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07/30/2004: "The Other America"

Dear Senator Edwards:

I have heard your speech about “Two Americas” and I would like to take this opportunity to tell you about my half of your two Americas. I must confess that I don’t live on either coast so you probably won’t think that my values are main stream. I live in the fly over space along with millions of other Americans who make up the middle class in this country and share the same middle class values.

I don’t wear designer clothes, have a big house, or drive a fancy, foreign sports car. I live paycheck to paycheck and scrimp to save up money for something special I want. This probably sounds terrible to you. But let me assure you, I am doing just fine.

When I sit in my little house, I see a castle. My castle. It’s the castle that I have earned by working hard everyday. That means a lot to me. I value a good work ethic and what you may see as my meager possessions are priceless jewels to me. They reflect my accomplishments, independence, and freedom of choice. When my ten-year old home needed some major improvements, I worked a second job to earn the money to pay for it.

Now you might not think that I have accomplished very much and that the government should help me out to have a better life, after all I’m not the millionaire that you are. Please be informed, I find your attitude rather condescending. “Help is on the way.” Help should only be on the way when help is asked for.

One great source of relief for me is that I like many hardworking Americans have never asked for or taken government assistance. When I was laid off from a dot com that went belly up, I was entitled to unemployment compensation. But when I decided to go to work for a new dot.com start up, I understood the risk. During my employment with them, I made sure I put away a nest egg in case it failed. When it failed, I relied on myself and the planning I had done to get me through the eight weeks until I started a new job. That’s what we call taking personal responsibility in the fly over area. We believe that you take assistance from others, including the government, when you need it not because it’s an entitlement that’s there for the taking. It’s natural for people who take pride in their working and providing for themselves to feel badly when they have to ask for assistance. So we work hard, plan, scrimp, and save so we don’t have to feel badly. We take pride in our self-reliance.

At the time I was laid off, the government had COBRA in effect which allows you to take your medical insurance with you for a period of time. That’s all well and good except when a company goes belly up and doesn’t pay their share of the medical insurance premium there is no policy to COBRA. One of the first things I did when I got laid off and had no medical insurance was to buy a catastrophic medical insurance policy. I figured we would pay for anything we had to have until I was working again and non-essential healthcare would just have to wait. But in the event of an accident or a major hospitalization, we had to have some type of coverage to keep us from having to file bankruptcy. The catastrophic policy was priced so reasonably; I kept it for an additional three months after starting work until my probationary period was over before I cancelled it.

My America works hard, takes pride in their accomplishments, and takes personal responsibility for their lives. In other words we are and we act like adults who are free to make our choices and are capable of taking care of ourselves. We value time with our families and friends over making gazillions of dollars. Most importantly, we live by a core set of principals and values that we can be proud of.

In your America there are vast inequalities because the government has failed to step in and take care of those who haven’t been as successful as others. You call for income redistribution through taxation to correct this. You call for the government to raise our children both through locking them into the failing public school system and after school programs. You call for socialized medicine as a right to healthcare for every American. You call for the government to create jobs and wealth instead of businesses. You want to take care of me as if I am a child.

Speaking out of the other side of your mouth you tell us of your childhood and your success in this great country. Did the government help you through or were you able to do it on your own? I got my two college degrees through scholarships and working. Isn’t that how you got yours? If you can grow up a mill workers son, work hard, put yourself through school and make it in this world, why do you think the rest of us can’t? Are you so much better than the rest of us?

Mr. Edwards I am not a child, neither I nor millions of others like me asked you for your help. We believe that society should provide for those who are unable to help themselves. That is a very, very small percentage of our population. Please tell them that help has always been there and continues to be there for them and leave the rest of us the hell alone. The plan you have for this country sounds like one that has already been tried and failed in other countries. It’s called Communism. I prefer a Constitutional Republic and Capitalism, so thanks but I don't want your help to be on the way.