above all, the idea of rich people coming in to help poor people.... hehe. I can just imagine Donald Trump doing career counseling at 9th and U NW, or wherever the open air drug market is these days near Howard University.
By the way, I grew up upper middle class -- my dad was a foreign correspondent -- but left home early. I lived on what are called the fringes in Paris and London. At a later period I lived on the blue-collar side of Washington DC and drove a cab there for several years. I talked to crack dealers, prostitutes, engineers jetting off to fix a problem somewhere, welfare mothers, consultants and little old ladies. Later I had a really ugly divorce and did the single mother thing pretty much as tough as it gets for while. If you were to come give me a talk about the value of budgeting, I'd have laughed at you. Wait, I am still laughing at you ;) especially when you start telling me how the system works ;) Ya, there are people out there who would rather get high than make money. And there are plenty of multigenerational welfare families. I have lived next door to some. On the whole though, most people are making the choices that seem best to them. Even that crack dealer, who doesn't believe he'll live to be eighteen anyway. And there are a lot of people out there who are working their asses off and getting nowhere. I'm not one of them and yes, one of the reasons for that is that I am willing to make an effort and to learn; that needed to be true before I got lucky. But I did get lucky and I have enough humility to realize it. I am in a narrow field in a poor state and I was in the right place at the right time. I have a woman staying with me right now who works full-time at Central New Mexico Community College, as instructional staff mind you, not as custodial or anything, and she was going to have to spend the night on a bus bench when I ran into her, because she was out of motel money over the winter break. I can assure you that she isn't crazy. or a druggie, or trying to be poor. She really does work at the college, as I know some of the people she talks about. So when you sit back in your comfortable chair and talk about teaching people financial literacy -- HA. She doesn't need a class, she needs to save up a security deposit. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, and sometimes poor is just poor. On 2/9/07, Casey Dougall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Nice Gruss, one minute you're talking about the rich talking to HS classes, > the next your saying, it's you that chose to be a teacher. > > It's a joke to think that having someone come in and talk about their job > for X amount of hours is going to make a difference. Now if that same person > said, hey I have a few after school positions paying what you would earn at > Fast Food establishments, I'd say we're on the right track. > > You need a job to gain experience so you can get a better job but no one > wants to hire someone with only education... > > Casey > >> > > So here's the one thing I'm willing to pick on those making 200k+ for: > 80 hours of community service which would mostly be education; > talking to HS classes about stuff you've learned and how you got the > income you did. > > Every other case you mentioned, e.g., "live where your family has > > always lived", that's a choice. Being a school teacher is a choice. > > Being a policeman is a choice. > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Upgrade to Adobe ColdFusion MX7 Experience Flex 2 & MX7 integration & create powerful cross-platform RIAs http:http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;56760587;14748456;a?http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion/flex2/?sdid=LVNU Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:227526 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
