June 17, 2011 08:53 PM UTC

Mitt Romney Feels Your Pain

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• by: nancycronk

Having grown up a few miles outside of Detroit, I know a lot of people who have been hard hit by the recession. People who lost their jobs when their work was sent overseas. People who grew up believing if you work hard, you’ll be able to get a job. People who have advanced degrees, but still cannot find work, because there are still too few jobs to be had.

People who re-use nails when fixing their houses, so they can save a few cents the next time. People whose kids eat a lot of ramen noodles and macaroni and cheese because that’s all they can afford — when they can afford it. People who live paycheck to paycheck, surviving only by the grace of their neighbors and friends at times, who loan them money for the “extras” –extras like first-time rent deposits, school clothes, their kids senior pictures, or a new lawn mower. People who clip coupons, people who extend their meatloaf with extra cracker crumbs, people who were on unemployment so long, they no longer qualify.

People like my youngest brother who has a wife and two small kids, and is constantly on the verge of losing his house. My brother is not in the auto industry, but because everything in Michigan is dependent on the auto industry or related manufacturing, his business in home improvement is affected, as well. Having already sold the family car, he and his wife share my Dad’s old truck — a vehicle that is not at all reliable. His weekly prayer is that he and his wife and the babies never get stuck on the snowy northern rural roads for too long if it breaks down.

I worry a lot about my brother and the rest of my family and friends in Michigan — those who live in the once-great-but-now-crumbling-city, and those who live outside of it. I worry that most of them are upside down on their mortgages, and the schools their children go to now have up to 70 children in each classroom (the City of Detroit recently closed half of all of the schools). I worry for my mother who lives in a house that is too big for her to maintain and pay taxes on, but from which she can never leave because a smaller home would cost her even more.

Then there’s Mitt Romney, a guy with a neatly pressed, expensive shirt with the sleeves rolled up — a guy who probably never dug a hole in his life — who goes on television and says “I’m also unemployed”.  Mitt Romney, son of the former Governor of Michigan, a man who owns several houses in several states, and is “worth” two hundred million dollars. Mitt Romney feels your pain, Michigan… and Florida… and Pennsylvania… and California. Really. He does.

Remember when you vote, Mitt Romney needs a job. Can you spare some of your change for the Mitt?