Working Class

A Story by Ricki Peterson

Opening the eyes of sheep.

Our story begins with a man by the name of "Average Joe", however we will just call him "Joe" through the story.

Day one, Joe is born; A day of mixed emotions. Unfortunately, both joy and fear fill Joe's parents' hearts as they celebrate in that small hospital bedroom. "Why fear?" You may be asking yourself this question, and the answer is simple. Joe's parents are poor as poor can be. They both work minimum wage jobs, and Joe's father works two minimum wage jobs because companies won't give them full hours.

Day Thirty-one, Joe is adapting well to living life as a human. His parents however, they are not having as easy of time. They can barely afford to pay for the increasing bills. They figure something has to give, and they apply for government aid. Oh, but according to the government, Joe's parents are making more than they actually need. Even though they sent in the information on the bills and their income.

Fast Forward a bit.

Year One, Joe is enjoying his first birthday with his only his mother, because his father is at work for the entire day. Through the day Joe's mother is getting harassment calls from debit collectors, and financial companies. All of a sudden the lights went out in the house, Joe's mother had forgotten to pay the Electric bill again. She calls Joe's father to have him pay the bill on his way home. Unfortunately, the stress of working two jobs to support a family has worn on Joe's father, and he became an alcoholic. He was found the next morning passed out on the front porch with a beer bottle in hand.

Fast Forward

Year Ten, Joe knows that times are tough, however he has been spared the brunt of it. His father, who is now a dependent alcoholic, spends his time off work either sleeping for being verbally abusive to his wife. Joe, who is afraid of his father, hides in his room while his parents fight. Joe's mother was finally able to get Joe into a lunch program that would allow him to eat lunch for free, which would lighten the load a little on food cost, and assure him at least one meal, five of the seven days of the week.

Fast Forward

Year Sixteen, Joe's father has become physically abusive towards his mother, and has a single part time job. Joe is now forced to work a job he hates after school so that him and his family can live, even if it is a bad life. Just to live he works every day. Joe comes home one night to his father beating on his mother, Joe yells at his father to stop. His father hits Joe with much force, and Joe retaliates by literally throwing his father into the yard and locking the door.

Fast Forward

Year Eighteen, Joe's father is dead. Joe's father (after being thrown out of the house) got into his car and attempted to drive to a "friends" house and was involved in an accident. He was killed on the spot. Joe now works two part time jobs to support him and his mother. Joe's mother recently found that she had a quickly advancing form of brain cancer. She had but 7 months to live.

Fast Forward

Year Nineteen, It has been Six months since Joe's mother was diagnosed with cancer, and it was the day after Joe's birthday. Joe goes into a small hospital room to see his frail mother, pale, and clearly weak in all aspects. He talks with his mother for about two hours, and then it happened. A faint, long beep from the heart beat monitor.

Fast Forward One Month

Year Nineteen, Joe is attending his mother's funeral. A day he was hoping would not come for many more years. Joe stands atop his mothers grave for hours after everyone else has left.

Fast Forward

Year Twenty-Five, Joe is a factory worker. He brings in enough money to keep him alive. He has started using pain killers and drinking to cope with having no family to love or be loved by. He would often think to himself. "How did this happen?" and "Why has this happened?".

Fast Forward

Year Twenty Six, Joe is dead in a fast food restaurant bathroom, overdosed on Heroin.

How could we have prevented this?

How could this have been changed for the better?

Rewind. Day one, Joe is born. His parents and family are overjoyed. They each worked a full time job with benefits at 15 dollars an hour and they are able to keep up with the bills and have taken into account the extra expenses. Since college is free, and funded by state and taxes, Joe's parents are able to pay for them to live, and they are able to go to college online to further their education and make more money to raise Joe and be financially stable. Not only that, but since since they had good health insurance, they were able to catch Joe's mother's cancer early on and treat it.

There is a real problem in America today; Several really. Corporations are sending jobs over-seas to Chinese sweat shops, which takes away jobs from Americans. Corporations then claim that other races are taking jobs. What we call "sheep" eat that up like their lives depend on it. Then there are people who were well off to begin with so they get to focus on "self expression", which then takes focus off real issues. Corporation has a hold on America, and we are allowing them to continue to pay off politicians to create bills to make competition with other businesses illegal.

Please America, open your eyes to what the News feeds you. You may not even know you are a sheep. I sure didn't.