• David Tewes •
• Originally published January 6, 2009 at 12:07 a.m., updated January 6, 2009 at 12:07 a.m.

Editor, the Advocate:

This is in response to the "Speak Out" by Clarence of Port O'Conner and his view that "(Homeless people) don't want to pay bills and take care of a home (Dec. 20, Advocate)."

Sir, I really wish that I was as enlightened and as worldly as you!

I spent 32 years working for a major refrigerator factory in Michigan and owned a home that I loved. After years of record profits and yearly production records, the plant closed and moved to Mexico to make even larger profits.

I looked for a job for 15 months. After 4,000 jobs were lost, in a town of 8,000, a three-county unemployment rate of more than 15 percent and a state unemployment rate of more than 11 percent resulted; a job is hard to find, even with lots of skills and education on your resume.

I sold my home from under foreclosure for only what I owed on it - complete loss of equity. I gave my household goods and such to my children in Michigan, loaded a carpet bag with clothes and bussed to Texas. I am basically homeless!

On the bus, I had the privilege of meeting others, bussing from one city to another, looking for work. I know and met a good number of homeless people. Some live with relatives, some in cars. Some live in bus or train stations. These people aren't homeless because they want to be. Most are displaced workers. The homeless don't always look like bums or even Ol' Tom Joad!

In Texas, I make 60 percent of what I made in Michigan and have take-home pay of 40 percent of what I used to make. I live with my oldest daughter and her family. My ex-wife became homeless in Arizona, and I now have my youngest two children living with us.

With the cost of living and my wages, I can't save enough money to rent or buy a place to live.

The bailout by our government, to help the financial institutions (large contributors of the Republican Party) didn't prime the economy and get money flowing; they just seem to hoard it and pay large incentives to big shots.

The auto "bailout" is the first thing that any member of the Bush family, in public office, has done for workers in the United States. That is to try and save jobs, and stop some home foreclosures and some people from becoming homeless. Ten percent of the jobs in the United States are tied to the auto industry. The United Auto Workers union has given concessions every other year for over the last seven years.

I am a vet who was not only betrayed by the greed of a corporation, but by our government with agreements like NAFTA.

Trade should be fair and equitable for both countries; not free trade that only truly benefits rich, multi-national corporations and their greed - the same way the World Trade Organization does.

Gary J. White

Louise

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