Voice Of The Voter In Webster County: Healthcare, Benefits, Latino Issues
By: David Shepherd
Updated: November 1, 2012
SEBREE - As the presidential candidates faced-off on stage Tuesday, Your Local Election Headquarters continued its road trip around the Tri-state hearing the issues important to you, the voter.
Sebree, Kentucky in Webster County, is a town with a large number of seniors and Hispanic families. They are two groups who've long cried out for change.
In Sebree, an old downtown area greets visitors with an old drug store; complete with an old Coke sign hanging out front.
Inside, you'll find Henrietta Warren behind the counter making a chocolate malt.
"I'm a senior citizen and health care is my biggest problem," she says. "I have had the same insurance for 50 years and they dropped me. So, I think, to all senior citizens, that's their biggest concern is healthcare and we'd like to see more jobs."
Now, instead of spending her golden years traveling or on a beach somewhere, she comes to work just to make ends meet.
Warren says, "It's hard to get healthcare when you're my age. I'm on a lot of medications. I don't know how I'll pay for it. My husband and I are both retirees working at a second job. I retired after 34 years and I'm working up here now which, I like to do, but, someday, I won't be able to do it."
Two doors down from the drug store sits a Spanish-speaking church that meets the spiritual needs of Sebree's large Latino population. To pastor Daniel Gonzalez and wife Lori, Latino issues are key to them this election year.
"I think about 500 Hispanics live here in Sebree," says Lori.
She says, while she supports deportation for undocumented people who commit crimes, she thinks law abiding immigrants should have an easier time finding work to support their families.
"Honest people, hard working people who just want to make improvements for their family and want to have legal work permits. Those are things that are important that they need to be able to work honestly."
Lori translated her husband's Spanish as he said, "That would be tremendous to give that opportunity to those people because we are the land of opportunity and they don't have those opportunities in their country."
If healthcare, retirement and Latino issues are important to you this upcoming election day, you're not alone. They're also in the voice of the voter right here in rural Webster county.
