LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Joe Average American Wants Peace
To the Editor:

Hello, my name is Joe Average American. I just elected you to the House of Representatives and the Senate. I have two children at home and one out of the home. My household income is somewhere in the general vicinity of the American median income.

I put up signs in my yard and on the roads for you. I put bumper stickers on my car for you. I talked to people for you and encouraged them to vote for Democrats because it is time for a change. I made telephone calls for Move.Org for the Senate races in Virginia, Missouri, and Montana for you. I contributed money for local candidates - no not thousands, just a few hundred - but remember, I am Joe Average, not Joe Millionaire.

The catch is, though, I am not a do-good chucklehead, I want something. The first thing on my agenda is I don't want you to fully cooperate or even compromise with the most corrupt, inefficient administration in the history of our country. I voted for you because I want change!

I want you to protect Social Security, not set up "private accounts" that give Bush's boys on Wall Street more money to gamble with. I want some protection in my old age. If I want to gamble, I can play the market without the federal government's nose in it.

I want single-payer, universal health care. The health care situation is out of control; the profits of the insurance companies are obscene. The insurance companies brutalize both the patient and the doctor.

Do something about our border. National security is not served when literally millions of people are pouring across our border illegally. Not only do we need a strong Border Patrol, we need heavy fines and imprisonment for employers that hire illegals. These are wealthy agri-business and construction firms that put money into the pockets of politicians. The 700-mile fence on a 2,000-mile border is a farce, and we both know it. It is just another boondoggle and money maker for the Republicans' pals in the construction business, while it looks like the government is doing something about the border problem.

Related to the border issue, could we please have a sane, humane immigration policy? No, you are not going to put 12 million people on buses and planes and send them back to their countries of origins. Can we please deal with people who have often been here for years and years, working, paying taxes, and having children, in a humane way in a country that says in part in its Pledge of Allegiance "with liberty and justice for all"?

I want you to do something about corporate welfare, tax breaks for the wealthy, and subsidies for the oil companies. It is obscene that our government gives tax breaks and subsides to Big Oil while they rape us at the gas pump; yet the same administration cuts veterans programs and screams about entitlement programs. Can you please start to put people before profits?

We are a sick people in an increasingly toxic environment. Some of us "average" types are starting to figure out that when dope head and verbal abuser of the disabled, Rush Limbaugh, says "the government needs to get out of the way and let business regulate itself," that means big business gets to poison our food, pollute our air, and foul the waterways. Please, I want a healthy earth and a healthy America; we need environmental regulation.

Finally, make peace. The biggest reason Joe and Jane Average American voted for you is we want peace. We want America to be a beacon of light for the world, not a bully who the world fears and hates. God Bless you in your mission! Stand up to tyranny!

Jim Ramelis

Gould City