Editor, Gazette-Journal:

It has been a decade since I felt strongly enough about a subject to trouble you with my ramblings. I am a:

—Lifelong Republican who quietly supported many Democratic and independent campaigns in favor of the most qualified candidate;

—A 54-year-old who worked from age 16 and, after a prolonged illness, applied for disability only to find that some of my wages were never reported;

—A small business owner, victim to economic downturns and corporate gerrymandering;

—Frequent customer to many more immigrant- and minority-owned businesses;

—Child of an immigrant who, falsifying the date and place of his birth, tried to serve his new homeland in the Army—a man who never made more than $3.25 an hour, yet somehow was able to build his family a home and put food on the table;

—Daughter of a Depression-era child who shared her meager food with transients, an Army nurse who served, with conviction, in efforts to stop the m...