I am working on a letter to the editor to send to several papers...

Letter to the Editor

This “Bitter” comment has really rubbed me the wrong way; even to the point where I lie awake in the early hours of a Saturday morning, on my day off. It’s not because Barack Obama said it. He was totally justified. It’s because the media, Hilary, and a few choice citizens choose to blow it out of proportion.

When Toby Keith wrote the song “Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue” post 9/11, the media, the music industry, and the public officially renamed the song “Angry American”. Toby acknowledged it as the Angry American song, DJs acknowledged it, and the general republic repeatedly requested, not “Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue”, but they say “Please play the Angry American song”. Why were we not offended by being called angry? Probably, because we were angry and to some extent we still are.

We’re still bitter too. I’m not proud to say I’m bitter, but none the less I am bitter and it’s a shame that someone such as Hilary would choose to take this word and make it seem less than it is, make it seem insulting when the real insult is her indifference and unwillingness to accept change and be a part of that opportunity.

I’m bitter for a lot of reasons.

When I came back to NC after 4.5 years in TN (I am an Asheville, NC native by birth), my job search led me to some of the top construction outfits in the area. Each turned me away by asking what certifications I possessed. Oddly illegal immigrants can show up day 1 on a job site, with no certifications and find work handed to them. And its not that “illegals” do the work that Americans aren’t willing to do. That’s a copout created by the same people profiting off the illegal workers. It’s that Americans cannot survive monetarily off what “illegals” are being paid.

I’m bitter than my city cares more about accepting money from tourist industry moguls for high rise town homes, hotels, restaurants, etc. (and by giving away public and private land for those uses) than supporting their own citizens by creating jobs. The Gerber site stood empty for years, and much of it still is. Many distribution and manufacturing plants made offers to purchase and build on that property, but our city turned them down because it wasn’t of interest to the tourist industry. Thanks for not creating needed jobs?

I’m bitter that my state doesn’t enforce the laws equally. Bars and gas stations aren’t allowed to have gambling machines on their premises; however, a state run monopoly exists where the main benefactor is NOT the school system, but the education lottery executives and the state themselves. How is that different from what Bobby Medford did?

I’m bitter because my local, state, and federal governments always find loopholes in the system. I’ve never done drugs, never smoked a cigarette, and rarely drink alcohol. Crimes of my lifetime include only three speeding tickets. The government in times of need will open its doors to people with misdemeanor crimes to enter into the military, but because I had open heart surgery over 11 years ago, I can’t join the Coast Guard?

Part of being an illegal alien is, well, being “illegal”. So why does our government say they won’t arrest employers of illegal aliens and illegal aliens, themselves, unless a crime has been committed?

If Latinos are now the majority race in America and Whites are a minority along with Blacks and Asians, among others, will whites now get special benefits like affirmative action?

I’m bitter that there’s no longer a middle class. There’s the poor, there’s the rich, and there’s “the people that were born into money”. Those people took over the middle class. I’m bitter that employers, when they were in our shoes, were automatically given cost of living adjustments to their pay and since they never had to ask and were unaware of this justice, they don’t understand now, as employers, that you can’t pay for rent and a tank of gas on the same dollar from 10 years ago.

When George W Vanderbilt bought property in Asheville, one of his highest esteems was wildlife and forest conservation. He bought property for as far as the eye could see because he didn’t want to see industry, housing and commercialism. He built a small town at the foot of his estate for those who helped build and those who worked on the estate daily. One of his heirs has taken land continuously and built exclusive subdivisions, some that will devalue Biltmore Forest properties. He is newly building a town within a subdivision, parking decks, and a movie complex. And in the paper the ad says “In the heart of Asheville, there exists an artfully drawn oasis, created by the hand of George W Vanderbilt.” When George stops rolling over in his grave, I’ll no longer be bitter about this issue.

We give tax breaks to rich corporate America… Airlines, Oil Companies, Resorts, etc. Yet I have a friend that got audited last year on a mom n pop business he’s yet to break even over.

I’m also bitter that our youth are joining gangs for what reason they say is to gain respect. No one has ever explained to these youngsters that respect and fear are opposites, not similarities.

Recently nothing makes me more bitter than an ad by Hilary Clinton trying to win voters from my state. She starts by talking about healthcare and other issues and says that she has spoken to citizens from all over the state of NC. I’m bitter when people are ignorant of the areas in which they purport to have knowledge. Hilary says she talked to people from all over our state but ends with “from Winston Salem to Fayetteville”. Last I checked, our state was more than a two hour drive from one end to the other.