I Hung My Head In Shame Today...

[WLKjr]

I work at a Wal-Mart. Today while I took my lunch I happend to catch yesterday's local paper and today's local paper in the lounge and read the headline from yesterday,"23 of 106 School Levies in Ohio Pass" and I was VERY SHOCKED. You see, Ohio is going through some major troubles with the education system here with budget cuts, insufficient materials, staff cuts, building maintenance etc. and most of the levies were operating levies. Then I read an article today with Bush saying the Economy is booming.

By this time as I hung my head in shame and disbelief of what I was reading, my break was up. As I head back to the front of the store to do my job of making sure people are getting taken care of properly, I get approached by two young women. The one asks if she could get someone to help push one of three carts they have. I am kind of amazed because that doesn't usually happen till after November when they have their big after thanksgiving sale. So I start to walk over to where they are at while calling a stockman(cart pusher) to give me a hand. As I turn the corner I am double shocked. Three cart loads full, I am talking pouring over with school supplies. Pens, Pencils, crayons, paper, erasers, glue more paper, folders, art boxes, tissues(there was one whole cart for those)plastic baggies(half cart full of those) that must have totaled around 40 boxes of each. I mean these carts were about to spill over. My jaw is on the floor because it hit me, I knew what these ladies were doing. They were buying school supplies for about 40-50 kids. Now wether these were going to kids in need or for THEIR classes does not mean shit at this point. As I am helping them to a register I ask, "What is all of this for?(not really a dumb question if you are trying to find out why)", and they replied that they worked for the county and had an office pull that only brought in around 350 bux and were buying school supplies for some children. I also was told they both taught, and from what I could tell by the stuff they were getting, it had to have been 4th grade or lower. It was about time for me to clock out and I went to do so. I came back and they were still getting checked out with the stockman there helping them load everyting up and I stood there to see what the total would come up to. I over heard them saying how they were worried that it would be too much $$$ and not enough for what they needed. Total comes to $331.47, and Three Cart Loads of School Supplies..........and I remember the no child left behind act being so underfunded that it does not help but only hurts schools, all of the teachers I have talked to telling me about the hardships that were being faced by not only them but by the children. I remembered all of the school levies that were not passed because that is what people take out their anger on other taxes imposed by the states.

I walk away in disbelief and hung my head in shame for what our government and leaders are doing to the future of this country. I hung my head in shame because I feel I can do nothing about it and that I have let a generation down that could have very well been me a just only a few years ago and I am only 19.

I walk to my car with that image still in front of my face. I get into my car to drive off, turning on my xm radio to catch some news I missed today. And I hear a familar voice, telling me the economy is booming, the terraists hates our freedoms, and that he never stops thinking of ways to harm us while there have been hardly any jobs added this month, the environment is eroding and the education systems are in shambles and people always telling me that I encounter at work about losing their jobs, getting laid off, working 2 jobs to pay the bills, and some telling me proudly that they don't ever vote.........and I hung my head in shame.

But you know what, I can change it, you can change it, WE can change it. This is OUR problem and WE need to take responsibility as AMERICANS to keep our lively hoods and our education top priority. We owe it to ourselves and the next generation, because they will be fighting for us someday, just like we are fighting today for our elderly, and our working class. The only way we can change it is to take the issues personally and WORK HARD to find ways to MAKE THEM WORK. The only way we can change it is to GET PEOPLE INFORMED and GET THEM TO VOTE. We can change it by HOLDING OUR LEADERS ACCOUNTABLE FOR THEIR POLICY MAKING DECISIONS. The solution is simple, we AMERICANS have to get INVOLVED again. Without that, things that I have witnessed above will continue to happen and will only get worse as the days, months, years, decades, and centuries go on. If, 50 years from now, you could look back on today, will you hang your head in shame? I know I certainly will not. I am going to change things, you are going to change things, and we are going to change things. I'll be holding up to my end of the deal, and I call upon you to do the same.

Someone once said in a song, "Don't ever stop thinking about tommorrow." and that is so true.

I support Kerry/Edwards in 2004 because I do not want to see this happen ever again. So I will never again hang my head in shame to what our leaders are doing to MY COUNTRY, YOUR COUNTRY, OUR COUNTRY.