Yesterday (April 27) was a sad day in America. Our Founding Fathers said we are all created equal. However, it did take a few maneuvers to make it almost so — the Civil War and not just a few laws and amendments to the Constitution.

The first time in our history a duly elected president of the United States had to show “his papers” to prove he is indeed qualified to be president. I find this to be a major coinkydink — the first president to have to show his papers also is the first African-American president.

I know the carnival barker Donald Trump and the California lawyer-dentist conspiracy theorist Orly Taitz and others will deny racism is at play here, but people like me know better. Unfortunately, there is a segment of our society that will never accept people of color, women, the GLBT community and other groups as “equal” to the rich, white males of this country. I believe this is the intent of those who believe in the “original intent” of the founders.

If I’m not mistaken these are the same people who want to break public unions, push for school vouchers, voter IDs, gut Social Security, Medicare and other safety-net programs so they can give additional tax breaks to wealthy millionaires and billionaires. This is not the change I voted for. I want our state and federal governments to stop the draconian cuts being offered by Republicans. The rich can take care of themselves while the rest of us have to rely on government when our fortunes change. Not only can the rich take care of themselves, they could probably eliminate the deficit if they paid a little higher taxes.

Please call or write your representatives and ask them to save the programs that we and our ancestors fought for.

Patti Kimble

Emmons