Higher education creates better paying jobs. Better paying jobs creates a better tax base. How much income tax is generated by a minimum wage paying job, compared to the income tax of an undergraduate degree pay scale? Do I need to go to the sales taxes paid by the two different incomes? Didn't think so. What started as "Trickle up" economics has turned into "Flooding up" economics. History has shown how income inequality turns out. It hasn't been pretty. We are heading, "full steam ahead" in that direction. 1929, 2008 are the years I am pointing to. The quick recovery of 2008 won't happen again. The Federal Government can't afford to bail out numerous industries again. I feel that the current state of affairs in our society are a reflection this imbalance. The political polarization. The mass shootings. The current horrific crimes being committed are a direct reflection of the terrible conditions we are experiencing. Horrific conditions are creating horrific reactions. People are struggling to eat, can't get health care because: 1) wages haven't kept up with the real cost of living. 2) We are out of options to make up the difference. When wages first began to shrink, (1978) "incomes" went from individual to "household". Mom and dad worked. Then they worked more hours. When that didn't maintain a comfortable lifestyle, (1990’s), borrowing filled the gap. We witnessed how that turned out, the 2008 recession. The middle class needs to be able to pay for things, not borrow to get them. Jobs are created when people buy things, (after all, someone has to make the things, deliver and sell them), that is how economics works. Henry Ford figured this out over 100 years ago! I am looking to my leaders to take some action. Be brave and do the right things for the right reasons. If the status quo is not changed, we are all going to be left behind. The people at the top, (the very rich), will continue to get further out of reach and more powerful. I don't think my fellow middle-class citizens are capable of continuing down the current path. The mass shootings for example, started in schools, (easy targets), then to theaters and malls, (bigger easy targets). These shootings haven’t changed what caused them. The next group will probably be politicians. Lack of gun laws is not the problem, more gun laws is not the answer. Lack of financial security is the problem, and all that goes with it. Please stop doing what we are doing, so we stop getting what we are getting. Let’s put a stop to the current state of affairs. Everything I have written here, is a glimpse of what I have observed. Unfortunately, I don’t have many solutions to offer, sorry. Political discussions with my contemporaries don’t happen. Everyone’s feelings get hurt, they stomp off, end of discussion. They are emulating what our leaders are doing. The dialogue needs to be started, so options are thought of and the best options given a chance to work. Please, let’s begin talking.

Many of us have watched while on the state and the national stage public discourse has devolved into very public attacks against any individuals who cross Trump's path or oppose him or his followers. The state of New Hampshire has a sad history of harassment, especially from the right and within the walls of the state legislature. The current national climate has only given license to those parties who engage in harassing women, people of color and others who do not fit the "conservative" social narrative. We have noticed in particular, in the state house, a particular vitriol reserved for women members of the state legislature. From the current harassment and belittlement (calling her princess, telling her she is stupid, weak, receiving death threats, harassment directed at her being a woman, etc.) of Debra Stevens, to the the constant harassment and demands for censure of Representative Sherry Frost (Strafford, 18) that have occurred during her terms. The type of vicious harassment that women experience resembles the type of harassment many women experienced thirty years ago when they entered non-traditional employment. Today, nearly every place of employment has a sexual harassment policy in place. Today, nearly all workers and professionals everywhere have no problem working with women as colleagues and professional partners. The number of women in the state legislature has increased profoundly this past session, reflecting the increased participation across the board of women in public life. Yet only this session was a sexual harassment policy finally put in place; after solid repeated resistance when the House was GOP controlled. Those same members who voted against a sexual harassment policy now not only associate with those who regularly harass female members of the house, but these same members make a plea to Steve Shurtleff, claiming they feel harassed and misrepresented when a member shares her a story about the behavior of anti-gun control activists. They make this plea after they all deliberately assembled on Representative Steven's Facebook political page with the sole purpose of harassing her. They make this plea after the first vote of the Democratic controlled house which banned handguns on the state house floor caused a few state representatives to call a press conference claiming that they feel unsafe at the state house without a gun by their side. Yet they have had no problem associating with those who issue death threats, harass, cajole, bully and abuse their opponents, in particular women. Women who do not carry guns anywhere and yet have plenty of reason to feel unsafe everyday; just for their duty as state representatives and representing the issues the way the majority of their constituents who sent them there wish them to do. We feel that speaking up to these bullies is important and Steven Shurtleff showing leadership on this issue is absolutely essential. No state legislator or American citizen should ever feel their life might be in danger or their dignity or social good standing be jeopardized, simply for having a certain point of view. In particular, we ask that Speaker Shurtleff speak specifically as well to the harassment that the women on the Democratic side of the aisle have received for speaking their minds.

We need new and effective ways to immediately curtail the epidemic of school shootings in our nation.

We live in the richest, most powerful country on the planet, but for years I have been going to bed hungry. My hunger was not for food, but another basic need, similarly essential for my life and well being. My hunger was for the shooting to stop. America has had more mass shootings than there have been days this year. That means, more likely than not, before you sit down to dinner with your family tonight another mass shooting will occur. And as I send my students to the cafeteria for lunch tomorrow, another one. More innocent, unsuspecting lives lost, for nothing. Or more accurately, because the Republican-led Senate has chosen to ignore their constituents’ basic human need for safety. The failure of our Federal government to fulfill its duty to its citizens led me to compound my hunger. That is why I began this hunger strike. One hundred people die every day in America because of gun violence, and my love for those 100 people that are going to die tomorrow, outweighs my desire for a burger today. Originally my focus was on mass shootings. They are so random and get so much media coverage the result can only be terror. But truth be told, as horrific as they are, mass shootings are only a small fraction of the gun violence that is plaguing our nation. Suicides, homicides, domestic violence, accidental shootings are all largely preventable with Common Sense gun legislation. Any good faith movement by the Federal Government on gun violence prevention bills passed by the House and waiting on a vote from the Senate, would be reason to celebrate. And in my case have a taco. But for now, I am following this path. My name is Shai Stephenson and I am Hungry4Change. Are you?

In the aftermath of the Gilroy mass shooting Mayor Sam Liccardo of San Jose observed, in a press release, that "[w]e require motorists to carry automobile insurance, and the insurance industry appropriately encourages and rewards safe driver behavior...[S]uccessful public health models inspire a similar 'harm reduction' approach for firearms." See http://www.sanjoseca.gov/DocumentCenter/View/86243. Mayor Liccardo proposed a firearms regulation ordinance for the City of San Jose, CA, based on the “harm reduction” model. This approach to firearms regulation should be applied to the entire state of California so that: *All firearms owners in the state will carry liability insurance, or will pay a fee, by which the state will defray the public costs of firearm violence in the state. *There will be a state sales tax on gun and ammunition sales, which will help fund gun safety classes, gun violence prevention programs, and victim assistance services for survivors of gun violence in California. *The State of California will explore a consent-to-search program for juveniles, which would allow parents to consent to have local law enforcement search a juvenile’s person or their property. *The State of California will create a program that would offer cash rewards to anyone who reports someone who possesses unlawfully-obtained guns or weapons.

Because people are dying and no one is getting anything done.

In the thirty-one days between today and when the Senate is scheduled to come back into session on September 9th, approximately 3,286 people will die from gunshots in the United States. That's 309 more than died on 9/11. Then we started two wars, created an entire cabinet-level department, and completely changed national security apparatus. We have about thirteen 9/11 death tolls every year from gun violence, and #MassacreMitch won't come back from vacation to act. We intend to hold him accountable.

Because it's the right thing to do.

Sign up to march on Washington. Puerto Rico as our guide. Millions must march to stop these racist hateful white supremacist climate deniers. They are destroying the world.

My extended family was gunned down in a mass shooting attack in 2015 (six members). Since then, domestic terrorism has risen dramatically, fueled by white supremacist radicalization. We need to call it what it is: terrorism.

As of August 4, 2019, the United States has suffered 250 mass shootings, the majority of which have involved an assault rifle. We demand an end to this crisis through banning and outlawing the manufacturing, sale, ownership, trade, and possession of assault rifles. We encourage a national buy-back program funded by the United States government to help with these efforts.

Stop mass shootings.