Letters

Burque Needs to Feel the Bern

Dear Alibi,

Albuquerque, New Mexico and our entire nation have been presented with a grand opportunity. There is a once in a lifetime presidential candidate who is honest, has integrity and is motivated out of public service to our people. It is frankly amazing how in touch Senator Bernie Sanders is with the needs of our people: "Today, we stand here and say loudly and clearly that enough is enough. This great nation and its government belong to all of the people and not to a handful of billionaires, their super PACs and their lobbyists. ... Today, we live in the wealthiest nation in the history of the world but that reality means very little for most of us because almost all of that wealth is owned and controlled by a tiny handful of individuals. In America we now have more income and wealth inequality than any other major country on Earth, and the gap between the very rich and everyone else is wider than at any time since the 1920s. This issue of wealth and income inequality is the great moral issue of our time, it is the great economic issue of our time and it is the great political issue of our time. Let me be very clear. There is something profoundly wrong when the top one-tenth of 1 percent owns almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent and when 99 percent of all new income goes to the top 1 percent. There is something profoundly wrong when, in recent years, we have seen a proliferation of millionaires and billionaires at the same time as millions of Americans work longer hours for lower wages and we have the highest rate of childhood poverty of any major country on Earth. There is something profoundly wrong when one family owns more wealth than the bottom 130 million Americans. This grotesque level of inequality is immoral. It is bad economics. It is unsustainable. This type of rigged economy is not what America is supposed to be about. This has got to change and as your President, together we will change this." Albuquerque don't let this grandest of opportunities to elect an honest leader pass us by. As one of the poorest states in the union, we can't afford to sit by passively and remain downtrodden. It is time to bring progress back to our people.