As we move forward to the general election, the issues that have plagued our primary election should not be about whether a candidate embellishes a fact concerning some politician’s trip taken years ago, nor should it be about Rev. Wright’s personal opinions from a highly politicized press conference. What we should be focused on are the critical issues that could have a domino affect on us all, the issues of our own domestic survival.

Will we, or can we, survive the economic gap and the absolute disregard for our aging and elderly population that are plaguing our country? Make no mistake, with soaring gasoline prices nearing five dollars a gallon, skyrocketing food costs, job attrition, the mortgage crisis, elevated healthcare costs, aging baby boomers, aging parents, and social security, we are in trouble. Should I continue, or do you get the picture? If we don’t survive these seemingly insurmountable issues plaguing our home front, the war in Iraq won’t matter. Talk about a “War on Terror!”

When we come together at social gatherings, whether with friends or around the dinner table with family members, our discussions are not about a mistaken detail in Senator Clinton’s trip, or McCain’s U. S. citizenship status, or even about Senator Obama’s relationship with his former pastor. Our foremost thoughts and conversations are focused on whether we can afford the groceries in our cart and still buy gas to get back and forth to work the next day; we worry about doing without blood pressure or diabetes medications until next payday. For military families, there are additional concerns: When will this war end, and how soon will our loved ones be coming home? These are the issues of survival that we, the voters, want the answers to.

The candidates seem to feel that we are important enough to spend millions of dollars to acquire our support. They continuously say that our opinions are needed and welcome, but do they really listen? Just once, I wish they would, because we are living in an economically stressful time. It’s about time that someone lends and ear to the little folks. I have lived at the bottom of America’s economic stratum all my life, and have never felt the triumph of economic achievement.

I am a very low-income single black woman on disability. When I listen to the candidates spouting promises, all I want to hear is what is to be done about food and gas prices, health care, and what will be the outcome of the war in Iraq. I know that we must hear about, although I don’t want to, the rise in oil prices, signifying that the fat cats are getting fatter. From where I sit, it looks as if the poor are being weeded right out of life. No one wants to hear that we are in a recession or depression, but the truth is the truth, and the truth is that we can’t take much more.

O.S. Amber

O.S. Amber is the author of the romantic novel “Michael Kates.” She lives in Hendersonville.

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