To the Editor:

I am sitting in a parking lot in my year-old, high-end EV. I have a large hot chai in my coffee mug and a delicious Big Spoon cupcake in my hand.

Across from me an elderly couple limp from the drugstore to a very old, rusted-out van. The back door of the van is held shut with a bungee cord, rust has eaten away its rear fenders. They retrieve a small stepping stool, struggle to place it next to the passenger door, and she manages with some difficulty to get into the van.

He shuts the door, but it does not latch. He tries, slamming it two more times, then retrieves something from under the hood. It appears to be the kind of thing you slide down a car window slot if you have been locked out of the car, and in fact, he then slides it down inside the van window. He removes it and is finally able to get the door to latch.

He walks around the car with difficulty, then gets in the driver side and they drive away.

I imagine them young. I think they probably have children, and I wonder if those children know the difficulties of their parents’ lives. I think of the greed of the people currently running the country and I wonder just how much of a financial strain it would be upon them to give people like this couple with a van a better standard of living. I think of my tax money being spent on bombs to kill people in Iran, and I am very angry.

Judy Andrus Toporcer
Colton