Strange Days

These are strange days.

The pundits and economists claim that the economy is on the rebound. But for those of us down here in the trenches, those of us whore are jobless, with bills to pay and families to feed, there's no economic recovery in sight. The bills are piling up, the job offers aren't materializing, and money is getting harder and harder to come by. All the while, the fat cats in Washington bicker over health care reform while getting nothing done aside from playing the blame game, trying to decide who was responsible for the economic disaster in the first place.

My dad, dead now ten years or more, used to say that the more things changed, the more they stayed the same. He was right. Things are no different today than they were ten, twenty, fifty years ago. Politicians, in their luxurious offices, with their limos and travel budgets and vastly superior health care plans, have no real idea what those of us in the trenches are going through on a day by day basis. We have very basic needs. We have to be able to pay the rent. We have to be able to clothe our kids. We have to be able to pay for things like gas, electricity, and hot water. We have to be able to pay for public transportation or gas to get to work every day. We have to be able to afford decent medical care and prescriptions when we need them—which isn't always a planned thing.

But if you're rich, you likely don't even have to think about those things. They're just taken care of. Someone handles all that stuff for you. It's inconsequential, beneath your notice. You might stand there on television and claim to be a man of the people, but after a little while in office with that big salary and all those incredible benefits, your memories of what it was like to be one of us will quickly fade.

But we are your constituents. We're the ones you're supposed to be helping. We're the ones having to decide, day in and day out, what we're going to have to cut out of our lives to be able to afford food or rent. Not because we want to, but because we have to. We make little choices, and lots of them.

We turn off our cell phones because it's not necessary, and the phone service that anchors us to the house through our cable service is cheaper. Sure, we're screwed if we get stuck on the side of the road, but we have to make that choice because we can't afford it.

We choose to give our pets up for adoption, because we can't afford to feed or care for them anymore. Sure, they'll likely be euthanized, because no one else can care for them either. But we do it, because we can't afford it.

We choose to cut our automobile insurance, because we can't afford the egregious rates we're being charged. Sure, we're out a vehicle if something really bad happens. But we do it. And you know why.

We choose to endure pain and suffering without visiting a doctor, or to try alternative therapies which are either ineffective or potentially dangerous, because we can't afford the copays.

We choose to buy cheap, processed foods to feed our families, rather than fresh meat and produce. Sure, it'll have a longer term impact on our overall health. But the price difference makes you wonder if they're trying to discourage you from eating healthy. And we simply can't afford to eat well.

We use up our savings, dive into college funds, remortgage our homes, do anything to survive. We sell our cherished belongings. We move into smaller apartments, crammed with multiple roommates trying to pool their resources against the financial crush. And even then, we struggle.

Those of us who have jobs hold onto them for dear life, afraid of what might happen to us if we lost them. It doesn't matter if we hate the work we're doing, who we're working with, the hours we keep. The world outside that job is far, far worse.

And yet, to hear the news, the economy is in a rebound, and things are looking up. Consumer spending is on the rise. You wouldn't know it at my house, or the homes of any of the people I know. We're all feeling the pinch. And this pinch leaves major bruises that aren't going to heal any time soon.

Washington, and all the local politicians, need to take off their blinders and remember that the world does not live like they do. In the real world, the vast majority of the population is poor, and struggling to survive from one day to the next. Sure, the rich line your pockets. We all know that. But the poor cast the votes. Step out of that bright light that blinds you to the realities of life that every day people face, and look at it with an unfettered vision for once. And then, without just dismissing what you've seen and heard, do something about it.

Stop bickering. Party lines should be irrelevant in this crisis. And it doesn't matter who started it. What matters is what we're going to do about it.