Yes Thompson I totally concur- America. certainly does have a class system, and it's become more entrenched over the years. And the opportunities to aspire to or to maintain being middle class are shrinking. When I was young, I believe that most people in the U S were middle class. There were far less poor - certainly far less homelees - and the super rich weren't t quite so rich.

As a mature adult, it seems more and more of us have the fear off being poverty stricken nipping at our heels. Years of inadequate health care and a non living wage are bruising this country. Why could a man work 40 hours 40 years ago and support a house, car,a wife and three children and a liesurely annual vacation? Why can't even two people work full time now - without needing 3 credit cards just to make ends meet?

No the class system and the impoverished are not new to America or to Europe. After all the song Streets of London was written many decades ago.

But now we seem - US and Britain- to be bound in a battle of wills between those who want to curtail and those who want to expand the open arm policy.

I wish there was a better way to communicate between this warring factions and find a common ground. Don't we really all want the same things at the end of the day?

I often feel it's hopeless - the binds grow more constructiing and the loud angry voices more vicious.

And yet I choose to believe , at least for today, that all our countries and the many good kind honest people within them will someday discover a more enlightened road to travel. This kind of progress comes slow. Civil rights, woman's rights, freedom to honor your faith or to have no faith, human rights, and the rights of our very own planet to breathe -
-is the direction we need strive towards. So much has been attained. So much more can be.