Sign of the Times

Constantly the news bombards us with staggering financial statistics about one plant closing or another, about unemployment rates on the rise, homes being foreclosed upon, grim facts in an even more grim economic picture for the average American family these days. We hear from Washington, that the economy is on the rise, and that we are starting to see the turn around of this recession. I wonder, which of those politicians that speak of this miraculous turn around that is beginning has bothered to drive through their hometown areas lately. Because, the small people, the ones like me who get up and go to work in a factory every day, we are the ones whose homes are being lost. We are the ones who are watching as our friends move in search of greener work pastures, as families that we grew up around slowly lose the things that they have worked for their entire lives. We are the ones pulling our children out of karate class, because the expense is just too much, we the small people, are the ones that continue to suffer through this recession.

I am sick of hearing how this company or that company has been bailed out. I am sick of hearing how the poor executives are being asked to give up bonuses that are larger than any comprehensible sum to me. Let those executives come to my neighborhood, where in less than a five block radius of my home I can show them five houses that have been vacated in the past month, and now stand devoid of life, with signs on them either stating a foreclosure sale pending, or home for rent owner's terms. It is so disheartening.

I wonder how many times the politicians that represent me, have had to tell their kids that a Happy Meal is out of the question simply because they do not have the five dollars it would take to get them one. I wonder how many of them have looked into tear filled eyes, and said I know you love your Karate Class, but baby I got laid off last week, and I am looking at three more weeks off out of the next six. There really is just no way that I can pay for it right now.

I am not saying that I would wish this on anyone, because it hurts to be in this position. I am just saying that in "Main Street" we are hurting. Here in the real world, the economy is not impacting our savings; it is destroying what little there was. It is not putting a dent in our spending habits; it is eradicating any and all discretionary spending. I am not saying the government is responsible for all of the financial problems that we face today, because in truth over the years our economy has inflated credit lines and lifestyles to the point that an economic fall was inevitable. However, I am saying that it is not the time to be handing billions of dollars to this company or that one to save their asses, when literally it is the asses of the working families in America that are being sat in the fire. It is my honest opinion, that any politician that wants to represent me and my interests at this point, should at least drive through my neighborhood. See the for sale signs going up on family homes, meet the families as they walk away from everything they have worked and dreamed for, and wipe one child's tears as they are told yet again that their parents cannot afford something.