ANGEL BREATH

Unemployment for the Minorities

2008-09-18T12:58:00.000-07:00

Unemployment...lets hope you never experience it. So when i became unemployed I turned to our wonderful government for help and filed for unemployment. And let me tell you...they were less then help full. Apparently if you make less then $750 a pay period you do not qualify for unemployment. Wow, that ingenious...have a system called unemployment..then don't give it to the people that need it. BRILLIANT. Then I got to thinking...I wonder if its cause I'm a young white woman.
Don't get me wrong I am not racist at all but I think we need to rethink the word minority.
According to the dictionary a minority is..."is a sociological group that does not constitute a politically dominant voting majority of the total population of a given society. A sociological minority is not necessarily a numerical minority — it may include any group that is disadvantaged with respect to a dominant group in terms of social status, education, employment, wealth and political power." Back in the day the minority was the black community...but us that the case now?? NO its NOT. According to the definition a minority might include anyone that is disadvantaged to another group. So i ask you who is the minority..white? black? Hispanic? I am leaning towards white. Now don't go getting you undies in a bundle. I am only saying what I have seen and have witnessed. My father is a white man, and several times was denied promotion because a less qualified colored person was applying also. He was denied simply for the reason that they need more blacks in the field. Many of my friends are white and many a times were denied scholarships because a black student got it instead, they got the scholarship because of the color of their skin not because of their need or brains. What ever happened to getting something because you deserve it, and have worked for it?? I don't care if you are black, white, yellow or brown; NO ONE should be given something just because of the color of their skin. What ever happened to the American Attitude of working for things?? Now a days it seems to mean nothing. Many a hard working white people have been over looked and turned down simply because some ethics group decided there were not enough colored people on pay role. WHO CARES. If I had it my way the question of color and race would be taken off ALL applications. Color should have NOTHING to do with it.
If I were colored I would be ashamed to be given something simply because of my color. I would be ashamed and angry with my government for thinking that because my skin is a different color I cant work or think and therefore need a dumbed down language and school system. People of color should be out ragged and shouting from the roof tops...NO MORE DUMBING DOWN.
But I don't see that happening anytime soon. So I speak for all minorities...because I am one. And I can say that with all confidence. I am a minority because I am a mid-twenties white girl. I get no hand outs for being white, I don't get unemployment when I need it, and I don't get job preference for being white...I am a minority.

Ben Franklin and all his greedy friends

2008-09-12T10:03:00.000-07:00

Money...the scourge of my life. Did you ever wish you were born in simpler times; when a potatoe could be traded for a shirt or a shirt traded for I dont know a pitchfork. Man seems to have "progressed" so much in the last thousand or more years that we seem to have lost something in the process, like our very humanity. Now a days man lives and breath money. Everything we do is dictated by it. In the days of the hunter, man was defined by what he provided for his clan. The greatest men were the ones that provided the most sustanance for the group. Now a days the greatest man is the one with the most toys, money, and TV time. I guess that one could argue that there really isnt much differance in how man is catorgarized and now as there was then; since men no longer run around with clubs and spears to gather dinner, but rather Ben Franklins and George Washingtons. I guess the greatest difference now is the fact that most people think beef comes from Krogers and not some mist ladden field. Man seems to has distanced himself from the very thing that we are...animals. Dont get me wrong I am not suggesting that everyone go outside an hug the rearest tree or rose bush. Far from it. The only thing that I would suggest is a reality check.

Miracles great and small

2008-09-10T15:19:00.001-07:00

Ever feel like you life is well, little less then a speck of dirt on the belly of some random worm?? Well...I did. I recent months I have moved a thousand miles, been jobless, homeless, seemingly friendless, hopeless and well if I were any other less I think I would cease to exist. I was rock bottom. Don't get me wrong I am still on the bottom, but atleast now I have begun to claw my way out.
A little over a year ago I realizeed that I was completely and utterly unhappy. I know what you're thinking...how can you not know you are unhappy...well my friend its quite easy. But I digress. I was at a job that I hated, and was more or less alone. So what did I decide to do?? In a moment of complete "clarity" I knew that the only thing I could do was move, pick up and leave and start over. So I moved back to my home town of Louisville, a 1,000 miles from the small NH town I was slowing decaying in. I had planned everything out...I put my school loans on hold allowing me to save money. I started packing and called mom and dad, cause everyone knows that when you have hit the bottom...home is the one place you can always go back to. So once I am back in Louisville I start the great job hunt. Weeks went by with no luck. My money supply was running dangerously low. Then one day after filling out countless resumes, going to numerous interviews...I get the call. I am officially hired at Bountiful Bread as a night manager. Bountiful my foot. After 3wks the Bountifulness was over and once again I was jobless. AHHH!!!
Soo once again I resume the arduous task of job hunting. I dont know if you have ever had to job hunt, I dont mean looking for a high school job, I mean a real "if I dont get a job I cant pay these damn bills" job. Well let me tell you...its hell. Well thins time I had to look for only about a week before the call came. I had an interview at a Nursing / Retirement home to cook. This was it...it had to be it..the fates are not cruel enough to tease me with something so perfect for me. Well the interview went great and guess what?? I got the job, not just a job..I now have benefits.
Did you ever think being a grown up would be so cruel?? Yikes. Well For now that drama is over and God has smiled on me once again.
As I lay in bed thinking last night part of me knew that this hunt and struggle for a job was not all for nothing. The job I have now I a thousand times better then the one in NH and a billion times better then the not so Bountifulness.
So my friends if you find yourself hitting rock bottom, dont loose hope. Start stacking those rocks and claw your way back out.