Response to the Bitterness Battle

I live in a community of 60,000 people in Montana. Many people here have no faith that government will help them: They’ve given that hope up long ago. Many will vote Republican purely because they have no faith that government will even lift a finger to address their issues. Many feel they would do better on their own if they could just fend for themselves. They’ve felt pushed down far too long to even think of “the audacity of hope.” Many can only look to outlets other than positive political or social expression as a means of identity or self-expression.

Here is what I often sense around me as I walk the streets of Great Falls Montana. To say people are not bitter or discouraged is to be truly out of touch!

I sense bitterness and discouragement around me here when I walk into a depressed downtown area where there are few cars driving through in the evening or on weekends when the streets are left to lonely pedestrians who have no public transportation and apparently few places to go where they can find welcome.

I sense bitterness and discouragement at the downtown grocery store that will close soon because it was bought by a bigger corporation that wants to sell out it even though it makes money. People in this downtown area will no longer have a place to shop and little option for finding food anywhere accessible to them.

I sense bitterness and discouragement in the people shopping here who have barely enough money to buy the food they need.

I sense bitterness and discouragement in folks who have only a small place to live and the rent is too high for them to afford and getting higher.

I sense bitterness and discouragement for folks in the midst of an economy that has so few job opportunities that most people just needn’t look anymore.

I sense bitterness and discouragement in a large Native American community here with little opportunity for employment or better housing.

I sense bitterness and discouragement in young people with no sense of future, for whom drugs and gang crime often seem the only options.

I sense bitterness and discouragement from those confined in overcrowded prisons for no good cause and from those released on felony charges with their civil rights reduced for life - their ability to compete for work, housing and healthcare impacted to the point that success on the outside seems impossible.

I sense overwhelming discouragement in those too ill or too old to work who have little or no opportunity to find further meaning in their lives and who have no support for health needs or worthwhile living arrangements. In so many terrible little ways, our society expresses little or no value for those who cannot work.

It is high time this local government, this state government and, most importantly, our national government became aware and responsive of the great need in our country that each citizen have equal opportunity and assistance toward a goal of living a good and fulfilling life within a welcoming and accepting community. This nation must take Barack Obama’s words to heart if it is to truly become the free society it was intended to be.