Dear Leader

Daily Prompt: If your government (local or national) accomplishes one thing in 2013, what would you like that to be?

Dear Leader,

Please accomplish some empathy in 2013. I listen to you talk about debt ceilings and fiscal cliffs. I hear you berate the so-called entitlement programs. I know you don’t know what you are talking about. You are fakers trying not to be caught faking. 

How much money do you make a year? I make $36,000 which means I’m too rich to be poor and too poor to be rich, but I’m not middle class. Could you live on 36k? I doubt it. So how about a dose of the reality you talk about like you know what you are talking about. Drop your salary for 12 months to the area median income for your district. Then, maybe, I’ll respect what you have to say about financial responsibility, debt, and entitlement.

Until you can manage a household on the salary of your average constituent, I don’t think you can understand what our life is like. Some of you claim to understand, having been raised poor, or by a single mom, or had to go to Berkeley instead of Yale because private school tuition was more than your parents could handle. But a child’s understanding of “money is tight” isn’t the same as an adult’s experience stretching it.

I know you have been voted in because you said what your district wanted to hear, but do you really understand you average constituent? Do you understand the gut-wrenching decision to skip a meal, or two or ten, so you can put gas in your car to get to work? Do you understand the pain of foregoing your own medicine because your child needs medicine? Do your undies have holes? Do your socks match? When was the last time you wore a suit from TJ Maxx? How old is your car? Do you put plastic in your home’s windows each winter to conserve heat and save money?

I’d wager to guess the answers will be no, no, no, no, no, never, brand new, and no.

I would like to see you accomplish some understanding in 2013, true, experienced, been there done that understanding of the everyday decisions and choices that affect the people you represent.

Sincerely,

Corn Maiden