“Resident’s struggle with rising costs of living”, “Police searching for suspects in robbery at elderly couple’s Agana Heights home.” These were just a few of the unpleasant headlines of the PDN during the start of the New Year. Our island has been struggling for years with job losses, poor healthcare and an underfunded public structure. We need to look at the bigger picture on why our economy has fallen. Our economy has been structured around profit-driven motives for the wealthy verses the betterment of the working people. We need to start shrinking the gap and growing our middle class. This year we have the opportunity to start focusing on what will help our families and what will help generate income for our public structure.