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January 16, 2004

Pres. Bush 1:20pm EST-"...This economy is good..."

Pres. Bush 1:20pm EST—"Part of the things you'll hear me talk about is how to continue the growth. I mean, we're growing. This economy is good. It can be better, so more people find work. "
—Source: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/12/20031205-4.html

Then how come so many damn people are being laid off still!?

Here is a List of people I know, who've been: laid off, can't/couldn't find steady work, are underemployed, etc. during this BUSH/CHENEY Presidency(Note: They didn't have this problem during the Clinto Era. Coincidence? Maybe.):

  • Tracie (my girlfriend)
  • Peter (her dad)
  • Julie (her Mom)
  • Stepha (my roomate)
  • George (my dad- As of today, no less. 27 years for the same company, and oh what a few years before retirement, sorry..out the door. ..."..this economy is good." mr. bush Have you read a paper, or listened during your cabinet meeting's!)
  • Ken (My current boss, was unemployed for 16 months before he got his job a year ago).
  • Mike Boston
  • Dan (co-worker-laid off)
  • Leslie (co-worker-laid off)

That's all I can recall at this moment...but I know there are more. And we all know there will be more. When the soldiers come home, there will be even more. Anyone recall, "Vietnam" or "Desert Storm". It's seems to me that the only people who have jobs come in two categories:

  • Those who: work like slaves and are lucky
  • Those who work all the slaves and take the money

Sure, I sound cynical, and on the whole I tend to be, but I do have passion for: this country, democracy, fairness, justice, equanamity, and humanity. Where has all of it gone? Not only are we waging an unjustified war in a foreign land, lacking domestic support, under a popularly un-elected President...but we are also spiralling into the largest economic black hole of debt in the history of the world.

Today, when I found out my father was laid-off, I was angry, devasted, pissed, crushed, exhausted, and then I realized that I've been that why for a while, and this is just another time it has really hit home. I mean I am grateful that he has his health and has incredible intelligence, work experience, and more to come, but I am furious that he's been tossed aside like someone's used trash. The man worked (slaved...as so many else have) for my entire life at this company.

Not only, did he work for this company for 27 years, but he had been there several years before it became one of the many companies it was renamed to (when his employment was finally considered non-contractual work and a "full-time" employement - and Dad, correct me if i'm wrong here?). And it seems like only yesterday (although it was about a year ago), when he and I were talking about how his good friend Tommy had been laid off from said company, the same way, just before retirement.

Because, you know, we are living longer, so maybe we should all just work our asses off until we drop steaming hot dead in our jobs.

So, I came home, having decided I need to do something about this crap, and started to just poke around and see if there was anything about: economic growth, unemployment, workers rights, laid off, etc., on the world wide web. And what ahve you, i found numerous resources on unemployment and laid-off workers rights, and I found the speach mentioned above, coincidentally from this afternoon, around the same time I found out about him getting laid off. Wow, what a surprise.

Now we can't blame this all on Mr. Bush, but I'll tell you what, searching his former state, I sure can't find a helluva lot about laid-off worker's rights, infact the only thing found was this and it was on the Department of Labor's site. And the hilarious thing is that I was hard pressed to find the word "fired" laid-off". It seems they've renamed it...


Bush to Secretary of Labor
Elaine L. Chao —

Bush—"'Laine honey darlin, what's a better word for fired or laid off? I need a synyrnym for this here crossword puzzle?"

Chao—""Shoot hun, how 'bout...uh..´dislocated worker´...?"
Bush—"hrm...too long...but I like the ring it has...can't we do something with it?"

If you are a dislocated worker, then you may need this site.

I'm sorry, but I'm with George Carlin on this "...when are we going to dispense with the euphemistic language and call shit what it really is?"—a derivative of what he said in a routine form a long time ago.

What the hell can a person do about this?

What are you supposed to do if you are in midlife and you've been laid-off from the one place that you invested your life's work?

How can we prepare for this if we haven't even reached mid-life when this happens?

What happens when it hits home right away, when you're young?

What if you never even have a fair opportunity?

What the hell is going on in the world?

We need to act. I suggest we all try as damn hard as we can to stick it to each other, find some answers to these questions and more, and stop taking this crap! We have to stop sedating ourselves, and work our minds in this country to solve our problems, 'cause in case you haven't noticed, borders are dissolving, and our problems are becoming world problems. That's why we have to intervene, because often we are at fault. Of course that's easier said than done, I haven't had my experience with a layoff...yet, but I'll be damned if I won't.

We have to fight back, and as some say regime change begins at home. you can guess who's going to be one of the first scapegoats I pen it on, well, he does deserve it. Also, I'm going to continue my research. This may be the impetus for me finally going for a law degree.

To be continued...in the meantime a few resources for the "Dislocated Workers":

And if anyone is reading this. Please tell us what you know with you comments.

Posted by wayne at 11:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

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