By Staff
I haven't gotten too involved with the politics of the day, but I do listen to WVPE (National Public Radio) and sometimes watch the news.
I have seen or heard parts of the past debates.
Like someone I spoke to this morning, following the second debate between McCain and Obama, I can't help but wish they would quit tearing into each other.
They spend too much time talking about their opponent's policies and plans, than their own.
Stories and rumors have seemed to fly more than in past elections in my memory.
Neither candidate can just hope to get our attention with one word "change." But change is what is needed.
I heard that a recent poll found at least 60 percent of people are worse off than they were a few years ago.
We do need some relief. With the continued layoffs and businesses and factories closing, more and more people I know are out of work and on unemployment.
A trip to the grocery store will quickly show you how hard it is to make ends meet. What formerly might have been a staple in your home is now sometimes purchased as a special treat.
All of my children's businesses have been hurt by the sluggish economy. Raises have been nonexistent or frozen.
I am still paying the IRS on a mistake made years ago on my taxes, while Wall Street is being bailed out by billions.
Am I paying to help the CEOs who were only thinking about their own pocketbooks?
I hear McCain say Obama would raise taxes. I hear Obama say he will help the middle class and freeze or lower taxes.
The public just wants some relief and help.
They want to be able to go to work and bring home enough money to pay their bills – not outlandish ones for boats and expensive toys, but bills for clothes for the children and a decent meal on the table each night.
We want to be able to send our kids to college, so they will be able to fend for themselves, because we are worried we don't have enough is our savings to get us through retirement.
And then there is health care.
As of of us baby boomers age and ache, we are worried about what we will do when our health care through our place of work is gone, or if we are going to be taxed for having health care. Also, if Medicare will be there for us.
I heard a report which indicated I probably won't have to worry about Social Security lasting though my lifetime, but Medicare might be out of money before I die.
Who and what to believe.
I remember the stories from my parents, who lived through the depression. Stories of having only an orange for a Christmas present and one good set of clothes.
We and also our children have been spoiled with a bounty of things. Young kids have their own cell phones and computers and video game systems which cost as much as some people paid in the past for a car.
Going back to keeping something until it is worn out and not buying something unless it is really needed won't be easy.
Conserving not only our money – but our resources – water, electricity, oil. We should have listened better to my parents' generation. Maybe then we wouldn't be in this mess.