The following was published today in a friend's blog, "A Place of My Own". It is so well put and I agree with all she says that, with her permission, I reprint it here for your benefit, hoping, of course, that some of the candidates in question will miraculously open and read my little insignificant blog. If only we could shout these sentiments from the rooftops of the country!

Thank you, L'Empress, for the kind permission.

Mon., October 22, 09:17 AM

OPEN LETTER TO THE CANDIDATES


Final debate tonight; I don't know if I can tolerate it. I submitted the following letter to the newspaper - the local races are even more virulent than the national one - but I never heard back from them. Of course. It is far too political and will ruffle some feathers. And so I present it to you.

It upsets me that you don't know anything about me or people like me. Where we come from, middle class doesn't mean working for $100,000 a year. If we are lucky, with more than one income, we might have half of that.

I was born in Connecticut, the eldest of three, into a blue-collar family where everyone worked to try to improve our lives. It wasn't questioned; it was what we did. My dad worked as many as three jobs at a time until my mother started working again.

I got my first "grown-up" job when I was a senior in high school, and it put me through college. I continued to work and paid my way through business school. I supported myself and gave my parents money until I got married.

New life, new city, no job, no car. That was okay, as I had three babies in three years. I had no help in child care except my husband who, naturally, was working forty hours a week to support us. I kept the books and the budget; we could manage on what he made.

I took care of the kids, I taught them to be ready for school, I volunteered in the library. Finally I got a car - because the public transportation is not dependable - and returned to the work force. We would, by gosh, have a better life than what we started with.

We have had one big debt in our life, the mortgage on our home, which I paid off ten years early. I put one child through college and another through business school. Yes, as teenagers they all worked, just as their parents had. That's the American work ethic, which is just about extinct, because the jobs are gone.

Many of our skills are obsolete. When I was job hunting, I could not convince potential employers that I happen to be especially good at learning new ones. My best references are either retired or dead.

Two of my children moved out of Connecticut, in order to find jobs. The third is still here, unemployed for over a year. I am retired, and my husband is in a nursing home. Just about everything we worked for is gone. I can't even sell the house.

Now, tell me, how many homes do you have? Who takes care of them? How many people do you employ, and do you pay them a living wage? Do you even know what a living wage is?

I keep reminding myself that there are many worse off than I. I have a roof over my head, and I have no debt. I also have no car and can't afford another. Such as it is, we are still surviving. Nevertheless, we have nothing material to show for a lifetime of work.

So remind me, what are you going to do for people like me? Cut my Social Security and Medicare? Allow profiteers to continue to make money off my care? Lecture to me about the "nanny state"? I know about the federal government. People like me helped to build it. You have a helluva nerve taking it away from me.

I can't even begin to connect with you. How many cars do you have; I don't even have one. (Nor do I live within walking distance of anywhere I need to go.) You have servants and staff; I have to take care of myself. I have one thing that you don't have: a clue.

Thank you for your time. This may not have helped you, but I feel better.

Once again, thanks L'Empress for voicing the concerns of so many here today on the eve of a very important happening.

I am debating whether or not to watch the debate tonight. With all the TV stations saying the two candidates are in a dead tie in this race, I am so nervous now. My husband has been saying all along that President Obama will win hands-down, but I never believe anything until it's been proven true and done. I would like to believe him, but my stomach is all tied up in a knot today thinking about tonight and what a bad showing at this debate will end up doing to us ALL for the next four years and possibly beyond that!

I would like to iterate something that maybe people haven't considered.

Question: Why do you suppose that Mitt Romney is so despised in BOTH of his home states (can you have two?) of Massachusetts and Michigan, so that he is losing in those two states by huge numbers? Why is that?

Answer: Because we, the people who reside in those two states, might know better than anyone what kind of leader he is and it "ain't pretty." He's a big fat nothing but even scarier, he has no moral compass. He's a bought-and-paid-for politician who has no love for ANYONE but the richest of people on this earth. None. He will screw you, me, and all of us in 5 minutes flat if he is elected. He did it here in Massachusetts and would do it immediately upon becoming President.

For the millions of regular citizens of this country, this is such a crucial election. We cannot afford to voluntarily make the rich MUCH richer and the rest of us MUCH poorer, because that is what is going to happen should the worst happen.

In prayer that the Best Man Wins,

Bex



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