America is addicted to HELP

        America is addicted to HELP. When the age of Gordon Gekko types made it to the mountaintop, huge profits and monstrous salary takes were the point of origin of the decline of the wage earner's future plans. Conservative GOP members mostly right wing conservatives still hold that era sacred, even though the voting majority is in the wage earner category. Elections are about reactions, and reactions mean something good or bad has happened. The bad is minimum wage is not on the same bus as corporate profits. The good is voters have finally figured out the pillager schemes, and realize that their safety nets created in the 1930's are outdated and underfunded due to massive layoffs and industrial revolution melt down. 
       Housing foreclosures are at record levels and bailed out banks aren't filling the economic gaps absorbed by the mortgagees. People are sleeping in their cars and living with grandma, again. American's addiction to HELP is a despondent cry for relief. The daily burdens of food, clothing, and a roof over their heads are not guaranteed by today's economy any more. 
      The blame game in Congress is not the answer, gridlock is a pox on both Houses. 
The 2014 election will have to create a supermajority of Democrats in all three branches so at least something will get passed. So, if you are a wage earner and want some warranty, and you vote for right wing conservatives, you only pull your own rope on the guillotine. 
     

Letter to Senator Robert C. Byrd 2005

                         City of Weston                       

102 W. Second Street

Weston, WV 26452

(304) 269-6141 – Fax: (304) 269-7842

Jon J. Tucci, Mayor

Vicki McCall, Interim City Manager                                                                                        City Council

Rebecca Pickens, City Clerk

Roger D. Clem, Jr., Chief of Police                                                                                         Richard (Dick) John, Ward I

Michael S. Young, Fire Chief                                                                                                  Lou Ella Clem, Ward II

Robert A. (Bob) Atchison, Street Commissioner                                                                       Betty Jo Brooks, Ward III

Tracey Weber III, Special Counsel                                                                                           Charles Hathaway, Ward IV

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June 1, 2005

The Honorable Senator Robert C. Byrd

311 Hart Building

Washington, D. C. 20510

Dear Senator Byrd:

          It is with great pleasure and pride that I can communicate with you by this letter on this fine sunny afternoon. I am sitting at my desk here at City Hall and looking out the window at the “Grand Ole Dame”; (Old Weston State Hospital) and reflect on my youth some fifty years ago when the community had a circle of strength around the grounds of the Hospital. When some eight hundred employees and over two thousand patients, nee’ clients, walked and hustled about the majestic and well groomed gardens and flowers that graced the properties surrounding her. There were large trucks delivering supplies and people stopping to look at the largest hand cut stone building in North America.  

The French novelist Anatole France, who died in 1924, said “All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another”. When I read this I became perplexed over the condition our City has fallen into my dear Senator. I want to reach up and grab the clouds and wash away the years of neglect and abuse of our streets and bridges. I pray for answers as our town deteriorates right in front of my own eyes. Our primary roadway (U.S. Rt. 19), is being bludgeoned by the mighty West Fork of the Monongahela river and shall soon fall into the waters in an area we call the narrows; ¼ mile south of main street.

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Our school buses carrying our beloved school children must travel this primary route everyday, and I know in my heart that there will be a disastrous accident there some day. You can view the substrata from across the river and see where the river is cutting out a large hole underneath the roadway. The West Second street bridge and the Fourth street bridge are losing there concrete abutments to the waters of the West Fork also. I pray for relief everyday that we don’t lose people in passenger cars crossing these bridges.

          The Almighty gave me a second chance in my re-election to solve these problems, but, I find no relief in prayer. Elizabeth Barrett Browning, the English Poet once wrote, “God’s gifts put man’s best dreams to shame.” I read this passage over and over again and find that I must solve these problems and perform my duty as the people have elected me to do. But, I need help, and I know no other person on this earth that can help other than you, Senator. I am not ashamed to grovel or plea for your guidance and strength and will continue to admire you and your wealth of knowledge. I will fight that battle everyday to assure our people that we can have better schools, roads and bridges, better sanitary conditions and better jobs. In fact, we must demand it, and not take it for granted. As in the Preamble of the Constitution we must “promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity…”

          Please come and visit our City in need Senator and I will show you what I have tried to portray to you. With God’s grace and blessings I beseech you.

Sincerely,

Mayor Jon J. Tucci