remember this despair

Dear Elected Official,

My heart hurts today. A natural disaster has toppled houses, taken lives, and destroyed livelihoods for hundreds of millions.

I watched, we watched from afar, as those with bank accounts and credit cards and working automobiles fled the distressed coastline. In New Orleans we can now see the poor and disabled who lost the little of everything they had and then found themselves stranded.

If Katrina does not wake you up, nothing will. I will be forced to believe that politics and power corrupts the human heart so thoroughly that this nation will never save itself.

Those left behind are not the victims of a hurricane. They are victims of the society that looks the other way and economic disparity.

The "victims" are victims because $5.15 an hour cannot raise a family. Because you can't save money when there is no bank in your neighborhood. Because you no longer qualify for a mortgage or a credit card after the company maps out your ZIP CODE+4. The "victims" are victims because when there is no affordable, preventative health care, you wind up in a wheelchair at 60 years old.

Congress cries new no new taxes, the corporations cry, "we'll have to cut jobs if you raise the minimum wage."

And you listen to the corporations. The minimum wage has not increased in seven years.

We the people would take care of ourselves if we could afford to. We truly cannot afford to even in the good times. Honest folks who work hard cannot take care of themselves in the face of the disaster. Don't believe me?

If you work 40 hours a week at minimum wage, your monthly earnings BEFORE taxes are $824. That is $10,712 annually BEFORE taxes. BEFORE health insurance by-ins.

And here it is, Elected Official, straight from the Department of Health and Human Services -- the 2005 poverty level for a family of two... say a mother and son... is $12,830.

$ 10,712
-$ 12, 830
_______
$ -2,118

It doesn't add up. I knew before it didn't add up. You knew before, Elected Official.

But let's allow for hope in the face of the disaster that was hurricane Katrina. Let us embrace our fellow citizens by requiring that businesses pay a fair wage. By cutting out the political posturing and establishing health care, preventative and otherwise, for ALL Americans. But helping the hurt and homeless reestablish lifes that are full of more hope and dignity.

If Katrina does not wake you up, nothing will.

Sincerely,
Your Fellow American
(a registered voter)