Election: Ask Tough Questions, Demand Real Answers

To the Editor: 
I am writing to express my concern about the cartoon of Donald Trump and the young child from Syria in a Philadelphia paper. The cartoon does not tell the whole story about what is happening to children around the world.
Yes, it is a disgrace that children are victims of war, and yes, it is a shame that government leaders cannot protect children during a war because their main concern is protecting their power. But lest we forget in the United States we are not engaged in a war, yet the number of our children who are starving because their parent is living on less than $2 a day per family member is growing at an alarming rate, the number of families without a male is growing, and the number of poor out of work is reaching staggering numbers.
We read about children who are tortured, burned, shot, stabbed, left alone and without food. I am not talking about a third world country; I am talking about the United States.
Isn’t it time we as a nation say enough is enough and start to do something about the growing number of poor, really poor and the shrinking of the middle class? Where are the leaders, where are the national industry leaders, where are the presidential candidates on these hard-to-face issues? We do not need more of the same; we need bold thinking, bold solutions, and not more handouts or freebies. We need to prioritize real work with a real living wage.
You might ask, why don’t the poor and needy work? The answer is complex, families have fallen apart, drugs are pervasive, schools have been dumbed down and are failing, our leaders are more concerned about their power, Congress is non-functional, and most jobs that pay a living wage require skilled workers, and the poor and needy don’t have the training and/or skills because the system keeps pushing college when so many need technical training.
So what can we do? We need to start by focusing on the upcoming election and start to ask the candidates tough questions and require real answers as to what they propose and how they plan on funding their ideas. Don’t accept the usual political garbage. Until we stand up and hold our elected officials and candidates for public office accountable nothing will change. More empty promises, just vote for me. It is time to stand up for America.