ethiopia? President Obama, have you seen our sorrow? Can you feel our pain? Can you hear our anger? I hope you can! It was not too long ago… that I among thousands of fellow Oromos campaigned for you. I knocked door-to-door, walked miles and made calls throughout the night. Like millions of Americans. I longed for you to win the election. Like all others who lost hope in their governments and discriminated by the system, I prayed and crossed my fingers for you to become the president. In you, I saw my dream and hope. I believed you were the person, the chosen leader that will stand with the people that is left behind for far too long. On a cold Tuesday evening, I waited among thousands others to watch you give the defining speech that moved us so much. You said, “to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of our world, our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared…out of many, we are one….”
Since then many things had happed. I watched you transform from candidate to president. As the world leader I watched you take blame for some things that is outside of your controlled. I watched some republican congress trash you simply because they hate to be governed by black person. I saw some conservatives disrespect you in the most painful way I can possible think. Thought you don’t see me, I got burn for you in the inside. Though I am far and irrelevant, I defended you and some of your policies. With all this madness that was and still is going on, I thought you deserved benefit of the doubt like any other human being. You inherited the most dangerous time when America, as we know, was in verge of collapsing internally and externally as well.
However, sometimes I wonder and question some of your judgments. I understand that though you might have enormous pressure to make things right, to prove to the world that your administration and your government has the intelligence to lead our world, president Obama, why do you praise dictators like the Ethiopian that has the thousands of Oromo blood on its hand? Why visit and meet with the Ethiopian prime minister and the party that supposedly won the election by 100% votes? I know you are not naïve to believe the election was legitimate nor do you for a second believe that country was democratic. But, somehow your choice of standing by the dictator and praising his action has only lead to more extreme violence that lead us, not only to question your morality, but also your intentions. And today, so many of our brothers and sisters are paying the price with their lives.
Yesterday, in May of 2014, while your secretary Kerry was giving a speech praising this regime, over 50 university students were murdered in cold blood just less than 70 miles away. Yet, you failed not only to condemn this crime that had happened over and over but failed to denounce the perpetrators.
A year later you went there as a first sitting US president praising this very regime. President Obama, you tell me, what happened to change you can believe in? What has happened to those promises on campaign trail? What happened to those promise of yours that said, “Government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish?” President Obama, we are hopeless, our sisters and brothers are voiceless that even local reporters turn around and shut their cameras rather than capturing the horrifying images. Perhaps the government restricted them so now international media thinks our lives are less important and not news worthy. Where is the place for people like us, refugees, and political immigrants? Who stands with us, if not you, the president of free world, which is built on the back of African slaves and all immigrants?
President Obama, as one of your biggest fan and supporter who not only campaigned for you but supported you financially, please condemn this violence publicly that is taking place right in front of our eyes. Please stop $840 million aid to the Ethiopian regime that is the perpetrators creating this violence. President Obama, I am hopeless and my heart is in agony. I am also asking you as your fellow American to demand justice for Oromo students that are gunned down each and every day.
For more developing news or story, please check out this links that includes reports from BBCNews,
The Guardian, Aljazeera America and more
Amnesty International: https://www.amnesty.nl/nieuwsportaa…
Amnesty International: https://www.amnesty.nl/nieuwsportaa…
The Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/world/20…
Vice daily: https://news.vice.com/article/deadl…
Aljazeera America/International: http://america.aljazeera.com/articl…
BBC Report from last year: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-afric…
Point-by-point on developing issue and more: http://advocacy4oromia.org/articles…
Graphic Images and videos on OMN: https://www.oromiamedia.org/tag/fin…
BBC Report on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCW…
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