"Are We Any Better Off Now?"

Dear Mom and Dad:

Been meaning to write for awhile but things have been real hectic. As a result, maybe you should hold off coming down. I think you'll understand better after you read my letter.

I will only touch on some of the highlights!

I know you haven't been here in quite some time but people are really dissatisfied with the government and what has been happening down here.
There have been pickets on the street. Imagine... Certainly, not like the days with Clinton.
I'm sure you'll remember all those good days we had!

A lot of what we are going through today has to do with anti-terrorist policy. The government is insistent about finding a terrorist under every rock; meanwhile everything else has been allowed to go to Hell (I know you don't like me using such language but the truth is the truth!)...
Mom, the park is falling apart; folks are going on relief all over the place; people are lining up for food packages. It's like a third world country!

In their paranoia, the government has arrested a few of my friends and shipped them off somewhere to be "interrogated." What does that mean? Torture? In short, we are finding ourselves with a big gap in our freedoms. What's more, if the government decides you're one of the bad guys, you don't even get to see your lawyer. Sounds like the gulag, right ma?

Also, we recently learned the government can listen in to our conversations without a court order even though that's against the law. It seems that our royal monarch is above the law when it comes to doing whatever he feels like doing...

The trouble is that the government can charge you with being a traitor if you make any remarks that run counter to the government's campaign that everything is dandy in River City... There is no more habeas corpus and they are talking about quarantine which sounds like a synonym for isolation for anybody who decides to exercise his or her democratic rights!

What amazes me that his own dad says that the King sleeps like a baby! That after sending a 140,000 men and women to serve in a War based on a false premise. It seems that the aphorism here is that if you are caught doing something wrong, you intensify it and gain credibility. Nobody bothers to ask about exacerbating a situation that is already dishonest!. It boggles the mind!

Mark has been sent on his second tour in one year. They have complained of a lack of proper armor protection. A report stated that more than 300 GI's would be alive today if they were appropriately outfitted. And still the Army has done nothing about it except talk it to death. What's more, Mark tells us that the Iraqi's have come to hate us for our indiscriminate slaughter.... SMart bombs are only as smart as the people who target them.

To make matters worse, I lost my job. The boss told me that I was overqualified so they are sending it along with most of the other tech jobs to India where they can get it done for a quarter of the cost!.... So we will all be stuck shopping at Wal-Mart where all the products come from China made by companies that stole all of our jobs. A sublime irony!

Jen's school has really gone down hill, too, mom. They claim they have no money after doing all of that required government testing with the "No child left behind" program that doesn't work.
So, not only are the kids failing, they don't learn anything!.... Figure that one out!

There are jobs around but they are minimum wage, part time and I am competing with immigrant workers. I never thought it would come to this, mom and dad. With prices for heating oil going through the roof, we have cut down most of the timber around the trailer anyway in order to keep warm. Now, we have to decide whether to stay warm or eat!
It's come to that...

With no job that I can afford to take, the down hill situation in the schools, the pollution of our land caused by the local coal miners, we're thinking of packing it in and heading home.
Surprise! Warm up the upstairs rooms, ma. We can't afford to live in America anymore.

Love

Maggie, Miles and the kids...