Two Americas? Divide between Rich and Poor? Hog Wash! I am sick to death of hearing Americans bemoan their state of affairs. Are there impoverished people in the United States? Well I guess that is matter of perspective. Personally, I was very poor when I was a child I know poverty. I used to look at the other kids and think, "Man they got it made nice house great toys". Then I grew up, travelled to places like Ethiopia, Sudan, Korea, Mexico.... and guess what? I realized I had it pretty damned good compared to the real impoverished people of the world. A fact I am reminded of it every time I drive by a dilapidated trailer with a $40,000 pickup truck parked outside.What gets me fired up is the rhetoric that snake oil salesmen like John Edwards and his ilk use to traffic this class envy nonsense. Get this straight, a con man like Edwards has no interest in your social class, he has an interest in your vote, and that is as far as he will go. He can spew all the nonsense he wants about "The Two Americas" but if he were truly interested in helping the "poor" he walk across the street from his 25,000 square foot North Carolina mansion and help those folks living in the trailer park out. You judge a tree by the fruit it bears, and the only fruit on Edwards tree, goes by the name of Danny Glover.
Believe the stats you hear about poverty from the "experts" if you like. But they are all subjective, it depends on the perspective. If your numbers compare everyone to Bill Gates standard of living, then we all live in poverty. I could give a flying lugnut about stats and numbers. I would much rather be a poor man in the United States than a rich man in any other nation. I know that in America we can work hard and move up in status. I have!! Why can't anyone else? Am I special, privileged, or subsidized by Exxon-Mobil....? Hell no. I just don't buy the pessimism that says the divide between the "haves" and the "have-nots" can't be breached. Thanks be to God there are still other people in this nation that beleieve what I believe.
I am disheartened that there are people of this nation fail, or won't, see the great opportunity they have living here, no matter their status. If they could see the things I have seen with my own two eyes they would never, ever feel that way. And people like Edwards should be ashamed for fostering that despair.
