Fun with Politics (67)

232,000 jobs were lost during the first three months of 2008; those numbers are nothing if not intimidating. CNN raised the question what McCain would do about this. The answer is: nothing. There was some talk about providing people with better mortgages; however, that’s not even the half of it. Yes, people need homes, they also need a job with a decent salary, health care, and more; they need self-esteem and the feeling they can take care of themselves. Nobody wants to depend on government bailouts. Depending on a bailout is the opposite of the American Dream.

 

The state of poverty in America has been an embarrassing situation for years; the poor have been ignored for who knows how long, and things trickle up. It’s a natural progression when a country is more concerned with interfering in other societies but ignores its own backyard. We’re like parents that work 80 hours a week and then wonder what happened to our kids.

 

I like Hillary’s comments about having a ‘poverty Czar’ (Interesting word choice by the press). If only the government would seriously consider taking this on, really taking it on, making the poor a priority, rather than sitting around with their hands in their hair. That means identifying those that need help, because the people that really need help need it yesterday. Take the South: the whole nation was concerned about the Katrina victims for about five minutes; what’s happening to them now? That’s right; many of them are sitting around in rotting trailers, are getting sick, and are seeing now way out. Millions of kids in the inner cities are getting no education, no health care; millions of Americans live paycheck to pay check, which is hard to do when that paycheck is too small to live on in the first place.  What are the candidates planning on doing about that?

 

How is this still the ‘wealthiest nation in the world’? How do we measure that wealth? You can’t just look at the bottom line and make that statement; you need to look at people; individual people, and treat them as if each and every one matters. We need to go back to valuing life, each individual, each person, and stop being so selfish.  Maybe Martin Luther King’s son could fill that cabinet position.  He certainly talks the talk; maybe he can do more than that?

Meantime, grassroots movement is needed; every American who can miss a dime should go and help one other American out. Let’s show this government a good example: drop off a can of food at your local food bank. Give money to a homeless shelter near you. Donate blood. Anything. Trust me, it will make you feel better.