A special post from a couple of contributors.

The author, Carol Parker, is a retired journalist living in the Bay Area.

The header image was adapted by Melinda Sun, a rising junior at Cupertino High School and the news editor for her student newspaper.

It has always been a dream of mine, and most women of my generation, I suspect, to one day see a woman elected president of the United States. I still hold that dream. But I know in my heart (call it woman's intuition if you like) that right now, at this moment, Bernie Sanders' solutions to all the financial worries that keep me up at night make the most sense. I trust him because he has not wavered from his principled positions his entire career. I believe he, and he alone of all the candidates running for the presidency, is most in touch with middle class, working class, and poor Americans.

This past week Hillary Clinton rolled out her proposed economic plan in a much-anticipated speech. As populist as she sounded, I was still not persuaded her solutions were bold enough to restore prosperity to the average American.

UC Professor Robert Reich is someone I much admire. His documentary movie, "Inequality for All," is a must-see if you want to understand just how we got ourselves into the economic pickle we're in and how best to get out of it. He blogged about her speech this week, giving her props for saying that “the defining economic challenge of our times” was "to raise incomes for hard-working Americans so that they can enjoy a middle-class life.”

But Reich went on to say, "I was disappointed she didn’t call for busting up the biggest banks or resurrecting the Glass-Steagall Act." He also said he expected to see more from her on corporate reform. "Overall," he said, " the proposals she advanced in today's speech didn’t rise to the important economic objectives she articulates." He concluded by saying, "Hopefully, she'll provide more in coming weeks and months."

And that's the thing. We don't have to wait weeks and months. Bernie Sanders has been unequivocally saying, since the inception of his campaign and for years before, that we need a major restructuring of our tax and banking systems. He has called for reenacting the Glass-Steagall Act. Unlike his opponents, he is not accepting donations from the same corporations and banks that need reining in. Unlike his opponents, he has condemned unfair trade practices like NAFTA and the pending TPP. He advocates for strong unions, and he voted against the devastating and costly Iraq war.

From a symbolic standpoint, electing our first woman president would be a wonderful thing. Let's not deny it, sisters, it would be awesome. But we have such a superior alternative in Bernie Sanders that we can be patient a little longer. I believe it is worth the wait.

For many years I have volunteered in my community, and in the past decade I have seen a gradual erosion of middle class well-being.

People who are educated and experienced want to work but cannot find full-time jobs with benefits. The only thing they can secure are low-wage, temporary, part-time positions. Many resort to contract work in what we're now calling the "gig" economy. Some have given up on our political process altogether. Trickle-down economics has failed them. They are gripped with uncertainty. I have seen their worry first hand, and more and more I think about how close I am to being in their shoes.

When I encounter others who doubt things are as bad as they are, I share with them the kinds of conversations I've had with women while volunteering at food programs.

The Senior

She edges up through the line along the conveyer belt so I can present her with a can of tomato paste. It is cold and drafty in the huge warehouse. At the end of her three-hour journey of waiting and snaking through the long line, she will walk out with a bag of non-perishable groceries valued at somewhere around $15. If she is lucky, an additional bag of fruit gleaned from local gardens and some day-old bread donated by a grocery chain will also ride home with her on the bus. She is there because her meager Social Security check and paltry savings comes nowhere close enough to keeping a roof over her head let alone food on the table.

That could be me, I think, in just a few years.

Then I remember Bernie Sanders' call to not only preserve but expand Social Security.

The Millennials

Young adults arrive - some female students from the nearby college and their friends who are recent graduates. None have been able to find living wage jobs. They tell me they are there gathering peanut butter and tuna to complement their Top Ramen diets.

They could be my young adult children, I imagine, if mine weren't still living at home.

Then I remember Bernie Sanders' promise to reduce interest on existing student debt and make public colleges and universities free. I remember that he's lobbying for a $15 an hour minimum wage.

The Boomer

In walks a former mid-level manager who can't find work. Her husband has been furloughed and his income slashed. She tells me they're close to losing everything. She's brought a sandwich with her and shares it with another woman in line next to her. "Look at us,” she muses. "We're the Ladies Who Lunch at the Food Bank."

Millions of middle-class, paycheck-to-paycheck families lost everything in the Recession and have fallen far down the economic ladder, my own family among them. Bernie will make the systemic changes in our financial system needed to get to the root of the problem and bring American jobs back home, create new jobs in green industries, and rebuild our country's crumbling infrastructure.

For the "Ladies who Lunch at the Food Bank" now (and those of us women who may be dining there soon if things don't improve), I invite you to join me at Bernie Sanders' table where truth and justice are consistently served and none need go hungry.

The header image is adapted from "Breakfast" by Ross Pollack, licensed under Creative Commons License CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.