The Change That Is Needed: A Conversation with America's Workers

For a country deeply divided by party affiliation, job title, religion, and even ethnicity these days, President Bush's last State of the Union Address produced a fairly uniform response from pundits, politicians and the public: change is coming, and not a moment too soon. 

The message couldn't have been clearer from where I sat on Monday night, surrounded by several SEIU members, including two child care providers, a janitor, a security officer, and a hospital technician/MPA. Watching Bush's seventh and final SOTU, we were prepared to hear anything. What we did hear left us cold. I think we shared the sentiment of working families all around this country, who were neither surprised nor impressed to hear the lip service the president paid to what are pocketbook issues for most of us: child care, utility bills, housing and healthcare.  

Gloria Knight, a 50 year-old child care provider with SEIU Local 500 Kids First Maryland, summed it up best: "Did he talk about the things that matter to me? Well, housing, wages, healthcare--I heard him mention them, but I didn't hear solutions. He gets you all hyped up, but then he leaves you hanging."   

You see, from where Gloria, and SEIU members Annette Scurry, Kevin Hills, Leonard Green, and Raquel Mack sit, this country is out of balance and we need a lot more than empty promises if we're going to put it back on course. Gas prices have nearly tripled, the annual cost of a family health insurance premium has gone up by more than $3,800, families are losing their homes, and more Americans live in poverty than ever before. Since the president came into office in 2001, the median household income in this country has decreased by $1,100. At the same time, the gap between the rich and poor has reached an all time high; in 2007, the salary of a full-time minimum wage employee without vacation was $12,168 while the average salary of a CEO of a Fortune 500 company surpassed $15 million.    

But the president didn't focus on these realities.  

On healthcare reform, president Bush talked about giving healthcare workers more freedom to do their jobs, but offered no solutions for how to help the more than 47 million uninsured Americans who have to pray that they won't get sick every day. "He talked about making healthcare more 'affordable'--whatever that means," said Annette, a family child care provider and leader in SEIU Local 500 Kids First Maryland. "But he didn't talk about the SCHIP bill he vetoed last year. He didn't talk about healthcare for kids at all. I just don't think it interests him."  
 

On energy, he talked about how we should wean ourselves off of foreign oil, but he failed to mention how this dependency led us to a deplorable war--or how the increasing costs of oil enrich his friends in the oil industry. For Annette, the concerns are more immediate: "I need the gas to keep my child care center warm enough for the kids, and if it's not warm enough, they'll come in and shut down my facility. But I don't get extra money to pay for the more expensive gas. Already it takes my income and my husband's both to heat the house. I don't know what I'll do if the prices keep going up." 

The president talked about job creation, but he didn't say where the jobs were or whether they'd really support a family. In our discussion, we gave the president lots of credit for mentioning how the rising cost of living hurts working families, but his solution--more tax cuts for the rich--didn't sound promising to ordinary working folks like SEIU Local 32BJ's Raquel Mack, a security guard for Allied Barton Security on K Street. Despite working two jobs, she can't make enough money to pay for her son's child care. And her constant worry over the sorry state of her child's public school in the District was not assuaged by the president's celebration of "leaving no child behind." 

Of course the president reserved over half of the speech to talk about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the future threat of a war in Iran. But we all know that he left out most of that story. "He didn't say anything about how we've been spending our dwindling budget on a war without an end," said Kevin Hills, a janitor for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and member of SEIU Local 32BJ. "I didn't hear him talk about how the American people are being fleeced."  

Indeed, it was a sobering night to be reminded of just where our country has come these past seven years. But in our little watch party, there was a glimmer of hope. "I will tell him this," Kevin said to us all at the end of the night. "The fight starts now. We're going to begin by knocking on doors; talking to our fellow members; and making sure we use all the energy possible to make a real change in our country in 2009." 

Long before the president started talking about a weakening economy, the core of our country's workforce--the engine of our country's prosperity--knew that we were running out of steam. And long before this campaign season began to heat up, these same workers started making plans to regain it. Thanks to working people like Kevin, I know that there is real hope in the future. There is real hope in change. And there is real hope in November 2008. 

Comments

[pianist355]

Thanks too all who commented so far--however I am not finished. Yes I do walk away from the whole mess that is the United States because I can't do anything else about it. Very few people vote in this country---in case you didn't know it--- Canada REQUIRES you to vote--they just don't care who you vote for. The actual law is "Every citizen has the OBLIGATION to vote" that's right there in the immigration application that I just filled out online.
That's fine with me as I have voted in every election since I was 21 (I am now 66 and the voting age was 21 when I started voting).
I will finally be living in a land where people who run for office don't have to jump around and act like fools in order to win. I will be living under parliamentary system which is the way most people in the world do.
lucky them unfortunate us.
you want to stay here and defend what is happening here, good luck and go right ahead. I'll outlive you because I'll have better doctors and politicians who are actually intellligent and can speak in complete sentences.

[VPjimlong]

That may very well be part of whats wrong here. Instead of standing up for what you believe is right, you so easily walk away and sit back somewhere else. So many have given in to the assumption that our government will take care of us; that they can be trusted to do what is right. But without input from those who should matter most, "We The People", they will always assume that what they do is all-right. They know that a large percentage of people don't vote, and that the majority do not get involved. Inaction breeds ignorance. I have relatives in Canada, and one thing I think they posess is a national pride in their devout interest of the direction that their elected officials take them. The grass is always greener, but it still needs to be tended. Will you help to tend it up there, or let someone else do it, then move on to greener pastures?

[rwoodsathome]

I'm confused. I thought this was the land of the free and the home of the brave. Why would a free person want the government to provide daycare, housing, health care, ....? To get these things you have to give up your freedom. You have to provide the government with personal information that is none of their business.

If you want government provided childcare, housing and jobs you are going to have to find a system where the Lords rule over the serfs - and provide them just the minimum to keep them alive.

For me, it's better to be free and have choices - even if those choices are not to my liking.

[Sciguy]

The AMA actually does favor increasing health care coverage in order to provide health care for the uninsured: http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/17712.html I disagree with their proposal, but at least they want to do something about the problem. However, on their list of advocacy issues, they seem to be a bit more concerned about their incomes than with health care - medical liability insurance payments and medicare payment reform are the top 2 issues on their list: http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/8659.html

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Health care is only one of the issues mentioned (no illness left behind). Non-wealthy people are screwed on education (no money for schools = all children left behind), energy costs (oil dependence = gotta have that oil = no vehicle left behind), economics (no living wage = no corporation left behind), and Iraq (no Muslim left behind). Oh, yeah, New Orleans - no city left behind...

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But who cares? Gay folks might get married!

[Cathexis]

Sing it, sister!

[pianist355]

Since this column deals with what the government has or has not done, I feel my post belongs here.
As far as health care goes, the United States has close to the worst health care in the world. The WHO ranks us as number 134 in the world, just above Slovenia.
Canada, on the other hand, is ranked a few countries above us at number 128.
Hillary and other runners have absolutely no interest in giving us the same quality health care as Canadians have.
In order to save my own life (since our government couldn't care less) I have decided to move to Canada, renounce my citizenship here (which I consider totally worthless for many reasons) so I can get all the health benefits that the Canadian government and its citizenry take for granted.
Why won't we ever have a health plan as good? Because the AMA only cares about lining doctors' pockets with as much money as it can squeeze out of us. Hillary and the rest of the candidates will find that out quick enough when our do-nothing government makes an attempt to get it for us.
A final note is necessary here. I favor a Parliamentary system of government because it gets more done for its people. Our idiotic system of Checks and Balances only leads to one result. Total Inertia along with the failure to accomplish anything except feeble excuses.
Comments anyone?