The Old Man Along The Highway

A short story that encompasses what must change in our United States of America

Saturday afternoon my wife Ayesha and I stepped out to run some errands. As we drove down a highway I glanced over and saw a figure stumbling along in the ditch. I peered closer and saw what looked like an elderly gentleman walking in near-freezing temperatures. I pulled a U-turn at the next intersection, then another to come up behind him. I put on my flashers and rolled down the window.

“Sir, can I give you a ride to wherever you’re going?”

“YES,” he said immediately.

He didn’t hesitate. Not for a second. Hunched over, carrying his folder, he lurched towards my car and nearly fell into the seat. He was exhausted.

A demonstrator holds an upside-down American flag during a protest to oppose Donald Trump administration's policies, including efforts to cut the federal workforce, at the Capitol Reflection Pool on February 17, 2025. Credit | Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images/Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images

Why Was He Walking Alone On The Highway?

I helped him into the back seat, closed the door, and got back behind the wheel.

“Where are you headed?”

He named a store that was still about two miles away. Surprised, I asked where he lived?

He gave me a street nearly a mile and a half behind us. My heart sank and the mere thought of this sweet innocent man planning a seven mile walk in a Chicagoland December.

“Sir I hope I’m not being rude by prying, but why were you walking alone along this busy highway? It isn’t safe, especially at your age.”

“I can’t drive, there’s no bus, and there’s no sidewalk. But I have to get this done. What else am I gonna do?”

“Well what was so urgent that you had to make this walk?”

“They cut off my Internet. I need to know what’s happening in Ukraine.”

As we talked, I learned he was 83 years old. His internet service had been cut off and he didn’t know why. He needed it to keep in touch with family in Ukraine, to make sure they were still alive amid Putin’s illegal war. With no public transportation available, he had decided to walk—alone, in the cold, along a highway.

I got him safely to the store and asked the manager to make sure he was taken care of. I left my phone number, and asked the manager to call me when his issue was resolved. She did, and I called a cab so he could get home safely. Thirty minutes later, he was back in his house, unharmed.

I breathed a sigh of relief. But that experience encapsulated what is broken with our country and our economics, and why we face national catastrophe if we do not redirect quickly.

Here’s why I’m sharing this

The United States is the wealthiest country in the history of the world. We have more billionaires than any nation on Earth and are on the brink of producing the world’s first trillionaire. We maintain a war budget exceeding one trillion dollars annually. We have cut taxes for the wealthiest Americans by trillions. We have bailed out corporations repeatedly while allowing wages, infrastructure, and public services to erode.

A RAND study found that nearly $79 trillion has been transferred from the bottom 90 percent of Americans to the top 1 percent since the late 1970s. That wealth wasn’t invested back into communities. It was hoarded, financialized, and weaponized against the very people who produced it.

And yet, in this unimaginably rich nation, an 83-year-old man had no safe way to access a basic service without risking his life.

This is not an isolated failure. It is a structural one.

What Are Our Priorities?

The United States leads the world in only two notable categories—largest military and largest prison population. This isn’t freedom—it’s a recipe for collapse. Among developed nations, the United States ranks among the worst on the Gini Index, a measure of income inequality. We spend more than double per capita than any other country on healthcare, yet rank last on life expectancy, infant mortality, and maternal mortality (which is 3X higher for Black and Indigenous women). We lag behind peer nations in public transportation access, educational affordability, and social mobility. We rank lower than most developed countries on measures of peace and public safety—in fact we’re not even in the top 100 safest nations on Earth. Even on happiness—despite our wealth—we consistently underperform. Roughly 1 in 6 Americans are food insecure and 1 in 9 American children are food insecure. Terms exist in the United States that do not exist in any developed country on Earth—terms like lunch debt, medical debt, medical bankruptcy, and student debt.

These are not coincidences. They are policy choices.

We are told we live in the “freest country on Earth,” yet millions cannot access healthcare without fear of bankruptcy. Seniors cannot reliably travel without a car. Parents work full-time jobs and still cannot afford rent. Students begin adult life buried under debt. Meanwhile, our tax dollars fund endless wars, bombings abroad, and weapons manufacturers—while basic human needs go unmet at home.

We are told there is no money for universal healthcare, no money for reliable public transit, no money for tuition-free education. But there is always money for war. Always money for tax cuts for billionaires. Always money for bombing Gaza, for bombing Venezuela, for bombing Nigeria, for $50B ICE budgets, for militarized police budgets, for $300,000 per bed prisons in Alabama—we have for projecting violence, but not for investing in human dignity.

This is not what freedom looks like

True freedom is knowing an elderly person does not have to choose between isolation and danger. True freedom is healthcare as a right, not a privilege. True freedom is education without lifelong debt. True freedom is public infrastructure that serves everyone, not just those wealthy enough to opt out.

For every one person fortunate enough to find a ride, there are thousands more suffering quietly at home—without access, without support, without solutions. That suffering is not inevitable. It is the result of choices we have made and continue to make. The math just doesn’t add up. China has 50,000 kilometers of high speed rail. Europe has 12,000 kilometers of high speed rail. The United States—which has a GDP $12 trillion larger than both China and Europe, has 700 kilometers of high speed rail.

Far from making America great, this trajectory hollowed out the promise of equal justice and shared prosperity. If we continue down this path, we will destroy what little remains of that promise.

But this is a preventable injustice. And prevention begins with honesty—about who we prioritize, how we spend our collective resources, and what kind of country we actually want to be.

Closing Thoughts

As we close out 2025, moments like this should force us to pause and take stock of who we are becoming—and who we are leaving behind. The coming year will test whether we are willing to confront these injustices honestly or continue to normalize them through silence and inertia. As we vote in primary elections and in midterm elections in 2026, we must make it a year of resolve, not retreat. A year where we double down on demanding that our tax dollars serve people, not profiteers; dignity, not destruction; care, not cruelty. We cannot sit in the false comfort of “vote blue no matter who” when the “blue” we’re voting for still doesn’t support universal healthcare, a living wage, ending forever wars and genocides, and meaningful climate justice. We must demand accountability from every politician who seeks the privilege of representing us. The minimum won’t do. Because that bare minimum still results in 83-year-old disabled neighbors walking in the ditch in a December Chicago winter for basic Internet access—which by the way should also be a regulated utility by now.

The old man along the highway could be my father, your grandparent, your uncle or aunt—but that person is a neighbor to all of us. We must take ownership and accountability to lift each other up, or we all fall together.

I will continue doing everything in my power through Let’s Address This to document injustice, challenge power, and advocate for a more just and humane society with meaningful calls to action. And I invite and need each of you in that fight with me. If this work matters to you—if you believe equal justice is worth fighting for—I ask you to support us. Subscribe, share, and stand with me as we elevate this fight together.

We must demand better. Not someday. Now. Let’s get to work.