Elizabeth Webb, news analyst and writer on politics, recently wrote a most interesting article in Truthout, “The American People Are Suffering.” Some fascinating facts are recorded that should definitely wake some of us up to just what America is really facing as we look for new leadership.

She writes: “In these United States many children go hungry. Human beings endure poverty so deep that many people don’t believe it exists here. U.S. residents pay far more for health care than the people of any other wealthy country, yet our bodies are sicker and more broken.”

And this: “More than one in four black and brown Americans are living in poverty, further undermined by institutional racism. More people are buried here because of gun violence than in any other industrialized country.”

Yes, the American people are suffering. Yet many of us are not suffering, or at least don’t think we are. We read this stuff, then put it aside and get on with our day without further thought. I do it all the time! But what’s the real message for us here? Certain political candidates for office talk about this and are grabbing the attention of hundreds of thousands of Americans, especially those looking at a long future ahead of them.

“This is not a poor country”, Elizabeth Webb goes on to say. “But the top 0.1 percent of Americans are sitting on as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent combined.”

Webb’s further analysis explains about following the money in a section entitled: “Oppression is a Highly Profitable Business.”

The answers surely lie in a basic change in attitudes among our elected leaders, fundamental changes in many of our legislative decisions and laws, and following what we already see and feel in America as an evolutionary movement of change.

Change is often scary. Change is resisted right down the line. Change builds fear. Change movements cause anger and violence. Change is definitely not the popular thing. But change is necessary and change is the foundation to all the right answers. —Bob McClellan, Polson