Regarding the proposed Wall St. bailout, can I tell you how angry this makes me? Things are bad enough for working people, blue or white collar. Our real wages are less than they were in the '70's thanks to years of Republican rule. We need national health care but we're told there is no money for that. There are people working until they die because they can't afford to retire and people who have lost their homes and gone bankrupt due to heath care costs. This is a sad commentary on capitalist civilization and a tragedy for us all. If this bailout is approved we will be living with more crime, more homelessness, and more poverty. The deregulation of electricity and the high cost of home heating oil and gas will mean more deaths this coming winter. I am sick and tired of the private rip-off of public wealth.

Here’s my proposal:
Raise the taxes on unearned income, lower taxes for people who work for their money.
Suspend all pending deregulation (PPL) and reverse all past deregulation.
Fully fund a decent National Health Care Plan immediately.
Fund public transportation and build a bus shelter at every stop. (Did you ever stop to look around Allentown and see people standing in the rain and snow in the industrial parks or even on Hamilton Street because there are no bus shelters? This is ridiculous. How much can they cost?)
Stop the wars. I am sick of seeing young people die for nothing because there are no jobs for them at home.

The American people have always sacrificed for the greater good, but this is the straw that broke the camels back. For years we have been watching the rich get richer while we got poorer. Enough is enough. We should not have to pay because these people danced like madmen around the golden calf destroying the environment in the process. They are crazy-like King Midas they want everything to turn to gold, but you can't eat gold, you can't breathe gold, you can't drink gold. These people gambled and lost. They should wear the asses ears, not us. I don't even buy lottery tickets. Why should I or any other working American have to pay for their greed? The damage done to the people of this country during the Bush Jr., Bush Sr. and Reagan years should be reversed, not compounded and the only way to do it is to make the rich pay their full share.

Whatever happens with the bailout we must continue to protest against bearing the burden. We are ripped off first when we are not paid the full value of our labor. We the have to pay taxes on what we earn. We have no say in where our tax dollars go or who they benefit. We are forced to allow them to be used to kill people all over the world while Americans also die from cancer, starvation, homelessness and the diseases of despair-drug use and gang violence.

The world could be a beautiful place and our tax dollars could be use to repair the environmental and social damage that unregulated capitalism has caused while employing people in every community. The people who are running this country are sucking all life out of it for their own private profit. They have so much money their crisis is that they have nowhere to invest it. Meanwhile we live in the middle of the bank robberies and shootings working like dogs until we die wondering if we’ll have jobs tomorrow. This is wrong and has to stop.

I sent a shortened version of this post to all my elected representatives. We have to wake up, stay outraged and keep the pressure on to get our money back and turn this country around.