What’s happening?My life matters, too

I don’t know about you, but I’m tired. I’ve worked 60-80 hours a week, sometimes more since I was 15, and I’m 63 now.

I pay 15 percent Social Security tax on everything I earn, and I also pay state and federal income tax.

I don’t live in a drug-hazed world, and I can’t get disability for being cynical. I don’t jump out of the car after a 50 mile high-speed chase and shoot at the cops. I didn’t have children that I couldn’t afford to raise. I’m honorably discharged from the Air Force after serving stateside for $230 a month during the Vietnam War.

I used the GI bill to work my way through junior college so I didn’t have to work for minimum wage all my life. I had a Jimmy Carter 21 percent home loan. Remember those?

Nobody helped us get anything. If you couldn’t afford a house, nobody cared.

It’s people like me who built America not the welfare people. I think our lives matter, too. I stand in line behind perfectly healthy people who are getting free groceries (EBT card) and I wonder to myself, how did this happen? My life matters, too.

This story was originally published November 19, 2015 at 9:07 AM with the headline "What’s happening?My life matters, too."