Says we need to work to make America better

Vox Pop

From The Star News, Aug. 21, 2020 edition: “The United Way has a drive for donations of backpacks to be issued to school children of need which will be filled with non-perishable food items for the 2020-21 school term.”

The article mentioned the school year of 2018 (winter, spring, fall) there were 1,290 students who requested and received free or reduced price meals. I would imagine this would be anywhere from 400 to 750 different families.

What was unemployment during these times? I would think anywhere from 2.5% to 4.5% of the working population. Labor records should back those numbers. This range is considered full employment, not enough labor to fill demands. Numbers of “employment” ads point to this fact.

This also indicates the breadwinner or breadwinners of these 400-750 families were gainfully employed. Still the number of 1,290 students who received free or reduced prices meals indicates aid was still needed.

What does this say of the slogan “Make America Great Again” we heard so much during 2016 and still today. Would a truly “Great America” allow such a need for free or reduced price school lunches. And this is only the districts in Taylor County.

This was long before the virus and current pandemic. Fingers cannot be pointed in those directions. One would think a “Great America” should have eliminated much of that need long before any pandemic or other crisis.

What does this say of the man in the White House who loves and pushed those words, “Make America Great?” Did he succeed except make a mockery of those words. Does anyone actually believe he has done anything in three years to “Make America Great” except to ensure the wealthy get wealthier and maintain their enormous wealth?”

I’m very sure these words still resonate as true today as when first spoken: “I’ve seen millions of families trying to live on incomes so meager that the pall of family disaster hangs over them day to day.”

“I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, illnourished.”

You can read the rest of it by turning back the pages. It was Franklin D. Roosevelt’s second inaugural address to the nation on March 4, 1937.

It sounds and appears very familiar.

The situation of poverty and living on the edge is still very prevalent today. The current man in the White House has done nothing to eliminate those conditions over the long-term. He has done more to enhance, nourish and increase the problems. There can never be a “Great America” with his type of self and all-absorbing narcissism. — Walter Tomczyk, Dorchester