I keep hearing about young people who grew up in Gloucester but can’t afford a home to raise their families here. It makes me sad and angry enough to take to Gloucester’s streets with "All Hands On Deck."

My father was an immigrant and my mother grew up on a Kansas farm where her family toughed out the dust bowl. I was able to buy a house in Lanesville because of GOVERNMENT programs put through by Democrats and resisted by Republicans.

The GI bill helped my parents buy their house. Deducting mortgage interest and real estate taxes helps me be a home owner. People stuck in the rental market don’t get those tax breaks.

My parents chose Sudbury for the good schools so their children could be the first generation to go to college. They did not complain about the taxes and got their money’s worth: their five children went to college with financial aid scholarships and National Defense Student Loans.

I don’t have kids, but I happily support public schools so Gloucester’s kids can do what I did: get a good education, have a productive work life, buy a home here, and start paying taxes so the next generation can do the same.

How did we come to a place where we only extend a helping hand to the successful? People able to own their own homes get tax breaks while renters struggle alone. Children of Yale graduates get preferential admissions, but help for first generation college students is cut way back.

As Warren Buffett said, "If this is class warfare, the rich are winning." I am a Democrat because I want to live in an America where we all are winners.