A Question for You!

This post is dedicated to some of my co workers, managers and friends who work for Dominos Pizza in Chicopee and Springfield Ma.. Amoung them are my franchisee Tony, his wife and children, John and Liz Sanborn with their children,Brigette Whalen and her son, and my friend Anna with her unborn child.

The question is this, what kind of country are we going to leave for this new generation of citizens of the United States?

I was born in 1954 to two first generation Americans. The future of the U.S. looked bright. We had just won WWII. My dad had quit high school to enter the Navy and the war ended while he was in training. He went to barber school on the G.I. bill to follow his father's trade. He owned a small business which he worked at part time, while being employed by the Draper Corporation. Both he and my mother worked hard and were moderately succesful. We owned a modest home at the edge of the inner city. My mother worked a variety of jobs in the textile and food service industries
while raising three children.

The United States was much like my family. We were strong and proud. We held our head high. We grew our own food, We baked our bread. We built our cars and made our own shoes. The shirt on my back was made of cotton which had been grown by an American farmer, woven into cloth on an American loom, and stitched by an American worker. We pumped our own oil, which American refiners turned into gasoline to fuel our American made cars. Las but not least, we saved and scrimped, while we might have borrowed for a mortgage or a car loan, for the rest we paid CASH!!! Our government was the same way. When they borrowed, it was from it's citizens.
While there were social programs, they did not intrude on our lives. We felt free to pursue the American dream.

I would like to know what the future holds for the children to whom I have dedicated this blog. The mill where my father once worked is a mangled ruin. The milltown would be a ghost town were it not a suburb of Boston. The clothes I wear are made in China, Even my computer and my model trains come from overseas. Two of the three car makers which once dominated the U.S. market have gone bust and one is now controlled by Europeans. Our government spends money that they do not have on things that we do not need. The privately owned slums that once dominated the inner city, have been replaced by public housing. The respect that I was so carefully taught as a child is no more. Teachers are beaten in the schools and the police who once walked the beat, rush from one crime to another in their hi tech cruisers.

Today I fight to maintain a decent quality of life. The home share with my wife is one payment away from foreclosure. The house next door is vacant. Right now we do not even have our own automobile. The car we are using has been provided by my employer. My wife has been in the hospital three times in the last two months for diabetic problems. Meanwhile, those in Hartford, Boston and Washington, laugh at us.
They are constantly trying to find new ways to cripple us with laws and taxes. From cigarette taxes to sales taxes and property taxes, I have to work harder each and every day, just to hold on to what I have.

I am not without hope for our future however. I believe that the spirit that made our country great is still alive. I believe in myself. I believe in my co workers and friends. i believe that we can take our country back. It will not be easy. The working men and women of this coutry will have to join hands like we have never before. If there is to be a second American revolution, let it begin here. Let the shouts of freedom ring out on the streets of Springfield. Bring hope back to Hopedale. Bring a smile to the farmer of the Midwest who grows the wheat for our bread. 2010 can be a new beginning for our nation. We need to let our elected representatives know who they work for. We need to do this at all levels, city, state and nation. The time for action is now. We need to do this for our next generation. We need to let them see the country we once knew. Proud, strong and free.