Bye President Reagan

Thanks President Reagan. I'm a republican because of Mr. President Reagan. I was in college and I lost faith in the political system. President Carter was telling me that I was living too high on the hog. Yes, owning two pairs of jeans was a bit excessive. I guess I could have lived without the one dress I owned. I did own two pairs of brown pants that I bought when I worked at Arby's. I lived too high on the hog. I worked the grease pits of hell to put myself through college. I am a short order cook, a fry chef, a pusher of potato cakes. I worked as many hours as they could give me. I opened. I closed. I smelled like roast beef and grease. I was on financial aid but I paid every loan back. I did workstudy. I was a janitor. I was a parking lot attendant. The parking office took pity on me and I ended up processing the tickets.

My senior year they cut my financial aid. Yup, living too high on the hog. Food isn't really a necessity. I lived on mac and chess, anything that was 10 for a dollar. I was paid on the first of the month. After I paid the rent, I bought silly things like food and soap. I did have my standards and one of them was being clean. I could survive being hungry but being dirty was not an option.

For some reason, people think that Republicans are rich and have no idea how real people live.

I lost hope in the system we call the government. We had hostages. We had a President that kept telling me that I was living too high on the hog.

I didn't want the government to take care of me. I wanted it to leave me alone. I kept my end of the bargain up for financial aid. I kept my grades up, I took 18 hours of classes and I did workstudy. My senior year looked like this. Work, classes, study, work, study, and pass out. Sometimes I did manage to work in go crazy.

I did this to better myself. Yup. I could have decided to have two kids, different fathers. With my last name, it's expected of me.

I graduated. I find my first full-time job and a go-for then a photocopy clerk at a law firm. The biggest shock of my lifetime was I gave one third of my check to taxes and I was two standard deviations above the poverty level. People have had the nerve to tell me that I don't care for the poor. I was the poor but I had a bank account. My mama taught me well. If you don't want to feel poor open up a bank account even if you can only deposit 5 dollars a week.

At first I thought President Reagan was just another crackpot: lower my taxes, end the cold war, and make America a nice and safe place to live. I liked what he had to say but why should I believe him? He's a cowboy, actor, and he just reads lines.

I stared dating jk. He was a political junkie even then. He wasn't a Republican. We started listening to President Reagan and we liked what he had to say. jk painted houses for a living. He started hanging wallpaper also. Rich Republicans, that's jk and Riza. Living too high on the hog. Pinch those pennies. Tighten that belt. Pay your share of the taxes. Don't you care about the poor?

Climbing up the economic ladder was thanks to President Reagan. We thought they were pep rallies. I can do it, you can do it. You don't have to give all your hard earned money to taxes (the people one standard deviation below us). You don't have to do without. Enjoy the fruits of your labor.

We enjoyed the fruits of our labor. We sold them on Amazon.

Thank you, President Reagan. Here's one for the Gipper. Thanks for showing us the way.

Posted by Riza Rivera at June 12, 2004 04:31 PM