This really hit with me this morning.

I was almost this kid. I "escaped" by joining the Army and deploying to Iraq three times. After I dropped out of HS, while the factories were dying in my central mass hometown, My Mom got me a job at @Wendys where she worked.

#raisethewage https://twitter.com/tuskykroda/status/1379615163628859393

I came from a restaurant where I worked saute and made everything from scratch. Great experience, great pay, but the pay was a cover for a tax haven because the IRS shut us down one day. Also, no paper proving experience. When I tried to move on, I started over

#RaiseTheWage

I worked hard for @Wendys. One day, I was hungry and broke, as poor folk tend to be, and snagged a chicken nugget.

The manager set upon me with a rage befitting a drill sergeant. He screamed, in front of my peers, "YOU'RE STEALING FROM THE CORPORATION."

I quit.

#raisethewage

My mother worked in fast food most of her adult life. She got me the @wendys job. First, she worked at @McDonalds. While they were putting in those 2nd drive through windows in the 80s a construction worker fell onto her.

#RaiseTheWage

She had just become a shift leader and she was so damn proud of her newfound management and "success." One of my earliest memories is of her ironing her striped shift lead shirt and weird tie.

For what it was worth, she loved that job. It did not love her back.

#RaiseTheWage

She had a great tort claim...But it was the 80s, and my parents didn't know anything about Court cases. The @McDonalds manager threw away the only non-employee witness' phone number and the employee witnesses were "encouraged" not to comment on the incident.

#RaiseTheWage

. @McDonalds team of corporate attorneys (the kind of attorneys I went to law school to NOT be like) steamrolled my parents. They walked away from the case after they were buried in litigation.

For the rest of her life, Mom suffered debilitating pain in her back.

#RaiseTheWage

Her left arm was numb and the left three fingers were curled, damaged, and unusable. She clearly had neurological deficits that I understand now from my work as a veterans benefit attorney. Probably left sided radiculopathy from a pinched nerve and slipped disk.

#RaiseTheWage

At the same time, factories where my HS dropout dad worked were closing up. HE lost his 20 yr job, no pension. We lost our home.

I deployed to Iraq 3 times, but that was one of the hardest parts of my life. The stress that Dad must have felt permeated everything.

#RaiseTheWage

Despite mom's injuries, after we resettled into a tiny apartment, she went to work for @Wendys for about two decades. She loved the job and the restaurant.

#RaiseTheWage

While I was deployed she would write to me about the day to day of it. It was actually pretty comforting, something to take my mind off the stress.

A few years before she passed away, as she aged and her @mcdonalds injuries worsened, @Wendys pushed her out.

#raisethewage

She never made more than a buck or so above minimum. No pension, no retirement, no future, no healthcare. In the meantime, @Wendys twitter snark and profit margins grew exponentially.

#raisethewage

And @McDonalds escaped compensating my mother for an injury that affected her all her life.

Fast food workers are NOT kids on summer jobs.. America's low-wage labor jobs are performed by everyone. Our friends, our family, our neighbors.

Its time to #RaiseTheWage

over time I realized that FF companies like @wendys and @mcdonalds know exactly what benefits and $$$ they're stealing from their laborers. If a hungry worker taking a nugget was "stealing from the corporation." What was low wages, no benefits, and no opportunity?

#RaiseTheWage

It was stealing from the community. Our communities. Our cities, towns, and states. Our neighborhoods. Your neighborhoods. Where somewhere right now, a fast food worker is soaking their feet from standing all day slinging burgers for $7.25 an hour.

#RaiseTheWage

Hoping that they can make the rent this month. Wondering if they're going to collapse from exhaustion. Knowing that they don't have healthcare. Wishing that they weren't shamed when they needed govenrment assistance. Shaming themselves anyhow.

Its time to #RaiseTheWage

The political narrative from the @gop that if we #raisethewage economies will crumble is demonstrably untrue.

Places where they've raised the wage are doing fine. @Wendys and @McDonalds could raise their wages tomorrow and not suffer.

#raisethewage

But the math which says that stealing a chicken nugget is "STEALING FROM THE CORPORATION" but paying labor minimum wage and offering no benefits is a savvy business strategy will NEVER change.

That's why its time to #RaiseTheWage