Carolyn Hileman
You can see it in their faces, the look in their eyes, the battle weary almost ready to collapse at just one more bill that they cannot pay. It seems as if it will never end the fight just to survive, do they buy groceries or gas, do they pay that bill or will they need that money for something else. It would almost seem trivial compared to the rest of the world’s problems but to them it is all they can think of and they are hurting. These are not the lazy riffraff, the junkies or the loons these are your neighbors and you see them every day, you just don’t see what they are going through. They put the last few dollars in the tank and get in the car, turn on the radio only to hear that their government has decided to tax the oil companies and they know it isn’t to help them.
They read about how people are losing their homes, and they worry if they are next, they simply cannot afford any thing else to go up. They hear from the people in the big homes, with the big cars about how if we all just cut back we will be OK, they don’t want what they have, they just want to keep what they have and it is looking less and less like that is going to happen. They go to work, they pay their taxes, they skip going to the doctor unless it is an emergency because they cannot afford the visit much less to lose a day of work and it seemed just yesterday they thought they had it made. They turn on the TV to watch a little news and in one segment they are telling how Americans are suffering because of oil prices and in the next they are telling them that we need to bring in more people to fill jobs they just said weren’t there.
They have racked their brains, they have counted their change and they know that without a miracle they just might lose it all, but they will still put out their flag, they will still light up the grill and they will still sing the National Anthem because they know that if it was not for the country in which they live they wouldn’t have as much to lose. So they will dust off their invisible uniform, straighten it and stand firm against the volleys, knowing that tomorrow will be another day and maybe this will be a battle they can win, because that is what Americans do. Our Forefathers did not give up and they did not give in, even when they had nothing to eat and the snow was freezing their feet, they marched on and that is what we will do.
Carolyn Hileman