BIPARTISAN

The Beginning

Where do I start? I suppose from my very beginning. I was lucky enough to have born to a life of luxury and wealth. The kind that won't run out however you spend it on. We came from old money. My dad marry a rich white lady, those Kennedy type of family, and I am the sole offspring of that joint venture.

Growing up, I don't face many adversities. It was easy for me. My dad always reminded me that his hard work that enable us to live life in comfort. So whenever he saw people of colour complaining about how segregated they are, that they were sidelined, dad always told me that those people are lazy. He did it, why couldn't they?

And before you judged, my dad didn't just marry into wealth. He did worked hard at his pharmaceutical company. He worked from the bottom and now he's at the top. So he had that self-entitlement thing going on because he did struggle. That's where he got his point of view, I think. That if you just worked hard, you could get out of this misery.

Anyway, we are talking about me not my dad. I, when exposed to those kind of thinking began to agree. I can't help but to compare between my dad and them. Why can my dad did it? Why can't they?

I started to gain a new insight on the issue when i'm in school. During lunch, and this was when I'm in junior high, I noticed that when the janitor cleaned up the always messy dining hall, he would put it into two separate containers. At first I thought it was a recycling thing I always heard mentioned between my parents and the neighbors. But it does not look like it. Curious, I approached him to ask.

"Excuse me sir?"
"Yes young man. What do you want?"
"Nothing. Just curious about something. Hurmm, why did you separate between the trash?"
"Oh, some of it can still be eaten."
"For your pet?"
"Nah, it's my lunch. Probably dinner too?"
"But why? Don't they pay you?"
"I mean yeah they did. But I'm an old army vet. I don't get paid much. That's the whole reason I'm hired I think."
"Still though. It should be enough for a meal, right?
"Perhaps. But I got a kid in college and a wife in hospital. That alone ate up a lot of my paycheck. So I will scrimp and save however chance I got."

He left to resume his work. Leaving me with my jumbled up thoughts. Surely this old army veteran worked hard. He doesn't seem lazy as portrayed by the TV. Or my family. Is there something else that denied this man, that sacrificed his youth for the country, a nice meal after a hard day at work?