American Dream?

Like many immigrants that came to this country back in the 20’s, 30’s 40’s and 50’s there was a misconception that the streets were paved with gold. In comparison to the conditions that we were living under, this country seemed like heaven. If you were willing to work, you too could achieve the American dream

It breaks my heart to see how my adopted country is swiftly plummeting from its lofty peak and the dream is turning into a nightmare. Even though the economy is growing, incomes have stagnated and the poverty rate rose last year.  It was the first time on record that household incomes failed to increase for five straight years. Last year, households kept income from falling by working more hours than they did in 2003. The growth in the economy is not going to families, just witness what is happening to oil prices.

Just witness what happened in Louisiana and Mississippi. People died needlessly because they couldn’t afford to evacuate. They didn’t have $20 to buy gas to get them out of danger. People on fixed incomes were waiting for a monthly check that generally arrives at the beginning of each month and the hurricane came at the end of the month when people had little or no money left. It is absolutely disgusting that we offer all kinds of benefits to illegal aliens, yet we treat our poor like the unwanted.

I don’t condone the looting that’s taken place in New Orleans, but I ask you if that differs from the looting, actually the gouging that our Big Oil Companies are doing to us, the consumer. How can the price be raised two or three times within a week even after the price of a barrel of oil dropped 0.87? What’s happened to the people in this country? Do we just keep bending over and let them repeatedly kick us in the rear end?

How can we spend $2 to $3 billion a week to topple a government in Iraq, while we have millions that have no health coverage?  How can we send tons of food and material aid to Tsunami victims within a couple of days, yet we can’t get water and essentials to the victims of our latest hurricane right in our backyard? What happened in New Orleans, Mississippi and Alabama could have just as easily occurred here. Those people we see wandering around without a place to go to with all their worldly belongings on their backs could have been us, and might be us in the near future.

My adopted country is acting like the people that have been impacted by the hurricane are not American. The faces we see on TV are mainly blacks. Where is the reverence for these victims? Are they any different than the victims of 9/11? I can change the channel and watch the spoiled millionaires entertain thousands of people at Fenway Park just like nothing happened. If this disaster had happened in New York or Los Angeles or Chicago, I’m sure that we would have seen a better response.

We are all poorer from the pitiful response of our national leaders.

God bless America, it needs you now more than ever.