| AtLast |
11-03-2010 08:28 PM |
My Dad. I know he is on my mind (and was) because of the mid-term elections. Although I am down about what happened yesterday, there is this part of me that remembers my Dad was very much like the people in what is being called the Heart Land that have lost jobs in huge numbers and will never see them return. Steel industry kinds of jobs, skilled labor jobs, car manufacturing jobs. Jobs that are hard but did pay well for a long time in the US that have been lost because of cheaper production costs in other countries.
My Dad wasn't educated, immigrated here, and would do any kind of work he had to make a living. He also supported labor unions back in the day because he saw child labor and sweat shops first hand. My Mom, too.
He became a business owner later in life (garbage collection), and had a good head for it, but was the kind of person that ran it out of his front pocket like so many of that generation. And he kept his word which was given with a hand shake. Honor. He'd give anyone a chance with a job and he always said that you had to pay people good wages and benefits were not a burden for an employer, it was just the right thing to do.
There were huge numbers of voters yesterday in the Heart Land that voted Obama in 2008, but did not now. Made me mad, but I also get it. How many are unemployed now, lost homes, had their retirement taken away? How many can re-train? fear was a big part of yesterday's elections.
I think my Dad would have been scared, too. The business he left behind remains in my family (my son and nephews run it today, 3 generations) and although lay offs have been avoided, how long will that be true? These are real people with real families from administrative, college educated types of positions to unskilled labor. Truck drivers, computer techs and a programmer, garbage collectors, recycling/Green workers and advisors, office workers, bookkeepers, managers, and mechanics. Real people!
Since my dad lived during the Great Depression, I think he would have done everything (as is being done) to not lay people off. But, if things don’t change soon, who knows! It would have troubled him deeply to let people go.
People like him in business do exist and I am tired of them getting lumped into the same categories as the huge mega-billion dollar corporations. Small independent businesses are not the same.
Maybe it's better my dad isn't alive. Damn, I miss him! I miss his horse sense and his honestly and reliability. And his giving a damn about people. I miss his integrity about an honest days work for an honest wage and being responsible for his obligations.
|
