They’re Talking About Us, Folks

There are times when “preaching to the choir” isn’t a bad thing. Take now, for instance, I’m middle class, so are you, so can we talk?
Let’s assume we are going to play God for just a quick minute. We’re going to create a human body. Being a wise creator, we know there has to be something to support the frame, something else to make it move, and still something else to keep it all together. You realize that unless this human is going to resemble a jellyfish, it’s going to need something on which to hang all the other “stuff” to give it shape. To accomplish that, you design bones. Later you make them all come together and someone calls it a skeleton.
Once that is in place, the rest can hang where it will, but without that core, the body is a blob.
OK, we’re through playing creator. Let us return to reality and this chat about the middle class.
Between the middle class and our “low class” brethren, we have built much of this nation. We’ve been largely overworked and underpaid, or so we believe, but we are the ones who did the dirty work. We are the ones who, by and large, elect the bigwigs, and we return home at night, tired from working, but thankful for a job.
All of a sudden, it seems, after years of being the scourge of those bigwigs, bearing the brunt of taxes to support everything from soup to nuts, we are finally casting off our Rodney Dangerfield status and getting a little respect. Don’t let it go to your head, it’s only temporary, but then, a little love is better than no love.
Take Gov. Chris Christie’s State of the State Address Jan. 13 as s shining example. He mentioned us six times to a packed house that usually only knows us when it’s time to return to the gold-domed capitol.
“In a year with plenty of politics from some overly partisan corners of this chamber, New Jersey has made progress — growing our economy, creating jobs, reforming our criminal justice system, and improving some of our most challenged cities — like Camden. We’ve done it because a majority of us care more about our state and New Jersey’s middle class than we do about scoring partisan political points,” he said.
“We fixed it (the state budget) by making hard choices; the way middle class families in New Jersey have to do it in their homes,” he continued.
“This administration believes today — and has always believed — that New Jersey and America, will be a better place for middle class families by shrinking the size of government.” Did I hear an “amen!” from the back pew?
“We will not win the fight to keep and create good paying jobs for our middle class families in New Jersey unless we lower taxes. Yet I cannot make this a reality alone. It is you, and only you, the State Legislature, who can lower taxes further and make New Jersey more prosperous for our middle class families and their children.” Let’s hear it again!
“And we know that the policies of lower taxes and less intrusive government have created higher economic growth and better paying jobs for our middle class.” I don’t know where he’s talking about, but he mentioned us again.
From out of nowhere came an email Jan. 20 from something called “New Start New Jersey.” It is a “policy and advocacy organization founded by Philip Murphy and his wife, Tammy, to identify, evaluate, and advocated initiatives to grow New Jersey’s economy and enhance its residents’ quality of life.”
It began, “An overwhelming majority of New Jersey residents agree that rebuilding New Jersey’s middle class is essential to the state’s overall prosperity, and support greater investment in infrastructure, education, and workforce development, according to a survey commissioned by New Start New Jersey and conducted by the Benenson Strategy Group.”
Basically, the release made me realize that someone out there has seen the light, and knows without a middle class the Garden State is on a downward spiral.
Forget politics for a minute, and let’s go back to that skeleton we talked about earlier.
Let us consider that scouting, for boys and girls, was once a very viable resource for young people. It still is today, but who in Cape May County remembers when there were good-sized troops in Cape May, Sea Isle City, Seven Mile Beach, and elsewhere? Where are they today? Who historically led the troops? Who were the den leaders? Who were the ones who took the lads and lasses camping? It was largely folks from the middle class.
Look at Wildwood’s Pacific Avenue, once a thriving shopping mecca. Who made it so? Middle class merchants, that’s who.
In Court House, Mechanic Street was once the heart of the community with a variety of stores, all operated by middle class entrepreneurs. Today there a still a few, not what it once was.
Middle-class communities are those “B-grade” places were many call home. The houses might need a new roof or a coat of paint, but the folks living there are hard-working, pay their bills and taxes on time, and hope for a big income tax refund to buy a new washing machine or stove.
They drink a beer or two on the weekend and hope to save enough to go on vacation next year. They watch the TV news and shake their heads. They see a nation many of them fought for going down the drain because of vanishing morals and laws and regulations that make no sense.
This is the middle class as it is. It wants a better tomorrow for its children, but can’t see it happening, not the way things are going right now. The strength of the middle class lies in its numbers. Once it shakes off complacency, maybe if a new leader arises from the ashes of this civilization, I can see a rebirth of hope for tomorrow.
It was great the governor recognized us, if only for a fleeting moment. Maybe there is hope.