Am I Worth His Time? Let's Just Wait and See

Here is my e-mail that I sent to my Op-Ed writer.

Mr. Bob Herbert,

My name is David Heckman, and I am a junior at Roncalli High School in Indianapolis, Indiana. I am currently in AP English Language and Compostion. One of our assignments was to follow an Op-Ed writer and blog about them and their articles. I chose you to follow. Our latest assignment was to choose an article, state the writer's claim, state a concession made by the author, list examples that support the author's claim, and finally agree or disagree with their stance. The article of yours I chose to read was "Winning the Class War". I was wondering if there would be any way that you could supply me with more examples relating to that article, related issues, or recommend other articles that I could read pertaining to this topic. Thank you very much for your time, and I hope to hear from you soon.

Sincerely,
David Heckman

I have not yet recieved an e-mail back from Bob Herbert, or from any New York Times employees. I understand that writer's like these are very busy, and probably recieve hundreds of e-mails daily. I am not sure of the likliness that I receive an e-mail back, because after sending the message through the New York Times website, a message appeared saying that the message probably was not even sent to him. Most likely, my e-mail ended up in some secretary's junk pile, but in the case that I do get some sort of response I will be sure to add it on here.

Where's Robin Hood When You Need Him? (to steal from the rich and give to the poor)

Bob Herbert's November 26th article was called, "Winning the Class War". The writer states his claim that the rich, powerful members of the United States are doing well, while the middle and lower classes are suffering in these hard times. The last two sentences of the article state Herbert's claim well saying, "Aristocrats were supposed to be anathema to Americans. Now, while much of the rest of the nation is suffering, they are the only ones who can afford to smile."

Herbert mentions a concession that some good can come from having a large gap between the rich and everyone else. He quickly shuts that down, calling those who think that foolish. "Anyone who thinks there is something beneficial in this vast disconnect between the fortunes of the American elite and those of the struggling masses is just silly."

Herbert has many supports for why this divide between classes is a rough situation:

1. "There is no way to bring America’s consumer economy back to robust health if unemployment is chronically high, wages remain stagnant and the jobs that are created are poor ones."
2. "Extreme inequality is already contributing mightily to political and other forms of polarization in the U.S. And it is a major force undermining the idea that as citizens we should try to face the nation’s problems, economic and otherwise, in a reasonably united fashion."
3. "Societal conflicts metastasize as resentments fester and scapegoats are sought."

The third support of the author's claim has other examples supporting it as well.

• Billionaire mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, selected multimillionaire with no education background, Cathleen Black, to be the city's schools chancellor.
• Ms. Black will be peering across an almost unbridgeable gap between her and the largely poor and working-class parents and students she will be expected to serve.
• "So here we have the billionaire and the millionaire telling the poor and the struggling — the little people — that they will just have to make do with less. You can almost feel the bitterness rising."
• As The Times reported this week, U.S. firms earned profits at an annual rate of $1.659 trillion in the third quarter — the highest total since the government began keeping track more than six decades ago.

I agree with Bob Herbert's claim, becuase in a time when most of the country is at its worst, the higher class citizens are taking advantage of it, and are at their best. The rich are in power, and are in power making decisions for the poor, which result in only helping the wealthy and keeping the poor down. If changes aren't made, it looks like the U.S. could be headed for some type of oligarchy.