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Our Future, Our Priority

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Submitted By surprise1121
Words 3054
Pages 13
Picture this: You get home after breaking your back for the last 10 hours for minimum wage and a miserable boss, your spouse hands you the kids and with a few quick to-does snatches the keys and runs quick out the door for the night shift. You are left staring at the door, as you listen to your loved one get in the car and back out of the driveway. For a moment you worry about them, the dangers of working the graveyard shift, what you would give to have them safe at home next to you right now. A child’s hand grabs yours and pulls you back into focus and you shake off the worry and smile at that beautiful angel tugging at you. You sit down only to find a pile of bills spread out on the couch, you push them aside uncovering the remote and turn on the television. Sitting there with a child on your lap sucking her thumb and the other one snoozing under your arm, after all, it is late; you flip through channels disappointed with your choices. Your stomach growls and you begin to stand up but before you can start for the kitchen a commercial catches your attention. “Start your new life today!” You have seen it many times before but for some reason it hits you differently tonight, “begin classes now…” you stand frozen by the words for a moment, considering the possibilities before it hits you, “It could never happen.” You think to yourself. “We both work so much and we can barely pay the bills as it is; and what about the kids? We can’t afford daycare and definitely not if I cut my hours to go to school.” All the sudden you feel stuck, you look at your children asleep on the couch, you want better for them, better for yourself, but how? Where do you start? This is a picture painted in the hues of poverty, lack of education and despair; a picture painted all too often on the canvas that is our great country. Americans stuck in the grind, not a clue as to how

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