I was born in an era of hope and promise. World War II had just ended and the “boys” were coming back home from the war. Having gone through years of strife, they expected more out of life than their parents had experienced. They felt they had earned a bigger piece of the American pie. They wanted better jobs, and got them. They demanded better wages and benefits and sought better working conditions. Over time, that all happened. Corporations large and small, along with their workers, prospered and the country grew and became the greatest industrialized nation in the world.

The middle class was born. Workers were now able to afford their own homes. They had enough earnings left over to own an automobile. Their buying power grew the industrial base of our nation. Their offspring, my generation, inherited these better times. We shared and enjoyed the same good-paying jobs with decent benefits and working conditions.

But that is changing.

Seemingly, the American public today has no memory of what life was like prior to World War II. We seem somewhat frozen or powerless to deter Congress from enabling corporations to sell us out. We continue to allow Congress to sanction the outright outsourcing of the industrial jobs that have made this a great nation.

Recent years have shown a shift in our nation’s direction. Corporations have become much more powerful. They have gone “global.” Their influence is felt in Washington and many of our political leaders take direction from them.

Corporations that were once considered American companies no longer appear to hold any allegiance to our nation. All they require from us is the continued support of our nation’s politicians; politicians that will vote to clear the way for outsourcing our nation’s jobs in order to increase the profits for corporations. Corporations need politicians to remove trade barriers in the name of “free trade.”

In so doing, some American companies will shed the need for middle-class American workers to produce their products. They will then be free to exploit Third World countries and their workers. They will be free to pay pennies an hour in labor costs and free to enjoy nonexistent environmental standards. They have now stepped into another dimension, a dimension that cares only for them without regard to our nation.

More than a decade ago, in order to enhance the bottom line, corporate America sought free trade through an agreement called NAFTA, an agreement among three countries: the U.S., Canada and Mexico. A decade ago we were told by politicians and talking heads that NAFTA would become a great benefit to the American people. It would create thousands of new jobs in the U.S. and increase the living standards of the Mexican people.

Time has proven both to be wrong.

Later, we were told “free trade” with China would be good for our country. It would promote American exports to China and it would be an economic boon to this country. Time has proven that to be untrue as well. The fact is that the major export to China is raw product. Raw product that allows China to produce items we once manufactured here in the U.S.

China is now the world’s fastest-growing industrial nation, while our industrial base is shrinking. Nearly 4,000 companies in China produce products for the giant Wal-Mart retailer alone, at a great cost to America’s industrial base.

At the urging of corporate America and others, the president now wants to enter into a free trade agreement with the Central American countries. It is called CAFTA, which stands for the Central American Free Trade Agreement. Again, this will cost thousands more Americans their livelihood. But worst of all, CAFTA will open the door to the exploitation of the entire Western Hemisphere.

Don’t think that I am opposed to trade, I am not. We certainly need trade among countries, but it must be fair trade.

We need trade agreements that incorporate wage and hour rules that protect Third World workers as well as American workers. We need fair trade with countries that respect the environment and engage in pollution control of the air and waters we all share.

I see my responsibilities as a father and grandfather to ensure we live in a society that looks out not solely for the corporate interest, but the interest of future generations. I want our elected leaders in Washington to understand that outsourcing our jobs to Third World countries is not good for the bottom line of this nation.

We are quickly losing our ability to produce the things we need to survive. We import 90 percent of our clothing, 60 percent of our fuel, 70 percent of our food and, now, we import most of what we need in our everyday lives.

We won the Great War because we could do for ourselves. We had an enormous industrial base. How can we continue as a great nation if we no longer have the skills to make the products we need to survive? How can we remain the world’s superpower if we no longer have the resources within our nation to maintain that title?

I have heard it said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. If that is true, we need professional help.

Roland B. Samson is a staff representative for the Steelworkers Union. He served three terms in the Maine House of Representatives from 1994 to 2000, and served on the Labor Committee for six years and the Agriculture and Forestry Committee for two years. He lives in North Jay.