PHOTO: A reminder of who and what our next President needs to care about -

[HughBeaumont]

Granted, not all of the headstones represent those who died in combat. But there are far too many in these acres.

Why is there always enough money for F-15s, aircraft carriers and other assorted military playthings (except, of course, protection for those on the ground actually doing the fighting) but never enough money for education, housing, health care, infrastructure rebuilding, public transportation, etc?

DC doesn't need 50,000 more names on a black wall.

We need to start caring about veterans. Starting with not making any more of them.

We need to start caring about the poor.

We need to start constructing better safety nets for the unemployed.

We need to repair our crumbling roads, bridges, buildings and schools.

Those who are well off need to stop hoarding wealth and start becoming more responsible citizens. Even yesterday's Robber Barons were more philanthropic compared with today's examples of runaway opulence.

No citizen of supposedly the most powerful industrialized nation should have to constantly live in fear of a major illness bankrupting their entire family.

No citizen should have to owe his or her life for cradle-to-grave corporate servitude.

Corporations and the wealthy do not need any further advantages and perks of any kind; yet they're clamoring for more billions in tax cuts, the lions share of which will yet again benefit those least in need of them.

What kind of nation are we leaving to this boy and his peers?

One that's given up on the democratic process? One that believes that helping others is one step away from "creeping socialism"? One that, instead of giving its citizens easier access to higher education, makes it harder and more expensive?

One that accepts being constantly at war with a declared enemy (or noun) of choice . . . simply because "that's the way it is"?

We can do better than failing this nation's children. We can do better than failing this nation's workers. We can do better than failing this nation's sick.

On behalf of myself and my picture - Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. One and all.

End this war.

Give him hope.

Thank you.

[ixion]

1. a picture of what they really care about

[HughBeaumont]

4. Wow, that reminds me of the 2005 Coronat . . . er . . . Inauguration.

Police in riot gear and yard batons. Police lines miles long and five layers deep. I thought they only did this sort of thing in tin-pot dictatorships. All to protect Little Lord Failure-roy, Dick Cheney and the rest of his Corporate Crips from the people he's supposed to be serving.

[L0oniX]

9. Get ready to see a lot of this and many more of them.

[Patchuli]

2. K & R for a great post! nt

[JohnnyLib2]

3. K & R, with lump in throat

[OhioChick]

5. K&R

:kick:

[panader0]

6. Another K&R

[Amerigo Vespucci]

7. That's why we need to transcend slogans...

...and choose a candidate who can handle the job. Compare the America that George W. Bush inherited to the one he'll be handing off a year from now.

We need someone who is tough, smart and capable. Our candidates need to think less about petty bickering and finger-pointing and celebrity endorsements and more about what they would actually do to heal this country if they were elected to office.

[gemdem]

8. K&R, Agreed

I need look no further than my own four kids to know what this election is about.

My first and last thoughts of the day are about them. These days those thoughts are usually followed by what I'm going to do to be able to take care of them -- as I prepare for a likely job loss in Q1 of 2008 (off-shored). I'll find another job -- but what kind and where, what will it mean to my ability to care for my kids? Not just financially, but in being present for them and being the kind of father they need.

The world is much changed from when I became a father for the first time almost 17 years ago, and the changes since my last child was born almost 7 years ago are no less dramatic. Where are we headed as a people, a nation, a world? What kind of future will your and my children face?

These are the questions that keep many of us up at night. These are the questions we all must ask ourselves as we look at the upcoming election.

[HughBeaumont]

12. My cousin, who's been out of work for a year, were talking on Christmas . .

. . . about how this country has taken a giant slide for the worst since 1997. Now, we may not want to include the three years prior to the Failure Fuhrer's giant dump of a presidency, but when you think about it and watch movies like The Big One, it all makes sense that the manufacturing and industrial sectors fell victim to unbridled corporatism at this time.

Most of those jobs left the country, giving high school graduates three options: learning manual trades, the world of minium wage or going to college (and taking on massive amounts of debt). There aren't any warehouse, steel craftsman, factory or assembly positions anymore.

Last year, he and his SO took a buyout from Packard Electric; which for both of them has almost run out. He has nothing other than a high school diploma. It's naive to think that at 35, he and his SO can just go to community college and start over. She's doing OK at a car dealership, but now makes half of what she did at Packard. What would they do? Where would they get the money, go into more debt? Where would the experience come from?

They didn't used to have to worry about this sort of thing before. It used to be that we were able to gainfully employ people who aren't meant for college; these people were our industrial and manufacturing base and they built the quality products we used and bought. A strong economy should be capable of employing EVERYone at a fair wage regardless of education level, and when you cannot do that, all the talking points in the world aint'a gonna mask the reality that you do NOT have any such economy on your watch.

I'm sure we all have personal examples around us on how America is failing the average worker and their children.

[gemdem]

13. I know from where you speak

A number of my co-workers used to work on assembly lines here in SW Ohio. The retrained to do software, and now that it's apparent that their jobs as well as my own are going to be offshored, the question is what do we retrain for next? I'm soon to be 47 and my co-workers are all about my age or older. Unlike some of them, I have a college degree and 25 years in the work force, but neither guarantees me future employment.

My options are to stay in my current field and live with commuting or move my family to another town. And if it's a move, to what end? How long before I see that job offshored, too? If I'm to retrain (something I'm looking into as a to-do for after I land the next job), into what career field should I retrain? And, if I complete my retraining, what is the likelihood that someone is going to want to hire a 50-year (presuming I can be retrained in three years) into an entry-level position?

[blues90]

15. There are so very many problems and no answers of certainty

I don't have children , i don't have a job at 59 . I have only a highschool education .

I think about how many children will grow up without their parents home most of the time , sittng in expensive daycare . They have screwed up schools and once out may not even find a job .

What security is there , even if you do move you never know what will happen even if you do find a job it could close in a month then you are out the money spent for the move .

The entire country is without jobs , we thought about moving however the risk is to great .

It seems to me it may reach a point where people will have to live in communes just to barely get by .

No new jobs are created when things are so unstable , many have become slaves to a min wage job with no hope of a change .

I was always told I could fall back on a trade , however there are no trades to fall back on so I'm screwed as many others are .

[Booster]

10. K&R - an excellent post - my heart goes out to that boy & others.

There is a strong urge to apologize to the young people of today - what have we done?

[HughBeaumont]

11. Kick for the morning . . .

:kick:

[Kurovski]

14. K&R. (nt)