“I am a millennial. I am not soft. And I support Bernie Sanders.”
This is how the Facebook post by Brett Littleton starts, a post which, in just a few days, has been shared almost fifteen thousand times and received over three thousand comments. While the conservative stereotype for a Sanders supporter is a lazy college student demanding ‘free stuff’, it’s Americans like Brett that stand in direct opposition to that belief, and remind us of the countless supporters serving in the Armed Forces, training in trade schools, and working long hours to provide for their families and voting for Bernie Sanders.
With Brett’s work description, I would challenge anyone to consider him a lazy millennial.
“I have worked damn near my entire adult life in power plants, hydrogen methane reformers, biomass plants, and waste incinerators. I’ve made my living by flying pretty much all over the world and venturing into places approaching, and sometimes exceeding, 200 degrees, putting in 70-hour work weeks, and then flying home. I’ve worked and had prolonged stays on 3 continents, I sweat, I bleed, and I have hands that would make your mechanic uncle look like a Country Crock hand model. I’m a working dude.”
Brett shares a bit of his experiences, and how they’ve shaped him into supporting Sanders because of the candidate’s stances on matters such as our country’s profit-driven healthcare system.
“I support Bernie Sanders because after my time in Europe, it’s easy to see how screwed up the American health care system really is. I broke my foot in Europe. A visit to the ER, crutches, a walking boot, and a couple prescriptions set me back $125. 125 bucks, and 3 weeks later I was back at work, no debt, no bullshit.”
Brett also likes Sanders’ stance on our crumbling infrastructure and the lack of opportunities for associate programs, trade schools, and other educational programs to train Americans to combat it.
Free, or deeply discounted 2-year degrees, would be the best thing that’s happened to our society in years, we are running out of electricians and plumbers and technicians. An accessible 2-year degree would open many doors for many people, and would only help our aging infrastructure.
You can view the entire letter on Brett’s Facebook page.
It’s a great read, and it’s an outright call-out to the stereotype that supporters of Senator Sanders are only in it for the free stuff.
I’m a millennial, I’m not soft, and I support Bernie Sanders. Not because I want free shit, but because he supports what I believe in.
Featured image taken via Facebook, used with permission.
