Presidential Visit
So Obama rolled through the area this week. He spoke at the University @ Buffalo and then headed east on the Thruway, in a bus stopping in Rochester and then heading to Syracuse and Binghamton.
I make that trip twice a month.
With a little less fanfare.
And I'm not sure what a trip like that accomplishes.
And it doesn't matter who the Prez is...it just seems a lot of time and money for little return. W was up in Niagara Falls when he was in the chair and I got stuck behind that motorcade.
It seemed to be a tremendous expense.
Can't they just Skype their speech and save some of that cash?
As it happens I was in Rome, NY early in the week and the guy who was traveling along with me started humming the Erie Canal song.
The damn song got stuck in my head for three days.
We were in a fabrication shop where we watched a middle-aged guy working with some huge pieces of steel. The guy was sweating, bleeding and swearing. He was wearing a welding shield and long sleeves in a real hot shop.
I thought about how hard he was working. He had done that sort of work every day for years and years.
At the break we shot the shit a bit and lo and behold one of the things we discussed was how much money it costs to send our kids to college.
"I'm at the top of my ability to make money," he said. "I'm not smart enough to bring in money any other way, but I don't have two nickels to rub together and I'm breaking down. Where do I go once it all falls apart?"
Just that simple statement brought me down.
That was about it.
A long discussion followed as a few of us wondered where it all went wrong.
"A guy like that used to be able to afford everything," I said. "He paid his medical bills. He could send his kids to college, and his wife didn't have to work. Now, none of that works."
Coincidentally the president was discussing the costs of college.
A 265% increase in college costs in the last 25 years.
Have wages gone up that much?
For the guy humping steel?
I think not.
Perhaps it's time to keep the politicians home and save the travel expenses until guys that bust their hump every day can afford to pay their cable bill without having to take a home equity loan.
I make that trip twice a month.
With a little less fanfare.
And I'm not sure what a trip like that accomplishes.
And it doesn't matter who the Prez is...it just seems a lot of time and money for little return. W was up in Niagara Falls when he was in the chair and I got stuck behind that motorcade.
It seemed to be a tremendous expense.
Can't they just Skype their speech and save some of that cash?
As it happens I was in Rome, NY early in the week and the guy who was traveling along with me started humming the Erie Canal song.
The damn song got stuck in my head for three days.
We were in a fabrication shop where we watched a middle-aged guy working with some huge pieces of steel. The guy was sweating, bleeding and swearing. He was wearing a welding shield and long sleeves in a real hot shop.
I thought about how hard he was working. He had done that sort of work every day for years and years.
At the break we shot the shit a bit and lo and behold one of the things we discussed was how much money it costs to send our kids to college.
"I'm at the top of my ability to make money," he said. "I'm not smart enough to bring in money any other way, but I don't have two nickels to rub together and I'm breaking down. Where do I go once it all falls apart?"
Just that simple statement brought me down.
That was about it.
A long discussion followed as a few of us wondered where it all went wrong.
"A guy like that used to be able to afford everything," I said. "He paid his medical bills. He could send his kids to college, and his wife didn't have to work. Now, none of that works."
Coincidentally the president was discussing the costs of college.
A 265% increase in college costs in the last 25 years.
Have wages gone up that much?
For the guy humping steel?
I think not.
Perhaps it's time to keep the politicians home and save the travel expenses until guys that bust their hump every day can afford to pay their cable bill without having to take a home equity loan.
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