The Top 10 Percent’s Dream

I watched a couple weeks ago as Senator Susan Collins expressed frustration toward a candidate speaking. She asked that he be more positive. The senator looked incredulous, as if there could be no reason for his negativity.

I’m sure where the senator lives, language like that is unacceptable. But for the majority of the population, frustration is a daily occurrence and there is little to be positive about.

The senator and her colleagues have siphoned off all of the money diverting most of it to the top 10 percent. Worse still they have borrowed from our children and grandchildren creating a burden of debt which will prevent our children from ever achieving the dream our grandparents were able to achieve. I’m not saying they were deceitful, although most would agree many politicians are, but I do think the senator was duped into accepting policies, largely created by those who stood to gain. But as the game is played, they the politicians gain as well; the top get their agenda filled or contracts, they in turn contribute to the politicians coffers and of course the politician get the votes from the special interest group. It’s a cycle guaranteed to ensure the survival of those directly or indirectly connected. And what of the rest, those not connected?

The money is gone, the jobs shipped overseas and for what was the middle class, so is the dream. Many of our children go hungry every day. At least half of the children in a nearby school district receive free or reduced cost breakfast and lunch. I’m told three-fourths of the children in another school district receive these same subsidies. Not long ago if a family wanted a second home or a new boat, they would both work. Now it is mandatory that both husband and wife work just to keep milk and OJ in the refrigerator. And for all the violence we now face, the broken families, the suicides, do you believe it’s all a coincidence? It is not. It’s the direct effect of the policies the senator and her colleagues have implemented over the past 50 years.

But for the senator and the top 10 percent, the dream continues. I hope she and her friends are enjoying it

Larry Paul,
Woolwich