Wednesday, January 29, 2014

January 29, 2014

I had a hunch I would regret mentioning the President’s State of the Union address in my “inaugural” blog as I have been sensing for quite a while, the political enemies were just laying in wait to dismiss everything he would have to say - and my hunch was even more accurate than I had expected.

I have a copy of his speech, so if you would like to join in the outrage that has been expressed by the so-called “professionals”, by all means do so - as long as you stick to one of the several points he made in his speech.  I chuckled that one of his critics was so enamored with his own sense of importance that he listed five, the last of which was “the disappearing act” regarding gun control.

It is difficult for me to imagine another President who would have done more to bring our nation to its senses regarding gun “control” and although it saddens me that any idiot can find access to a gun, I have to believe the President didn’t pursue the need for legislation because it would be a waste of our time, given the more critical issues we face.

I have been around for a long time so I have heard lots of speeches by the resident President; this one get a 98.9 rating in my opinion.   Another reason I have a bumper ticker on my car that reads - “I’ve got his back”

And would you believe - you ought to because it is the truth, just as I went to my car to make sure I had the correct wording, I stopped by the mail box and there was a letter from him.  Form letter to be sure and you probably could guess at it’s content.   You would be right, he is urging me to support a Democrat in our Senate race.    So you know, I will be supporting whoever is the Democratic candidate as his opponent, Lamar Alexander, has been in Washington, wasting away our time pretending to know what we need in the way of positive action to correct the wrongs we hear about, almost daily.   And to think, I used to like the guy.   He did a lot for Tennessee; he has done nothing for Tennesseans since going to Washington.

Enough of this.   Politics is for the most part, a waste of time.

Yesterday, I visited the local office of what we used to call, the U.S. Employment Service.   I can vividly recall visiting a USES office in Norwalk, CA in the 60’s and met with people who knew about every job possibility in their immediate area - every one.   They knew because they had copies of the form all employers were required to submit to Washington transmitting the taxes they had collected from their employees - by name.   And in a column opposite the name and Social Security number was another number, this one representing the Dictionary of Occupational Term’s code for their skill.

These folks took time to collate these forms and manually file them so if a person came to their office looking for a job as a Fork Lift operator - as an example, they merely pulled their file and made another list advising the applicant of the places where he (she) needed to make an application.

Would you be surprised to learn, their area had the lowest un-employment rate in the State?   It should not.   Their applicants received guidance.   Today, given the fact these offices use computers, they get information.   Looks good, but here is the catch.   Yesterday, I was provided with a list of nearly 5,000 potential job openings in the State of Tennessee.    I took time to see if there might even be a job for me.   Guess what.   I found three.   But I also discovered there wasn’t a “new” job listed.   Most of the listings were for employers that anyone with skills should have already contacted.

Therein is the problem.   The other three applicants sitting in the office during my visit were not prepared to apply for a job.   Unfortunately, they looked like their only qualification would be a farm hand or laborer - and that might be true.   The problem is, they probably would not be qualified for any of those 5,000 jobs and they would be added to the lists of the un-employed.

What they needed more than anything else was a counselor who could explain the details of how a person - especially those with real needs, went about actually locating a job that would provide a pay check.

I hope I didn’t lose you with such a discussion, but the fact is, we have an under-class in our nation, people who have no skills, school drop-outs, most of them, and whether we want to agree or not, they will be living off of the taxes we pay - unless we have the courage to identify them and plan to help them find their way in our complex society.

I wonder, I have to ask, does this bother you?   When was the last time you had to search for an employment opportunity?

1 comment:

  1. The last time I sought work was after being caught up in a "down-sizing" 3 weeks prior to my 64th birthday after 29 years with the company. Two other two guys were down-sized same morning. One was 66, nearly 30 years on the job and the other was 56 with 32. I applied for perhaps 50 jobs on line without getting an interview. I took a part time position as a helper for people who needed help or transportation and a temporary spot grading 3rd grade essays. The higher paying of these two jobs paid $10.17 per hour and required a 4 year degree

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