Tea Bird

Democrats

Dear Candidates

By patsy ⋅ March 13, 2008 ⋅  Email This Post ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

I’m feeling a little jealous and slighted by the focus of this campaign and I want some attention for my family, and my friends, and my neighbors across the entire state. We don’t live in a big city, we have no big industry close by that is employing most of the area, and we are not specifically and jointly feeling an identifiable vice on our heads for the same reason as someone else, but it’s there nonetheless. We are the small town folk who are watching Mom and Pop stores close on a regular basis. We are the small town folk who can’t depend on public transportation, so we need our car to take us everywhere. And we are the small town folk who have less money in our pockets at a time when everything costs more.

I spoke to an accountant last week, who told me that ten of his clients closed their small businesses last year. He never saw anything like this. And these were clients he had had for a number of years. Unfortunately, these closings don’t just happen. It probably was a slow painful death as the business owner tried to tough it out. They use every resource they have, and in some cases occur new debt. By the time denial and reality collide, the decision has been made for them.

But it is more than just businesses closing. Those businesses that are still operating are cutting back, laying off. They have implemented a freeze on any raise to those still there and the bigger companies are messing with any pension plan that enticed a young worker there, for less, to begin with.

So, we don’t have a big catchall situation, i.e. the real plight of the automobile industry, to charge up your speeches, but we still need answers to the big picture. Talk to us, candidates. Talk to the huge number of us out here who can’t even find a reason how we got from “there to here.”

Tags: Democrats, pennsylvania primary, rural pa