You Deserve Better

The United States is still the wealthiest country in the world. We also suffer from wealth inequality and a lack of real representation both nationally and at the state level. How is it fair that your senator and representative—individuals paid with your tax dollars—have the best health care in the world while you have to paid $100 every paycheck for mediocre coverage? They work for you, why do you—why do we—accept this situation? You deserve better. All of us deserve better.

I may eventually move out of the United States. One reason is the pace of the life but another reason is frustration: With all our resources why do we accept that a single child goes hungry? That a single old person freezes to death because they can’t afford a gas bill? But if you suggest we help people to eat, to heat their homes, to get an education, you are labeled a socialist or a communist; a member of the “radical left.” But no one blinks at the amount of money we spend for the military—

Well, we can’t let China win the arms race.

And the average Chinese person is being told the same thing about the United States.

We don’t question how much money we spend on the manufacture of arms, the bailout of financial institutions, and we certainly don’t question tax breaks for the wealthy.

Not that such a thing will ever happen because, you know, the majority of our senators and representatives are wealthy.

I have lived in the United States my entire life. I have traveled all over west of the Rockies and there are some beautiful places. I identify with Europeans but I know that, when I travel to Europe next year, I will see just how American I am. As emotional as the idea of leaving here is, the thought of staying here grows more unacceptable with each passing month. This country is home, but there are things I just can’t continue to go along with—and I have no idea how to fix them. I am a centrist, honestly both the far right and the Progressives irritate me. Neither side seems to be operating in the real world, neither side wants to acknowledge how much they have in common with the other...and which entities are benefitting from all this division.

You deserve better, we all do, and I wish with all my heart I knew how to fix things.