Question For the Candidates

My parents have worked hard all their lives. In their early years my mother took singing lessons in Boston and began to perform at weddings while my father mowed lawns for twenty cents an hour. My mother trained as a nurse before realizing she was allergic to some substance in the hospital which forced her to give up her dreams of becoming a nurse. Afterwards, my parents met while they were both working at Olsen Tool & Die on South Avenue in Whitman. Later, my father owned his own sub shop, Wes' Sub, for many years before he began work in retail. He franchised a Lil Peach convenience store before managing a chain of 7-11's. From there he moved to Wal-Mart while working a paper route to make ends meet. Rather than relax and enjoy their retirement my father rakes leaves, mows lawns, cleans gutters and shovels snow in the winter to pay the rent in their mobile home park. At the ages of seventy-four and eighty-three they worry about the day he won't have the strength to shovel the snow.

At the age of 28 I divorced my drug abusing husband. For the past 20 years I have raised my two daughters by myself. I received no support from my ex, but worked hard to try to give them the best I could. Through the years I have battled health issues. I had pre-cancerous tissues that demanded surgery. I fell off a ladder at work, which put me out of work for a few months. Then just as I was beginning to get back on my feet my knee locked. I ended up having to have knee surgery. Now I am waiting for tests to see if I need to have surgery, again. They just found polyps, for the third time. If I have to be out of work again I don't know what I will do. As it is I'm going pay-check-to-pay-check now.

Throughout these health issues I have discovered just how little the government helps people who really need it. Because I was not able to get enough aid during times I was out of work, twice I was kicked out of my apartment. While illegal immigrants are living rich suing law abiding citizens and raking in goverment aid, the elderly who have worked hard and payed their dues to the US are struggling to survive. Hard working Americans, who through no fault of their own fall on hard times, lose everything. Yet people who have good homes and expensive cars are getting help from the government. The system is broken. People who really need help from the government are not receiving it. While other countrys are being fed from our bank and men are being shipped up into space the children from poorer families can not participate in expensive sports and music programs which used to come free in public schools. My question is what are you going to do to fix the system to help the poor who are falling through the cracks?

Comments: 1

Philip B. Jan 27, 2009, 5:29pm EST

My heart and prayers go out to you during these hard times!

I wished that I had no clue to the struggles your going through with little to no help with the government who's claims to helping the poor are far from the truth. The facts behind the system is its just that a system, one that people learn and take it for all its worth. I live in public housing and for the most part most that are here need it but the abuses are great, women living here pay almost nothing for rent yet have boyfriends living with them and giving them support while others struggle to have enough to eat.

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Question For the Candidates

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