To America: Can we survive as a nation if we refuse to help the poor in our towns and cities? The working class in our society is slowly being worked to death. It is almost impossible to survive in America today without being in debt and working almost until you die. What kind of society have we created? Without helping the working class America will slowly find itself farther and farther from the nation we once were.

At one point the working class was the heartbeat of this nation. Yet now we use the working class so that the upper classes that already control most of the wealth can control even more of the wealth. We create an environment where a person has to work at least forty hours a week with another member of the household also working forty hours just to survive. We need to stop this. We need to allow the working class children to have parents raise them instead of television or babysitters. These children are already at a disadvantage because they don’t have the money or resources to purchase educational aids. So we need to have a parent at home to encourage their children but they need to be able to also feed and clothe their children. We need to actively support families in working class neighborhoods.

Why don’t we start by raising minimum wage to a wage that would actually support a person? We have to stop corporate America from running this nation and from destroying working class families. The Republicans urge family values yet they then turn around and support corporations that force employees to work longer and longer hours while paying them less by getting rid of overtime for some people. Let those of us that work in America demand control over our lives. Let us force corporate America to pay us more even if the CEO has to take a pay cut from eight million to four million dollars a year. Let us take back this nation of ours and make it great once more.

Sean Lachenman Senior chemistry major