About The Working Class Warzone

My name is Rick Bartolotta; I grew up in a working class family in South Buffalo, NY. As a child I watched both my parents work very hard to provide for me and my two sisters. My father was a garbage man, my mother was an administrative worker at City Hall, they didn’t make much money, but the family was never left wanting. Our conversations at the dinner table often were about things going on in Buffalo; we talked about everything sports, history, politics, religion, school and work. I learned a lot at the table, I learned about life, who I was and where I came from. From my great-grandfathers working on the railroads as immigrants to my grandfathers also working as laborers in some form or another, my family always had something in common. They were all Union. My parents are no different; both are members of AFSCME here in Buffalo. I am proud to say I am following in their footsteps as well. For the last two years I have been a proud card carrying member of AFSCME Local 650. As a union member the perception is I am privileged, but I am your typical working class guy; I make fewer than 40k a year, pay for my health insurance and also into my pension. I am a hard worker that shows up on time and do my job. I know in this economic climate I am lucky to have a job, let alone health insurance and a living wage. I don’t have much to my name, but what I do have I worked hard to get. I, like most Americans am just trying to get through my life as best I can until I can retire and live out the rest of my days without worrying.

Now I don’t consider myself a liberal, I am not a socialist or a communist. I am not a conservative, a tea partier, a neo-con or a fascist. I am just a realist, I am a registered Democrat, but I don’t always vote along party lines. I am not anti-gay, anti-gun or anti-abortion. I am really just an average person with my own beliefs. I don’t think I am any better than anyone else. I just try to live my life as best as I can. I don’t pretend to be religious, but I won’t condemn those who are. I do believe there is a God out there, but I don’t feel it’s my job to tell people who it is or what it wants from us. I also believe that women and men are equal; there should be no disparity between genders. I was raised to just be a good person and taught that if I just treated people with respect they would respect me back.

I consider myself Patriotic, but I am not afraid to criticize my country when I feel things are going wrong. This is something a true Patriot will do. I am a very outspoken individual, the opinions I have I do express and I am loud when I do it. This is why I have created this blog. I have a voice and I need to use it. For those who follow me on Twitter or are my friends on Facebook, you had to see this coming. With everything going on in the United States right now and the battle lines being drawn against the middle class. I felt I had to join the battle the best way I know how. People are trying to pit working class people against one another. They are drawing a picture showing a couple of boats one sinking and one with Union Workers floating safely. What should be being drawn is a picture of The Titanic with every middle class American aboard and a beautiful yacht with a few citizens sailing by refusing to toss out a raft.

I am here for one reason, to inform you about what is going on. To help open your eyes, so you can learn that we together we can make our own raft. The pundits are right, there is a War going on, but it isn’t between the middle class, but instead it’s on them. There is 300 MILLION of us out there everyday busting our backs and splitting half of the wealth in our country. While 400 people split the other 50% of it. It’s no longer time for us to sit back, say it’s not right and do nothing about it. It’s time for us to use our voices and take control of a country that was once ours. The disparity is too much anymore. The jobs are disappearing and people are living in fear of losing what little they have left. Well the truth is if that is the attitude you choose to have than you already lost. I don’t want to see the middle class lose this war, Union or Non- Union, Private or Public Sector; we are in this battle together. We must unite and let our elected officials at every level know that we are not going anywhere. That the power is in the numbers and that the middle class is the power.

I am going to be actively writing this blog a few times a week. I am going to keep you posted on the injustices going on against you in this country. It’s absolutely criminal what is happening here in the United States and it’s time that we unite to raise our voices, if not we will be looking at a Great Depression all over again.