Friday, August 29, 2008

State Of The Union (Unemployment)

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Blog 5 of August (Just meeting my obssessive compulsive quota)


I have been mostly uninspired to continue with the blogging because as far as i know i don't have much of a readership (with the exception of my number ONE reader Chan xoxo). But being that i have pretty much committed (challenge myself) to doing at least five postings a month i have anticipated sitting here before the monitor without much inspiration as to what to chatter up on next. There is plenty going on in the world, in the hood, in my own home, but i havent felt like taking it all on consistantly.
That changed when i got a text this morning from a dear person in my life (whom happens to identify as Conservative/Republican -aye i didn't tag him, he identifies himself as such). The text starts out: "FACTS, FACTS, FACTS" and goes on to claim that unemployment is at its lowest level in years. This begs a response, NOT because i am trying to have any type of ideological battle with anyone, but out of the good righteous deed that comes of the motto: "Each One Teach One".
It is not to be taken as a strike against anyone, but to be considered the responsible duty of a responsible citizen, to RESEARCH and provide ACTUAL facts. Not to merit an "I'm right and you're wrong" kind of thing, but simply to provide an objective basis off of which we can build in having real discussion about the state of things in the U, S, of A.


So without further adou, i share with you statistics given by the US Department of Labor (www.bls.gov)

If you link on to:
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm

You get an article which starts out giving you the state of unemployment as of July 08 (which is the most current, until August is summed up). PLEASE READ:



THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION: JULY 2008

The unemployment rate rose to 5.7 percent, and nonfarm payroll employment
continued to trend down in July (-51,000), the Bureau of Labor Statistics of
the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Employment continued to fall in
construction, manufacturing, and several service-providing industries, while
health care and mining continued to add jobs.



Scroll down that page and you will come upon a chart which breaks down by quarter how the unemployment rate has gone up over the year:
from 4.9 to 5.3 to 5.5 then 5.7


This means the unemployment rate is the highest it has been since 2003 when the rate was 6.0. Realize this: When George Bush came into office he was coming into a situation where Bill Clinton had gotten the unemployment rate down to 4.0. In Clinton's second term the country never finished over 5.0. During his first term he never finished BELOW 5.0. Since unemployment has been recorded (1948), the two highest unemployment rates occured during the Reagan administration (a WHOPPING 9.7 in 1982, and 9.6 in 1983) *And this is the guy the modern Economically Conservative Republican politicians aspires to be (can you say TAX BREAK FOR THE WEALTHY?)

Check for yourself. All of this can be verified if you link on to:

http://data.bls.gov/PDQ/servlet/SurveyOutputServlet?data_tool=latest_numbers&series_id=LNU04000000&years_option=all_years&periods_option=specific_periods&periods=Annual+Data

1981 7.6
1982 9.7
1983 9.6
1984 7.5
1985 7.2
1986 7.0
1987 6.2
1988 5.5
1989 5.3
1990 5.6
1991 6.8
1992 7.5
1993 6.9
1994 6.1
1995 5.6
1996 5.4
1997 4.9
1998 4.5
1999 4.2
2000 4.0
2001 4.7
2002 5.8
2003 6.0
2004 5.5
2005 5.1
2006 4.6
2007 4.6




Now let me put this into a bit of perspective because i have studied economics and history enough to be able to break this down for those who don't know. And i begin by citing how the paragraph i first linked you to stated that "Employment continued to fall in construction, manufacturing, and several service-providing industries, while health care and mining continued to add jobs.".
I can see why the job market has been growing in Health Care and in Mining. It makes perfect sense if you open a newspaper every once inawhile! Listen to both the Republican and Democratic campaigns... Health Care is on the radar. Specifically for the Democrats whom are proposing some kind of Universal Health Care (Health Care for everyone *under conditions we do not know yet). So if there is a GREAT possibility that hospitals will be getting alot more full than they are right now, you can imagine that hospitals, clinics, and other health institutions have been hiring staff to take on this wave, and more and more people are going to school to get into the health field. It is just being promoted.
As far as Mining, what do you think? Well... have you heard of "clean coal?" for example. The government is engineering an effort to find alternative sources of fuel so that the economy doesn't have to depend on foreign oil. So miners are being hired.

The issue i want to really concentrate in that paragraph though is a historical one that really has effected the working man for as long as the unemployment rate has been recorded. It is the loss of jobs in manual labor. Jobs in "construction and manufacturing", and now even jobs leaving which effect those in the "service" industry. Why are these jobs leaving? it is called outsourcing! These wealthy corporation owners look to cut corners because they are all about their bottom line: maximizing their profits: making as much money as possible and paying out as little as possible. So they have exported factory jobs, manufacturing and construction for the last 50 years because it has maximized their profits to pay the poor people in Latin America and Asia 40 cents an hour without benefits as opposed to paying minimum wage to a worker here, who will eventually also require benefits in addition to that. GET IT? Origionally it was just labor jobs, but eventually it got the the point where they were even sending service jobs overseas, which is why as you commonly have heard people complain, you can very well be speaking to someone in India about your bill when you call your phone company.

**I am neither Republican NOR Democrat but i will tell you this. The high numbers of unemployment under Reagan tell you what happens under the Modern Republican, whom gives tax breaks to the wealthy, HOPING they will create jobs in America. What happens? These companys happily accept the tax break, but there is no condition written into these tax laws that tell them the MUST keep their companies here! So they move the companies overseas which if anything TAKES JOBS AWAY, and to suppliment for these jobs, build BIG BOX chains like Walmart which allows them to sell the products they make in China (where they pay workers less) BACK to us. What do we get? JOBS... AT WALLMART! lol This was Reagans proposal for trickle down economics. But as the numbers during his presidency show you... jobs actually never did come!**


Now this issue gets very complicated because as this is happening it effects the international community as much as it effects us here. And read carefully because what i am about to state gives analysis to the reason why immigrants come here and effect jobs from the other end!

Example: a corporation goes overseas to a country with an agrarian economy (they live off their own land). Their land is bought and often even revoked (just taken) from regular citizens with the support of the government in those countries (because we pad their pockets) and the nature of that countries economy eventually transitions to one similar to the one here where of course you work for an employer that pays you, and with that money you try to survive: paying rent, food, leisure, whatever... PROBLEM IS that these countries have been introduced to companies that left this country because they didn't want to pay workers. So if they are not going to support a livable wage here (wasn't like our grandparents were asking to be spoon fed.. they just wanted livable wages), what makes you think they were going to go over there and give these people a livable wage! They have gone their to exploit the opportunity.. to exploit the worker. So trade deals like NAFTA and other agreements between us and the currupt governments of these countries (whose pockets we pad) ensure that to the advantage of US Corporations, minimum wage is outlawed, workers are threatened if they form or join unions, and like here the first people to suffer are the working people whose jobs get cut when THEIR economies stumble. And whereas two, three decades before people could live off the land, they wind up without work... without a way to survive.. and what do they do???

They come here, to work for less than YOU do. The same way that the corporations left you without work in the first place to go over there and pay THEM less.

These are called Neo-Liberal policies
and the manipulation of these '3rd world countries' economies is called Structural Adjustment




How do i sum this up?
by saying this...

We're FUCKED!

doesn't matter much if we are led by democrats or republicans, because the wheels have been in motion and the culture of our economy is international. Globalization. Now we are living this schizophrenic HYPOCRITICAL existance where we want to criticize China, while the sons and daughters of the wealthy are teaching their children Chinese so they can go over there some day. What's the message? If you want REAL money? you aint going to make it here!

This is an issue i cannot ABSOLUTELY tackle in ONE blog! I have read books, i have taken classes. All i can really do is encourage you to read books, take classes.. and if you cant then at least allow yourself to explore different sources of media. Because mainstream media doesn't give HISTORICAL analysis in depth. It only scratches the surface. So read The Village Voice, The Nation, and other sites that will give you real critical analysis. There is no reason to be offended. It's like people like to boast: "I am open to criticism" Our policies have to be open to criticism, or we do not learn from them. Too many people walk around comfortable with a blind sense of patriotism. All they know are slogans. And it feels good.. it is a high. And it can be scary when you are a bit uninformed about such concepts as "socialism" and the mainstream media is telling you this is a bad word.. and the more you dig you realize that the things i am telling you to read are supporting socialism as an alternative to this system of exploitation. But you know what.. out of every one child going to college out of the hood there are 100 whom are the sons and daughters who benefit from the very system i briefed you on above. Have parents whom are owners, executives in big industries. Out of every teacher from the hood there are 100 born out of the middle class whom dont want to hear about anything different because like George Carlin stated "we have cellphones that flip pancakes". So imagine being that one child from the hood (perhaps you ARE that child). You are entering institutions which do not speak to your suffering.
And you have a choice...
Be happy getting a house and moving OUT of the hood
until the housing market stumbles and the hood moves back to YOU (as was the case when my family first moved to Staten Island, the first or second latino family in that caldersac UNTIL like four years later when once again we were surrounded by our people, and in essence, back in the hood)

OR

Educate yourself and at least support policies, if not TAKING ACTION to transform things so that the system serves the people and not the other way around. So that we can hold politicans as accountable for our well being as they hold us accountable for proving we love this country by going to war, by sweating your ass off working to take care of your home, by paying taxes to keep shit running smooth.

I am not talking about picking up a gun!
They got to that point when the likes of George Washington took up arms against their own wealthy oppressors in the English.
We are nowhere near that point here in the U.S. right now.

But god damnit
lets start having respect for ourselves and where we came from!
and fucking LOVE for the next person. Reguardless of how fucked up they are. Because i know its hard to bother yourself with the thought, but that brother, that sisters life is as complicated as the shit above gets. And they may have given up.
Make it your responsibility to inspire this person even if in a minor way. Because trust me... you bury them on the spot... they may come back to bury you! You BUILD with this person, and you are doing a service to our communal existance.

And whether you like it or not.
You can never leave community.



Jobs for everyone! Why not?
It cannot happen over night.
But it starts with changing the psychology. Then slowly policies will come which only give breaks to those who trully serve the people.

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Friday, August 22, 2008

Olympic Spirit

This is going to be a diatribe on how the Olympics are no more moral than war!
I know it sounds ridiculous so you know what... if you wish you can stop reading now.
Otherwise SHeeeeYeDDup and read (dont know if i wouldve been so loose as to go there if i wasn't onto my second 40oz)


Let me ask you a question, a few questions:

-If there were games every four years in which all Men in the world organized their best players ___ and all women in the world organized their best players so that Men can challenge Women for supremisy, what would you think about that?

-How about all folk daker than a brown paper bag vs everyone lighter than a brown paper bag?

*HERE YOU GO WITH THE TREE HUGGER SHIT*

-What about all little wee wee guys vs all big wee wee guys?

*ROOM goES SilEnt




As a former athlete and student of the game (namely Baseball) i tend to lend great respect to "the natural"; the individual who made it and excelled off of little more than their grit/determination, knowledge/instincts, and physical ability. I suspect that while the general public ooos and ahhhs over the more polished players, (piveledged to have the best equipment, with trainers and dieticians whom keep a schedule for them, with access to not only some of the most healthy food but often genetically enhanced food) , the PURISTS (coaches and fellow players)marvel over the man whom trained running with worn down shoes yet wins the race, the boxer whom enters the ring looking malnourished and stands victorious, the female raised in a society where women are kept in their homes like veal and lift the gold. And this is how the purist feels REGUARDLESS of whether or not that athlete is your own or one from an opposing team.
But the olympics are not for the purists.. they are for the massess. And the media influences how we see these games.. it tunes our lens to apply our faith and pride in the flag over which these human beings compete rather than over the banner of human kind. It generates feelings of nationalism and patriotism in a world where such concepts are ALOT more transparent then they once were.

The Internet (World Wide Web)
Multi-National Corporations and 'world banks'
Interracial families
Intercontinental Political/ economic Unions: ex: European Union
Churches, ideological centers which organize people of all nations
ect...

The world is no longer divided by borders. It is no wonder a large number of people polled insisted that the olympics do not appeal to them, they do not watch them! When i think of someone sitting on front of the tv crying over some fellow countryman winning a medal i laugh. Now in days the teams are often not even completely made up of people whom are actually from the nations they represent at the games. You have Brazilians playing on the Italian team, Americans playing on the Russian team, Africans playing on the French team. It is all about the money, and if you have any historical dept of knowledge the olympics emphasize colonial dynamics. Of course the English, the US, the Russians, China, Saudi Arabia win every war, every olympics, every gain in the stock market... they have divided the world amongst them. They have monopolized the worlds resources and are the centers best to turn towards to attain 'the best' of anything.
BUT like i said... the world as one people are resisting this psychology of dominance. We dont want war because now, as opposed to the past, we have all the information and when considered, it doesnt often make sense... we are more readily prepared to speak about alternatives (your leader wants war and my leader wants war? well shit... he didnt ask us first. You know what... yours didnt ask yall first. Why are we listening to these jerks? get rid of him and we will get rid of ours here so that we, the more cooler heads, can discuss a way to turn this into a plus) ___Of course it isnt always that way and most of the times more complicated, but without a question that freedom for the common people to have a say exists today more than ever, where in the past when information wasnt so readily available___

Same thing with the Olympics. They promote division and some kind of subliminal fascism. Look at what it has done. Everyone is accusing everyone else of stacking the ranks: The chinese want the most team goals, they have installed bias judges :: The Americans want the athlete with the most medals so they count relay medals (which took team effort) amongst Phelps' golds

*OH NO YOU DIDN'T.. LEAVE PHELPS ALONE*

See what i mean?

Last i saw Michael Phelps he was hugged up on his moms titty talking to reporters bout how much he misses his XBOX and Cereal! (It'll be three years before we discover that like many before him over the last 2 decades, he took some kind of perfomance enhancement) OR maybe not

My goal is not to hate on anybody. More power to Phelps. He is a superb athlete. But im just saying. Some people apply a significance to these games that does not exist. Like there are thousands of people who all of a sudden feel as if though social injustice and imperialism do not matter because Phelps sweapt the games and proved Americas greatness. Why not that he proved his own greatness, and happend to be fortunate enough to have the best training. SOmewhere in that story i can admit just as well that it proves our greatness as a species, that we have developed the technology to cultivate what was impossible in the past. We can do this without allowing our pride to become our ignorance.


Anyway im tired of bitching
i have no sources to transform this rant into any kind of article
so i will leave it as a spear in the sky
If you find it coming your way and wish to return fire
i will gladly invite the debate

as for now im going to fall back...
seems this drink is putting me to sleep

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Man Seeks

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Male, 26, NYC
5’11, Latino, medium build
olive complexion with brown hair and eyes
seeks a soldier who’ll ride!

Somebody to struggle with
On starch leftovers and train fare,
Dinner saved for a steakhouse chain
On holidays with enough left between us
To make all minimum payments
Water in the milk and detergent
Going blacksmith, then surgical
on a tube of toothpaste time to time
fine with delegating a banister in the hall
clothing line and I’ll squeeze, to save the dime.
She keeps score and budgets-in the bottle we pour
on the same napkin, in mix of dominoes crackling,
she's reached over the beat physique
of those who couldn't keep with the funk and
the blues and the punk and play it smooth
when the shit hit, opened the door to her baggage
on the top step and froze in their britches,
though she'd lettem know she got that;
together we could bring it all back
to where she got it from, and return
where we're starting at...

I’m seeking a partner I can love down
Late to work the day after I struggled to
concentrate at work; mind on a fight with her,
a lover with whom I can refuge to sanctuary
from grinding on menstrual cycles daily
having learned to bare her own nuisances
all but callused at the brow
fortifying stresses that weigh ME down
commanding the wheels to stand in my knees
feeling man in her will to survive, man up to me!


a Female, 23-29 from a hood like mine
5’3-5’8, Of Color, mileage on the joints
one of them brown eyed gal
who cultivates her hair to take its heights
and aint afraid to get low when shit gets tight

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Saturday, August 16, 2008

Good time for a Party

Completed my summer season assignment with The Center For Family Life's Summer Youth Employment Program yesterday. It was a Friday which capped a whole week of goodbyes to youth whose names i hardly remembered even after 6 weeks (I get 8 workshops a week maaaaaannn, but yea my memory for names sux), but whom i gave a bunch and took a whole lot away from. It was more pleasing than emotional. I have maturen'd to the point where i can see them out the door and just feel inspired yet totally ok in the confidence they will make it in whatever way they may. Life is a beautiful struggle; some will learn that and grow from it, some will whither, but the natural order of things continues on.

About the workplace drama with co-workers. That came to completion yet lingered till the moment i left the facility. I had expected someone might bring it up because earlier in the week my co-facilitator basically let it be known that some folks were upset that i didn't mention names, and wanted to know if i was talking about them. Funny how shit gets twisted (more on that in a moment). So i expected it to come up again at our final meeting.. why not? Pizza and soda, reflection on a great summer, and oh yea... that thing Tony was talking about. The confrontation was invited by our supervisors whom thought it a good idea to bring the issue up because of some unresolved tension which carried over into the week. No doubt, no doubt... I was ready! So paper was handed out along with a pencil for each person to write a few words summing how they felt about Friday's meeting (*see the post before this one). People said how they felt. Half said they weren't bothered by the comments and the other half indicated that they indeed were aggrivated. So i addressed the group:

-While i apologize for pointing out one specific Sister's dilema with her group, as a point of reference for how we are lacking in our devotion to what we do (Fairly enough, because i wasn't in her class to know exactly what went on. And my reaction was more the becoming of an attitude i had saw/heard voiced/ permiating the group on down time), I DO NOT REGRET MY COMMENTS

-While i can admit that i broke a certain trust with my co-workers (And at my evaluation i even asserted that if there were one thing i regret about the summer it was failing to build better personal relationships with co-workers, and failing to confront them personally about issues before presenting it to the group), I DO NOT REGRET BRINGING OUT MY FRUSTRATIONS TO THE GROUP, THUS KEEPING A COMMITMENT TO MY RESPONSIBILITY TO THESE YOUTH, AND DOING IT IN THE PROFESSIONAL SPACE WHERE WE CAN DISCUSS IT PROFESSIONALLY


It wasn't enough for some folks. So i had to let them know! Whatever tension had built up during the week was the result of conversations which occured OUTSIDE of the space on peoples personal time (basically gossip!) When i said that i saw a few heads nod, and shoulders freeze close (BOOYAAH!)
I was asked by one co-worker (with whom my problem WAS NOT with, yet whom with i am constantly butting heads because she just must not like me or SUTTIN!) to stop addressing my concern as a general one and to "name names" and speak directly to whomever i had a beef with.
She missed the point. I didn't bring my concern to the table because of any specific individual. It was a culture which was building amongst us. Alot of who cares, which to me is absolutely unacceptable because as i stated "This is what i do! And i will not allow my job to be degraded as some babysitting gig" SoRrY! So i reminded her how when i made the comments last week i made it clear that i was addressing everyone in the room, including myself for having slacked, and that i wasn't sending any so called "subliminal messages" (In fact, the person most flagrant about their oppressive/negligent attitude towards the youth WAS NOT EVEN AT THE MEETING in which i addressed the issue... so had i named names i wouldve been wrong reguardless because then it would have been "ohh.. you are talking about someone who isnt here to defend themself") -by the way it's amazing to me how all of a sudden it is more professionally acceptable to point out the individual, when in fact i was warned against 'attacking' when i addressed my co-worker/Sister last week (to whom i've since apologized), and how all of a sudden the proper place to speak about workplace issues is not in our meetings but at the lounge on Friday evening. Almost forgot, that we must keep our petting session appointment now.. because that's what our meetings have been were it not for me to bring some shit to the table.
So anyway yea, i let it be known that i was addressing the whole group.. then i let this female have what she asked for, and i confronted HER... D I R E C T L Y! expressing how i feel that since i've known her she has shown a tendancy to have to dominate conversations and space and how the fact that she tried setting perameters in framing how i am to address individuals DIRECTLY, based on her own annoyance with my so called "vague" approach, was precisely an example of how she feels she always has to be at the helm of a conversation WITH the final word.
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She broke into tears, for a moment hell broke loose as folks moved to the edge of their seats, one brother (whom was supporting me) walked out, having predicted this was EXACTLY what would happen if i was to address anyone directly.

After that i realized that there were just some people who were not going to back down. They weren't going to conceide their pride. Imagine talking shit behind someones back for a whole week, then that person is actually addressing the fact that you have been talking shit and that that person does not regret anything they've said.. in fact they've reasserted their position. Nobody wanted to walk out of there feeling like an ass! They was fucking with the wrong person then. I recognized that i had gotten my point across to those whom took my comments for what they were and que se joda with everyone else. So i fell back from that point on and let the 2 or three stragglers get their pieces out. Even said sorry at the end of it all because in all reality, it wasnt supposed to result to this, and i really did want to kill the tension. I really did want to walk away with hugs. There were some increadibly talented and sincere Youth Workers in the group. Unfortunately though the love i once felt (like first two weeks) never came back for a goodbye. So i walked out of that meeting civil yet alone. Content with the fact that some of the younger workers got a chance to see that work isn't always just coming in to fill your hours. That they are apart of a movement whether they know it at this point or not.. whether they truelly do pick up that guard or not!

Exude confidence, Exude hope, strength/ courage
be critical, always honest
and all out of love!

It's the same approach i take with my youth, with my family...


That night i went to my boys to have a dring and smoke and to speak a few rhymes. I was really tense still though. I cant smoke when the mood aint chill and the cold shoulder/isolation i had felt throughout the week had me exhausted. It was the perfect time for a party. And we had one planned here in the BX for my roomate on Saturday (just a couple of hours ago). My other roomate called me while i was at my boys house getting nice. He was pissed because we had planned to clean on Friday night. I vowed to get here in the morning and i did. I brang groceries, cleaned, cooked and helped host something like 70 people for a good man. Being the helping hand is what i needed. I kept myself busy. Didn't know anyone so didn't really have a choice, im not the initiator of convoz with folks i dont know, takes me sometimes months before i can warm up to anyone. Eventually the house just got too packed and so i took myself up to our roof for the first time, where i just observed the night with the bass bumping below. There i stood for 3 hours, even napping. Then i returned to the small bunch of people who remained. Had a good easy talk with some brothers and sisters on our lives and schooling and beliefs and such (all brief). Then they evaporated one by one.
In the end it was just three of us cleaning up.


This has been a summer of mixed emotion for me. Not very eventful yet very important in the time i have gotten to spend with people i need to be spending time with (namely my daughter). Building with folks whove dedicated their lives to do what i do *some amazing people i might add. But there is this sense of urgency and lethargy mixing like something that stales to brittle. Im not where i want to be, OR i am going where i want to be and realizing that it will be more work than enjoyment away from such. Which is ok for me. Totally ok with me.


I hear things i never have
I see things i never have


Progression?

Friday, August 8, 2008

Keeping It Real At Work

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Five/ Six years ago i was working as an Assistant Group Leader with the Women In Need Child Day Care Program on the West Side of Midtown. During the school year i worked part time in the afterschool program and during the summer full time. I worked there for three years. While there i met and aquainted myself with working amongst a diverse staff. This i appreciated. What sucked was that while it was the first time i had worked with adults (Before WIN i worked with primarily with my teen peers), ranging between 16 and like 65, it happened to also become the job that would introduce me to workplace gossip and two-facedness.
You could just hear the whispers from the store on break, rambling-on way down the block and in the rectory's cafeteria. And when you were alone with the snake, they spoke of everyone you thought you knew them to be close with.
The worst thing about it all was the way they would speak about the children themselves. There was no doubt that some of the youth were pains in the vein you cant find in the ass but there comes a point when the shit talk gets disgusting (children will be children.. I mean come on).

Lately i have found myself trying to find my way out of the same situation. Only now i am experienced an additional five years in youth services and am vocal about destroying that attitude. And it has become obvious that some co-workers are irritated with the fact that i am trying to drag their mind out of the gutter along with my own. It has become apparent that they feel i take my job too serious, that i am "messing up the curve", an going out of my way to make problems/ create an uncomfortable workspace.
There's alot of "Oh well, there are only three weeks/ two weeks/ one week left" going around...
Alot of "These kids cant even read, and they want to go to college... I'm looking at them like: are you foreal" going around...
Maybe it isn't fair that some of my haste comes from the fact that i have found out that people five years younger than me, with waaaaayyyy less experience are getting paid the same as me... That i took a four dollar cut to work where im working... That we never had the liberty of openly introducing our own ideas into the curriculum... and i may be taking it out on the culture of our program at our meetings. From my perspective, not only am i being undervalued and playing a mentor role to younger workers, but it has increasingly become clear that i am working along with a team that sets the integrity below a standard i have worked hard to be at. I've reacted by acting on my sense of responsibility to be highly critical.

Example: At our last meeting i finally confronted a pair of Workshop Leaders whom have come complaining to our meetings, week after week, about how their teens just wont follow through with activities, partly because they are 'incapeable' shall we say intellectually (whether or not due to their economic condition), and partly because of behavior (whether or not due to their economic condition).
My response was "You guys have let these young people down"
Why did i respond this way? because every day during lunch all these Workshop Leaders do is complain and mock the youth, posturing a resistance to the attitude of these youth in a way i can only explain as reactionary... as if though the elders are guarding their pride against any perceivable challenge... from a YOUNG MAN/WOMAN.
"Im not going to stress myself", "If they don't want to be here they can leave"
This has been the attitude.
At meetings they put on a different face:
"Oh, these kids need something different, i can't change the world in 7 weeks"

What my co-workers are saying is true. Some of these youth come with really deep rooted issues. Some really can't read very well; Some really do find it hard to stop speaking and thus distracting a lesson; Some really do come in not wanting to participate... But it was never in our job description to change the world. It IS in our job description to engage the youth in workshops, and GOD DAMMIT if that doesn't work with plan A you move on the plan B.. If plan B doesn't work you get support from fellow co-workers to develop a fucking plan C!
My problem is that my co-workers are not willing to be SELF critical about the job they are doing. They have out their own mouths insinuated that they are not willing to go out of their way to evaluate why their workshops havent been successful. So they've been giving up on the youth and running lame workshops for three/four weeks where they allow the youth to do what they want, or run though activities without an effort at debriefing and processing the lessons students should be internalizing. They are warehousing the youth and putting them through fucking doggy tricks, because that is what group work activities become when there is no discussion and reflection on purpose!

Years ago i may have been just as annoyed by some self annointed big shot in the room whom thought he knew all the answers and was telling me how to run a workshop... but there is one thing i can say... I may have failed, but i always tried... I may have gone two, three classes in a row lacking anything of substance while i straggled for new ideas (it's been a long time since that time... i can pull 100 activities out my ass at this point), but i never shitted on the youth! I never blamed my own inadequacies on them! In fact i wouldn't be around any longer were that to be the case. I would've dropped out a long time ago, having determined that i cannot work with youth. In fact i have gone the other route. I have adapted. I have given the power to THEM. They run the lessons. I am invisible. Every once inawhile i put a trap in place, a challenge to overcome, a question to face up to. Other than that i smile, i grin, i speak low, i yell... but i do it to their heart and not to their face!


At one time i was all about challenging the captain (and i am talking about very specific instances! I quit my last job for example because in a dispute between our youth and a security guard at George Westinghouse HS my Program Director wouldn't support me in challenging the Security Guards threat to arrest youth for simply cursing at them___along with an instance or two of that same boss of mine refusing to support a partner and I's decision to expose our youth to historical figueres of their own background). I went after my Coordinator or Director. Still today watch out because if i can sniff out that you are tryng to play me or my fellow worker i am going to rally some type of response. But i take this more personal. Sometimes i have to step back from challenging the system so that i can put a calling out to my fellow worker to assume responsibility over what it is we've committed to take on.
As a result i find myself isolated. I don't get the giggles i used to get when i free a whitty remark into the tense room. People no longer look me in the eye. I am no longer invited to go out after work (although there does remain a couple whom DO extend an invitation; real recognize real). Today in an appreciation circle (it is our last week) i was one of the last to receive a compliment, and it didnt even come from a peer.. it came from the supervisor "for bringing topics it is sometimes scary to confront into our discussions".


I feel like a trader
For sticking up for our youth

Fuking Shame considering when i'm called into the office for evaluation my response to my relationship to my co-workers and my judgement on the job their doing is positive. Because i answer to my own weaknesses. And if there is a weakness of my people i readily point to how i have failed them.
But what happens when half of your people, and they are the elders, the established; are neglecting the other half of your people- those at the mercy>?
This is the sad reality in our schools. Teachers themselves don't respect the job they do. It is just a job to them. They are on the clock. And politicians are opening the flood gates for even more of these apathetic jerkoffs into the system with programs that invite paraprofessionals looking to cross over from other workfields, whom often lack the passion to teach and only seek a job with decent pay and so many breaks free. They are opening the flood gates by chosing to place principals with expertise in business management over principals whom have strong theories and methodologies about teaching. That's a whole other subject, but holler if you hear me.

Whatever it is... im not down with that lay back sh!t nomore. If you are a fukkin stock clerk work hard at what you do, if you are a hairdresser or a flyer distributer. Secure your work, and in the mean time inspire those around you to move as well. What you will find is that a whole lot can change and you can win your respect and even success caring about what you do. If it isn't for you move on. I mean, i understand sometimes we gotta take what we can get (like i said i took a four dollar pay cut)... but understand that you will either someday find yourself in a position of influence (whether in the heirarchical or horizontal sense), or you will just live check to check working a conveyor belt.. waiting to be laid off with nothing to do but dig yourself deeper in the shits when youve gotta take your grumpy ass to the same job with another company, hating what you do, and fucking up the quality of what and whom it is you are working with. You will be the Old ladies in the lunch room with nothing better to do then talk about how this little girl is gonna be a hot one, and that little boy must be slow.


That's that bullshhhh

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