by Sandra VanderVen
There are fundamental beliefs that I hold true. I believe that as people age, they should have peace knowing that if they have to stop working, they won’t starve.
I believe that there should be special programs in place to help give everyone a leg up, no matter what is holding us back. A free, high quality education should be available to everyone.
But the United States doesn’t care for people who have less the way it used to.
Mental health facilities have been dismantled. People with real problems end up living on the street.
Rich people have used their influence to get the government to look the other way when they did something that wasn’t right.
Where I live in Seattle, Wash., people work hard but still struggle to get by. The future of the kids here depends very much now on who they were born to, because the programs that once leveled the playing field are being removed one by one.
Rep. Dave Reichert was elected in Washington’s 8th congressional district to speak for us in Washington, DC. His job is to see to it that our idea of what this country stands for is upheld.
Unfortunately, he has his own idea of what to stand for. He believes that rich people and corporations should have more and the rest of us should have less. This belief isn’t harmless. It is ruining our country.
I don’t have any intention of leaving, so I’ve decided to try to make things the way I think they should be. I found some groups of people who have decided it isn’t enough to watch from the sidelines, and I now spend some of my spare time helping persuade our elected leaders to stand for our values.
That is why I am a volunteer organizer.
I now feel like I can make a difference when someone like Dave Reichert demonstrates that he prioritizes the rich over the middle class. For the future of our kids, we go out and tell him what we think.
It all comes together because individuals decided it was time to do something, and when we all do a little bit, we have a loud voice.
I hope you think about adding your voice to ours. We need you.