Walter aka The Working Man

I just got home from downtown; long night of drinking and hanging out with friends. I wanna give a heartfelt shout-out to my cab driver, Walter. I kinda had a bad experience with my last cabbie, Muhammad. I won't go into it, but it wasn't great for the record. Not so tonight. I jumped into the cab and turned out to be the only person in it, going to the East side no less. My cabbie was a middle-aged black man; he seemed a little familiar even. Then I figured it out; he used to work at Dial-America with me, the phone bank I used to work at. I remembered Walter as a pretty fun guy to work with; he was always laughing and goofing around. He really made a pretty crappy job a decent time. I always got a big kick out of him.
Anyways, me and Walter started talking after I figured out where I knew him from. He wasn't doing Dial-America anymore and had been driving a cab for awhile. Turns out he had a daughter who attended the University of GA. I pressed him a little and found out he had been working 4 jobs; two full and two part-time. He had finally cut back a little recently when his wife asked him to. He only slept on Wednesdays! I didn't know how to react. This guy was working his ass off in multiple low-wage jobs to create an oppurtunity for his children and his family. I grew up in a pretty hard-working family, but nothing like this!
After we got back to the place, I tipped him pretty well and grabbed his card for the next cab ride, but I still felt like some rich dousche-bag living in the fraternity house (for the record I do not live in a frat house or fraternize with frat boys, but some people may think me a dousche-bag). I live on my own and put myself through school without help from my folks, but I still felt inadequate next to what Walter is doing for his family. I have a hard time visualizing working 2 jobs, let alone 4! I have so much respect for Walter and for what he is doing. It's so sad that 98% of our school population has rich Marietta parents who pay for their tuition and their new Beemer, and that people like Walter are so uncelebrated. I wish I was more worthy of these people who make the greatest sacrifices, and go the extra mile to realize the American Dream.
I wish the Democrats and Republicans both would wake up and reward hard-working people like this, instead of talking trash and putting each other down. We owe so much more to Walter and his children; why can't we put forth a little effort and help someone realize a dream?