My landlady (nearly 80) informed me yesterday that she had sold the Lewiston building in which I’ve lived for almost four years. She owned the building and had resided there for 35 years. She will now move, taking on a rent that will prove burdensome for her. The tenant on the second floor (also elderly) will need to move; so will I, as I won’t be able to afford the rent hike I’m anticipating.

My landlady was afraid she could no longer manage oil heating costs on a fixed income. She mentioned to me that oil expenses increased $200 per month last year; these increases occurred during a mild winter. There was no guarantee that prices wouldn’t rise again this year, and she sold her property out of fear.

The sale of this building is the result of the Bush administration’s continued support for gouging American citizens.

I now wonder how my landlady will fare outside of her longstanding home. I also wonder how the United States has devolved into a nation where the president is merely an oil baron, in bed with Saudi royalty and their terrorist offspring, collecting revenue from petroleum investments, while citizens are displaced.

Do any of us desire a nation that condones a senior’s loss of her home through sheer avarice? How can we justify an unsuccessful war in Iraq when the end product is financial insecurity for the American citizenry?

Our national leaders are clearly servants of mammon, but we tolerate it.

Why?

John Shannon, Lewiston