I can't question
my existance in this world. That is far beyond my control. What I can
question is the purpose. Where are the events of my life leading me? I
was born into a middle class family in a small Mississippi town that is
barely on the map. My father, a high school graduate, worked in a
factory throughout my grade school days. My mother, also a high school
graduate, worked at the same factory. Up until I was 14, all of my
great-grandmothers were still living. Most of my extended family lived
within a days drive of one another. Very few had advanced beyond an
associate level of education. They typically live check to check. They
resided on land that was owned by others, usually family. Taking in all
this and more, I can see why I've developed the views I have.
The community in which I was raised was prosperous considering its location. People were working, happy. Any teenager that needed a summer job could almost guarantee that they could work at the Knitting Mill until school resumed. It was routine. Clarke County was blue collar in every sense of the word. People went to the city (Meridian, Laurel, Hattiesburg, Jackson) every now and then to shop for luxurious things for the hometown offered all the basics. On the surface, this was your American design. It went on for years until complacency hit.
I can't fault any one person for what happened around my home. When a person is making a living and paying the bills, that person is not considering that one day that source of income will leave. When the home town business closes the doors leaving a community of loyal, low experienced workers jobless, what happens? No government assistance would come to the aid of the newly unemployed. Many of these people had never held any other type of job. They hardly ever had higher than a high school education. There's not much out there to feed a family of five with such an education level. Starting pay for someone with no experience if they could land a job, $8 - 12/hour. (I make more than that in my profession, and I know I could NOT support a family of five). Here's the terrible part, many of these families were rooted in Clarke County. These jobs I spoke of were in Meridian and Laurel. Gas prices were rising, but they had to make this drive in order to continue living. They had to make this drive because they could not afford to move the family in many cases. Those that did save could afford to risk it all to relocate.
How does this happen in America, the land of the free? Well our freedom "to do" also gives the freedom "to not do." I spoke of complacency; the children were the only individuals that were trained to focus on the future. The children were the only individuals that were told that education is important. The working class seldom sought after advancements. Why try to be the best worker bee when there was little reward? This lead to children becoming teens becoming adults over time, and they too adopted this complacent philosophy. Soon the job seekers would become saturated with low experienced and sometimes un-trainable citizens, and still no government assistance. On top of all that, the current attitudes were being reflected in the school systems. Students were becoming dreamers and not goal seekers.
The time for a solution has long passed. The bleeding has to stop. The time of depending on the government has to stop. I often hear citizens of the community complain about how local elected officials are not doing anything. When will we see that as a community, we are responsible for taking care of our people? When the school system is not sufficent enough to educate our children, the community needs to organize to educated beyond school hours. The community needs to first educate itself. It has to provide opportunities for each member to have basic needs. When one starves, everyone starves. From crawling to a walker, when a community member cries for help, there needs to be a group there to support however possible.
The solutions are simple; the deterrents are innumerable. The most prevalent being the uncooperative. Those that feel that will not contribute for selfish reasons. There are dissenter hinder also. Pride stands in the way of community growth; one feels that he or she does not need any help. Once again complacency. A person is happy being in the current position and will changed unless forced. Even then, this person will resist. Change resistant people make my blood boil. There are those that notice or not that a change will improve lifestyles but refuse to accept it because the old way works or some other inane reason.
I'll insert a story about change resistance for my Clarke County people. Years ago when I was about ten, elected officials in Quitman rejected the proposals to build both a Wal-Mart and McDonalds in the town. They did not want to challenge the local private owned business. At the time, employment was at a high level, so the answer of creating jobs was not important. It has been nearly 20 years since that decision. A chain of events have occurred in that time span. Local jobs have left the area, driving workers to more centralized markets. This left many of those protected businesses to go belly-up due in part to the fact that there are not as many people working in the town. In the meantime, Wal-Mart has been converting small town stores into Supercenters, creating more jobs; although lower paying, but jobs nonetheless. Karma for your over conservative system there.
I look around and see my classmates all over the place. I tend to wonder if the same would be true if nothing happened to force the issue. I'm happy to see that finally the standards have been raised though. That is until I return home, I see a group of people that seemed left behind. Those that could abandoned ship leaving everyone else to go down with it. My heart hurts the most for the children. The models they see are often those that did not have the motivation to accomplish goals. Rarely do they recognize a legitimate role model. The parents spend long days away from home working, and the only things left to model them are the television and aforementioned "bad apples."
Someday I wonder if I am the only one that can see these things. I know not but when all around me I see us glorifying nonsense. I don't really care about that new custom paint job. I don't care about that new 'fit you bought to wear to the party. I don't care about how many men/women you have chasing you. At the end of the day the question is this, have you checked to see if your neighbors are mentally, physically, and spiritually as enriched as you seemed to be?
The community in which I was raised was prosperous considering its location. People were working, happy. Any teenager that needed a summer job could almost guarantee that they could work at the Knitting Mill until school resumed. It was routine. Clarke County was blue collar in every sense of the word. People went to the city (Meridian, Laurel, Hattiesburg, Jackson) every now and then to shop for luxurious things for the hometown offered all the basics. On the surface, this was your American design. It went on for years until complacency hit.
I can't fault any one person for what happened around my home. When a person is making a living and paying the bills, that person is not considering that one day that source of income will leave. When the home town business closes the doors leaving a community of loyal, low experienced workers jobless, what happens? No government assistance would come to the aid of the newly unemployed. Many of these people had never held any other type of job. They hardly ever had higher than a high school education. There's not much out there to feed a family of five with such an education level. Starting pay for someone with no experience if they could land a job, $8 - 12/hour. (I make more than that in my profession, and I know I could NOT support a family of five). Here's the terrible part, many of these families were rooted in Clarke County. These jobs I spoke of were in Meridian and Laurel. Gas prices were rising, but they had to make this drive in order to continue living. They had to make this drive because they could not afford to move the family in many cases. Those that did save could afford to risk it all to relocate.
How does this happen in America, the land of the free? Well our freedom "to do" also gives the freedom "to not do." I spoke of complacency; the children were the only individuals that were trained to focus on the future. The children were the only individuals that were told that education is important. The working class seldom sought after advancements. Why try to be the best worker bee when there was little reward? This lead to children becoming teens becoming adults over time, and they too adopted this complacent philosophy. Soon the job seekers would become saturated with low experienced and sometimes un-trainable citizens, and still no government assistance. On top of all that, the current attitudes were being reflected in the school systems. Students were becoming dreamers and not goal seekers.
The time for a solution has long passed. The bleeding has to stop. The time of depending on the government has to stop. I often hear citizens of the community complain about how local elected officials are not doing anything. When will we see that as a community, we are responsible for taking care of our people? When the school system is not sufficent enough to educate our children, the community needs to organize to educated beyond school hours. The community needs to first educate itself. It has to provide opportunities for each member to have basic needs. When one starves, everyone starves. From crawling to a walker, when a community member cries for help, there needs to be a group there to support however possible.
The solutions are simple; the deterrents are innumerable. The most prevalent being the uncooperative. Those that feel that will not contribute for selfish reasons. There are dissenter hinder also. Pride stands in the way of community growth; one feels that he or she does not need any help. Once again complacency. A person is happy being in the current position and will changed unless forced. Even then, this person will resist. Change resistant people make my blood boil. There are those that notice or not that a change will improve lifestyles but refuse to accept it because the old way works or some other inane reason.
I'll insert a story about change resistance for my Clarke County people. Years ago when I was about ten, elected officials in Quitman rejected the proposals to build both a Wal-Mart and McDonalds in the town. They did not want to challenge the local private owned business. At the time, employment was at a high level, so the answer of creating jobs was not important. It has been nearly 20 years since that decision. A chain of events have occurred in that time span. Local jobs have left the area, driving workers to more centralized markets. This left many of those protected businesses to go belly-up due in part to the fact that there are not as many people working in the town. In the meantime, Wal-Mart has been converting small town stores into Supercenters, creating more jobs; although lower paying, but jobs nonetheless. Karma for your over conservative system there.
I look around and see my classmates all over the place. I tend to wonder if the same would be true if nothing happened to force the issue. I'm happy to see that finally the standards have been raised though. That is until I return home, I see a group of people that seemed left behind. Those that could abandoned ship leaving everyone else to go down with it. My heart hurts the most for the children. The models they see are often those that did not have the motivation to accomplish goals. Rarely do they recognize a legitimate role model. The parents spend long days away from home working, and the only things left to model them are the television and aforementioned "bad apples."
Someday I wonder if I am the only one that can see these things. I know not but when all around me I see us glorifying nonsense. I don't really care about that new custom paint job. I don't care about that new 'fit you bought to wear to the party. I don't care about how many men/women you have chasing you. At the end of the day the question is this, have you checked to see if your neighbors are mentally, physically, and spiritually as enriched as you seemed to be?
No comments:
Post a Comment