By: Cheryl Tully Stoll
Former Texas Senator Phil Gramm finally crossed all lines of humanity and reality when he accused people suffering from our nation’s economic troubles of “whining” about their plight. While claiming that the nation’s economic problems are not reality but are just in our minds, John McCain’s previously reported choice for Secretary of the Treasury, a man McCain has said, “knows more about economics” than anyone else in the country, showed utter ignorance and insensitivity with the statement he made to the Washington Times.
Mr. Gramm, we’re not economic hypochondriacs when we tell you that it costs $80.00 to fill the same gas tank that $37.00 used to fill.
The 438,000 Americans who lost their jobs in the first six months of this year are not imagining their unemployment, they’re enduring it.
The mother feeling guilty because she can not afford shoes to replace the ones her two year-old has out grown and is watching his gait change as a result isn’t imagining the blisters on her son’s feet.
The eight year-old who doesn’t get a school lunch or breakfast in the summer who says she’s hungry because there is little food in her home because her parents need their cash to fuel their car to get back-and-forth from their three jobs, isn’t whining, she’s crying out for help.
When Meals on Wheels Directors from all over the country articulate the multiple financial problems cause by the economy that are threatening the program that provide critical life-services to elderly shut-ins, that’s not whining Mr.Gramm, it’s cries for help.
When mothers tell you they find themselves forced to buy more unhealthy processed foods for their developing toddlers because fresh fruit and vegetables are too expensive, they’re not whining, they’re crying out for help.
And their friends and neighbors are not whining when they tell you they have had to cut their children’s milk intake in half because the $5.00 a gallon price is more than they can afford. Those are anguished cries for help.
The families who have never missed a rent payment and are being evicted and tossed out on to the street without refund of their last month’s rent or security deposit because their landlord was foreclosed on, and are now unable to secure other housing without those deposits are not whining, they’re crying out for help.
When senior citizens report that they are being forced to choose between filling their prescriptions, gas tanks or grocery baskets, they’re not whining, they’re crying out for help.
Mr. Gramm are your ears so callused from years of privilege in the US Senate with a generous pension and the best health plan in the world that you can’t hear these cries? When sincere and humbling pleas for help are interpreted as whining there can only be two reasons and both are medical; one a hearing problem the other would be not having a heart. Which is your problem Mr. Gramm? I promise if you tell me, I won’t accuse you of whining.
Copyright Ó 2008 by Cheryl Tully Stoll
