If you've grown up in a world of Pell Grants, student loans, veterans' benefits and getting shots from public health clinics, it tends to impact your world view.
People who have dealt with the hard realities of layoffs, unemployment, no health insurance and paychecks that don't stretch between pay days have reason to be very concerned about their survival.
The older ones know the younger ones are trying to make it in a world where the rules have been dramatically changed.
If a company fills out its staff with contractors or part-time rs, it doesn't need to think about benefits. That means no unemployment insurance, health care, vacations, paid holidays or workers' compensation coverage.
Experts say that can save a firm as much as 30 percent of the cost of a permanent full-time employee. A lot of us know good young people who work two and three part-time jobs to feed their families.
We also know good older people who work everyday and should be seeing doctors. Some of them have no benefits so they just ignore aches, pains and chronic conditions.
Some of us remember the taste of government cheese, white label peanut butter and powdered milk. If those surplus products were part of your diet, you were glad to get them and scraped out the last drab or crumbs.
We now have a guy who wants to lead the nation who says the very poor have a "safety net." He says he's not concerned about them or the very rich because, "they are doing quite well."
Many of us, down here in the middle, see the poor a lot differently. You know-- the good people who volunteer at food banks or soup kitchens, or have their homes open to family or friends caught up in an economic struggle created by their times.
Moderate, liberal or conservative, we are a huge part of that safety net. We're also the cheerleaders, motivators and caregivers who often encourage the hardest hit to stay out there and keep pluggin' away to make things better. We are very concerned about the poor!
I can say that and include some conservatives in the mix because I believe many of them are torn. They may absorb a lot of the harsh rhetoric throughout the week, but they show up on an evening or a weekend and make the sandwiches and sort the clothing for the poor with their preachers. Even they will concede that caring for "those with the least among us" are the virtues they believe they should exhibit for righteous redemption.
Politics and religion in this country are so entwined these days that it is often easy to drown out the cries for justice and compassion. Singular issues come to define believers and nonbelievers for political purposes and reaching out to believers often means denying the humanity and moral worth of those who disagree.
Right now we have one side attempting to sell the idea that all the poor are "those people." It is a way of saying "they are not us."
A man who wants to be president says he "likes to fire people," and he wins the endorsement of a wealthy clown who fires people for entertainment purposes on a made-for TV-version of "You Screwed Your Life!"
You also have another guy who is third in line to presidency. He says 'let the housing decline run its course and find its on level,' then we will know where the real market is." He cries often, but would he shed a tear for families losing homes and hope in the worst economic downturn since Herbert Hoover?
Many of the conservatives in Congress who come from truly modest means would destroy the very programs they depended on to provide their escapes from classic blue collar, working class roots.
They would deny housing, health care, and educational opportunities to the poor and leave it up to business to make life better. Business does what is profitable, and encouraging human potential is always more costly than watching coldly as the strongest claw their way to the top.
People who have dealt with the hard realities of layoffs, unemployment, no health insurance and paychecks that don't stretch between pay days have reason to be very concerned about their survival.
If a company fills out its staff with contractors or part-time rs, it doesn't need to think about benefits. That means no unemployment insurance, health care, vacations, paid holidays or workers' compensation coverage.
Experts say that can save a firm as much as 30 percent of the cost of a permanent full-time employee. A lot of us know good young people who work two and three part-time jobs to feed their families.
We also know good older people who work everyday and should be seeing doctors. Some of them have no benefits so they just ignore aches, pains and chronic conditions.Some of us remember the taste of government cheese, white label peanut butter and powdered milk. If those surplus products were part of your diet, you were glad to get them and scraped out the last drab or crumbs.
We now have a guy who wants to lead the nation who says the very poor have a "safety net." He says he's not concerned about them or the very rich because, "they are doing quite well."
Many of us, down here in the middle, see the poor a lot differently. You know-- the good people who volunteer at food banks or soup kitchens, or have their homes open to family or friends caught up in an economic struggle created by their times.
Moderate, liberal or conservative, we are a huge part of that safety net. We're also the cheerleaders, motivators and caregivers who often encourage the hardest hit to stay out there and keep pluggin' away to make things better. We are very concerned about the poor!
I can say that and include some conservatives in the mix because I believe many of them are torn. They may absorb a lot of the harsh rhetoric throughout the week, but they show up on an evening or a weekend and make the sandwiches and sort the clothing for the poor with their preachers. Even they will concede that caring for "those with the least among us" are the virtues they believe they should exhibit for righteous redemption.
Politics and religion in this country are so entwined these days that it is often easy to drown out the cries for justice and compassion. Singular issues come to define believers and nonbelievers for political purposes and reaching out to believers often means denying the humanity and moral worth of those who disagree.Right now we have one side attempting to sell the idea that all the poor are "those people." It is a way of saying "they are not us."
A man who wants to be president says he "likes to fire people," and he wins the endorsement of a wealthy clown who fires people for entertainment purposes on a made-for TV-version of "You Screwed Your Life!"
You also have another guy who is third in line to presidency. He says 'let the housing decline run its course and find its on level,' then we will know where the real market is." He cries often, but would he shed a tear for families losing homes and hope in the worst economic downturn since Herbert Hoover?
Many of the conservatives in Congress who come from truly modest means would destroy the very programs they depended on to provide their escapes from classic blue collar, working class roots.
They would deny housing, health care, and educational opportunities to the poor and leave it up to business to make life better. Business does what is profitable, and encouraging human potential is always more costly than watching coldly as the strongest claw their way to the top.
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