A Word from the Man in the Street

I made an ad, and I must admit, it's a little embarrassing.  It's an ad for a non-profit group, appealing to Lindsey Graham not to vote to raise the retirement age.  It was done with sincere feeling, although the "script" that was based on my words was a little stilted.  I would have said "busy library" as opposed to "local library" (the linguist in me bristles).  The editing, although brilliant, made me look a little more pathetic than I think I really look, even when I'm in pain.

I did it, not for the 30 seconds of fame, but because right now I need to do everything I can to try to get people to listen.  This is about the working poor.  And nobody, nobody, is speaking for them.

All the hot air in Washington is about the middle class, which a lot of us used to belong to.  I am no longer a member of the middle class, although I have the cultural awareness and the education.  I am a clerk.  My opinion is not sought any more than that of the greeter at a Wal-Mart.  My value is in the fact that I work pretty hard for very little cost.

I did the ad because I am not alone.  The people who work until they ache go home too tired to try to become politically aware.  They can barely turn their TV channel from one biased news network to another, and the nightly news works hard not to have an opinion because their corporate overlords would frown on that.  Read a newspaper?  How about, pay for a newspaper?

And for those who are able to pay for reliable internet access, it is probably unfathomable that there are people who cannot.

Beware of the Boehner and Demint philosophy that if you are down on your luck, it's because you haven't worked as hard as they have.

The voters who elect the republicans and conservative democrats, or those who rabidly support tea party candidates, have just enough to be afraid of losing it.  And they have been convinced that those of us beneath them economically -- the working poor as well as the unemployed -- are the ones who will try to take away from them what little they have.

And it's easier to get angry at us than the legislators and CEO's that are in control.

But I did that ad to remind people that the working poor are out there.  And like so many of those who angrily vote conservative, we too are trying to get by.  And they are more like us than the politicians they support.