Letter To Mitt Romney

Dear Mitt,

I heard your comments about the president: 

We have a president who I think is a nice guy, but he spent too much time at Harvard, perhaps," said Romney."

"Or maybe not enough time working in the real world.

That you spent one more year at Harvard than he did might lead me to question what that says about you.

But that's not where I think we have a bit of a quarrel.

You seem to think that you worked in the real world.

You didn't.  You never have.

Finance is not the real world.

Let me tell you about working in the real world.

Working in the real world might mean flipping burgers at a fast-food joint.

Working in the real world might mean that your third job, with no union protections, is changing the bed linens in the hotels that the wealthy like you frequent.

Working in the real world is teaching in an underfunded inner city school, or an impoverished Native American reservation.

Working in the real world is going underground day after day to dig coal while the man running your company tells the supervisors to falsify the safety report.

Working in the real world is driving a long-haul truck not knowing when one is going encounter an unmaintained stretch of highway or perhaps even a bridge that will collapse as you drive across it.

Working in the real world means if you are lucky you have health insurance, but before the Affordable Care Act you could not change jobs because your child or your spouse or even yourself has a medical condition, which would now be considered "pre-existing."

Working in the real world means having to take any job you can get to try to pay the mortgage to keep your family housed.

In the real world we don't spend more than $20,000 for a lobbyist so that we can have a car elevator -  many in the real world don't even have a car.

In the real world we don't have dozens of overseas bank accounts, and investments in Iran oil.

In the real world we do not have a wife who says that her husband doesn't even know how many dressage horses she has.

In the real world, we might attend a Nascar race, more likely we watch part of one on a television, perhaps in a shot and beer bar with our friends, who are not owners of Nascar teams.

In the real world, we don't get to "retire" and still get paid from the profits of a company we left in a fashion classified as "carried interest" and taxed at 15% for ten years after we are no longer working - we work for every dime we get, and we pay payroll taxes and income taxes on it.

Mitt, I never went to Harvard, although my spouse did.  She's proud of the time she spent at the august university.  I am surprised that you seem embarrassed by your time there.  In the real world people are proud to be the first in their families to attend such elite institutions, as I am sure your father George was proud of you.

In the real world, we do not demean those who better themselves, through hard work or through education. 

In the real world we cannot take 8 years of our lives to run for President, knowing we never have to worry about paying for our next meal or our auto insurance if we have a car.  Heck, in the real world most of us cannot afford to run for public office.

Mitt, do yourself a favor.

Stop pretending that you know what the real world of Americans is.   You don't.

Let me tell you one thing about the real world.

We can spot a phony.

You sure you want to pretend you know what the real world is?

Have a nice holiday weekend.

From someone who has
- served in the US Marines
- unloaded trucks
- waited on tables
- worked a 2nd job as a bouncer
- sold books and cookware door to door
- worked with computers
- managed people
- consulted
- and, yes, taught public school students, whose parents most definitely work in the real world, if they are lucky enough to have a job.

Yours

an American who works in the real world

Originally posted to teacherken on Fri Apr 06, 2012

 

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