The Average American

Rose Gibson is a single working mother from Michigan. She had been with the same company for over 8 years, making barely enough to survive on, paying the rent, electric, gas and trying to keep food on the table. For Rose, in the past few years, a car become a luxury item, a dream that maybe she'll have again someday. The telephone and cable tv have been occasional visitors to her home, as well, but in the past 2 years, she says they've been more off than on.

"I took on a second, and then a third job" she says, shaking her head, "and because of that my kids spend a lot of time taking care of themselves. What do you do?" She asks with tears in her eyes "You have to do what you can to survive, but I never dreamed things would be so hard. When my children were small I was a stay at home mom, always here to help them get through. Now that I'm always working, and they are all teenagers, I am really worried about the impact on them." She brushes a tear off her cheek, and says "Besides I really miss them." "You work 3 jobs, there's no more time in the day. What more can you do? I still can't keep up, just with rent and utilities and buying food, the little things, the things you have to have."

"I gave up the car, because I couldn't afford the insurance. I made the mistake of trying to drive without it, and of course I got pulled over. The fines and fees with Michigan Driver's Responsibility laws mean 2 years later I'm still trying to pay for that mistake."

Rose had her license suspended when she couldn't pay the fees. "Think about it" she says "I could have gone to jail for not being able to pay the fines, because I couldn't afford the insurance. My job was such that you had to have a car to work for my company; a car and a phone. I make less than $9.00 an hour, so how I am supposed to be able to afford a $600.00 a month rent payment, (which is reasonable in the area where we live) and heat, electric, food, and a car and a phone, I don't know. But still, it's required by the job, so what do you do?" Rose gave up the car. She moved closer to her employer so she could walk back and forth to work. She also borrowed a car from a friend, whenever she absolutely had to have one for the day. "Somehow I've managed to keep my job, but I have no idea how." She said.

Today Rose is sick. "I've been sick for over a week" she tells me. "I can't stop throwing up, but I know I don't have the flu. I'm really worried about what I do have." She takes a pile of unpaid medical bills down from the letter holder on the dining room wall, many of them unopened. "What do you do?" she asks again. "I have to go to work today, but I don't know how I'll get through the day. I have been so sick, I'm up all night throwing up," she puts her head down and cries for a moment. "I know I have to see a doctor, but right now I don't have a penny to my name. I'm going to have to take out a payday loan, and I don't know when or how I'll pay that back, but I don't know what else to do. I have no medical insurance, and neither do my children. I'm so far in debt to the hospitals and doctors offices around here that I know they won't see me if I can't pay them cash."

So who is Rose?

Rose works with a non-profit agency that assists survivors of domestic violence. She's a survivor herself. "Everyday I go into work and try to tell these women that they can make it on their own. Sometimes I wonder if I'm lying to them." She says. "As far as this area of Michigan goes, I actually have what's considered to be a "good job." $9.00 an hour for this town is doing pretty well" she says.

Many of the jobs in this small northern Michigan town are minimum wage or just slightly higher. Many of the jobs that were here a year ago are now gone, as evidenced by the bordered up buildings all along the "downtown" shopping front. "The people running this town are all in the top 10 percent of the income bracket here, and to tell you the truth I am convinced they either don't know or don't care about what life is like for the average person living in this town."

The statistics for this little town in Michigan demonstrate that 60 percent of the families with children living here make less than $20,000 a year. They show that 90 percent of the students attending the public school system are eligible for either free or reduced rate lunches, and that the unemployment rate is the highest in the state of Michigan, which currently ranks highest among all other states for unemployment rates, as well.

"I don't know if it's the war, or the politicians, or both" Rose says, "but I do know that there are hundreds of people in this town that are in the same situation as I am. They keep taking more away from the poor, public assistance and services are nearly non-existent, unless you fall so far below the designated 'poverty level' that you can't survive at all anymore. I'm lucky I have a job at all. A welfare parent in this town will get $600.00 a month to live on. It's impossible to do that." She says "They call them freeloaders, and say they should get jobs. It makes me so angry. Where are they going to get jobs? And when they do get jobs, how are they going to survive making $6.00 an hour, and what happens to their children, who have to be in day care all day long, or else raise themselves, because their parents are working all of the time- like me?"

"Something has to change." Rose says angrily. "Not just in this one town, but all over the United States. The people in this little town in Michigan, are just typical people living all over this country. One thing I know about people like me, there are more of us then there are of the wealthy, the ones who are running things right now. Somehow we have to take back this country. It's being led by a small minority of the rich and powerful, and they are preying on the poor and poverty stricken, and it has to stop, somehow."

"I believe there is power in numbers. When people band together and stand up for themselves, they can change the world. People like me do not have a lot of resources, like those people who are currently running this country. But our resources are one another. We are the majority, and we have a voice as to what will happen in our own country tomorrow. If we can band together somehow, and start working to change things, we could set this country on a different course, one that would give everyone a fair chance, and a bright outlook for the future. So many people have lost hope. They say that nothing will change. They say it's a futile fight- the world will always be this way. I think things have to change. I think things can and will change if the average American citizen just realizes their own potential to change things. The United States of America is supposed to be a government by the people, and for the people. We are the people. We are the majority, and we are being ruled by a class of the elite, a very tiny percentage of our society as a whole. This country is becoming like England in the 18^th century. When the rich and powerful trashed the rights of our forefathers, they stood up to the King of England, and turned the tables on that system of government. Society today is not much different than it was then. I am just a single mom from somewhere in Michigan, but there are millions of people like me living all around the US. We have become the silent majority. We have no representation in government, we have no voice in the mechanics of the political machine, because all of those representing us have no idea what it's like to be us. It's time for the poor majority to start running for government seats; to start appearing at public rallies; to start banding together as one voice. If we can do that, we can make a difference."

Rose wants to do away with the Republican and the Democratic parties. She proposes the "Average American" party, who comes from the average American background. "I want to see the poor and the middle class represented in government for the first time in history." She says. "If every little town in America finds it's own "Average American" candidate for county and local seats, for representation in the Senate and Congress, we will be on our way to changing things on a much bigger scale. The National problems begin on a local level." She says. "Who we elect in our home towns, are the people we will send to Washington, and to Congress, and to the Senate. These are the people who will make the decisions for us on a state and a National level. By starting to change things, first on a local level, we can start to take back this county on a National level."

Rose says that we have the most power in our home towns. "We can elect candidates who represent our majority, not our minority. We all know someone who is an average American, experiencing the average American problems and struggling like every other average American we know- that would also make a good candidate for local government. Those are the people we want to put in office, now. We may not have money to advertise, or to campaign on a huge level, but we have the power of numbers, and I believe an Average American candidate would have the backing of the greatest majority of voters in his or her hometown. If we use our man-power, and rely on the strength of our numbers, we have a chance to change things, to overturn the current government, which is based on financial standing, and not on the candidates ability to perform the job or the issues that matter to the majority of Americans."

Rose encourages people from every day American life to get involved in the local elections, and make themselves heard at every level of government. "Things won't change until we change them." Rose says.