I am going crazy...

[Occhidiangela]

Helping folks in hard times is, all friction considered, a Good Thing™

[Doc]

I believe I am doing the right thing.

On Friday, in Henderson SC, a man walked into the Employment Security Office and just started shooting. He killed the office manager and an assistant.

He was upset. In particular, he was pissed off the only jobs being offered was "N****r work" and he demanded a welfare handout instead. He was denied. He returned with a 45 pistol and began firing.

This could have been in one of my offices. News has talked about it all weekend. These are, well, desperate times.

What do I do? This, at least in my mind, puts my staff at a higher risk level then previously believed. I worry now. Well, I worry a bit more then I used to.

What do I do? Do I cower to demands? Cave in to the demands of white supremacy? Do I give them what they want to keep the peace and keep my staff safe? I think not.

What do I do? Ignore their words, tell them I can't help them, and send them packing?

What if I do? What if they return? Will this defuse the situation or make it worse?

I still believe creating the policy was a good idea... But... What if it backfires? Do I stand in defiance or crawl in submission?

This is not the first time this has happened. Certain types of people, of all sorts of skin colours, firmly believe they are owed something. And when it is not forthcoming, they, for some odd reason, believe it is their right to take it by force.

I think, what is needed, is a strong clear message that acting like a jackass is just not acceptable and there will be no reward for such behaviour.

It has been a LONG day. I think I will post more of my feelings and thoughts later.

[Sirian]

Some clarification.

And very helpful. Minus the charged remarks, this last post is no less powerful, and much more effective. I did not find anything to disagree with, and that's extraordinary.

I have answers. I have solutions. While they are far from perfect, at least I am making some effort to change the small piece of the world around me. What I do works.

More than some effort. And no reason not to wield your sledge hammer. Some jobs need hammering. But this post was not built with your hammer. Hammer's not always the best tool for each task. Other times it may be vital, but the task may be complex and also require other tools to be used.

If only you knew just what it was we deal with down here in these parts, you would flee back North fearing that the rampant idiocy and ignorance might be contagious. We are not ready for a global market. Bloody frigging hell, we are barely fit for an industrial society.

You're right, I don't understand. A lot of my context does not apply. You may have a lot more answers, and more effective answers, for those folks than I could ever assemble. But Doc, I'm not dealing with those folks. You're the one I attend to, and though I don't always understand you, either, I know that you listen, and think, that from time to time I can prod you a bit to some positive effect.

Have you enjoyed a good cream soda lately? I don't remember whether medical issues made you give them up permanently or only temporarily. I haven't heard you mention those in a while (medical matters, not soda pop), which I am taking to be a good sign. Raise a glass of that, or something else equally good, and give the three-legger and other critters a bit of petting for me, will you.


- Sirian

[Doc]

Link

The brief blurb here does not do the full story justice. What was said, what was done, what happened, and the chain of events afterword.

Mr. Case was furious over the types of jobs offered to him. When he refused to participate in the work program, his hand outs were cut.

This has ignited a firestorm. The APS, American Patriot's Society, the modern day name of the KKK, has started launching accusations of some great plot to turn the "Caucasian Race" into slaves. So much crap has been said over the last week or so that it's actually hard to keep up with the latest angle. Apparently, Mr. Case is the victim here, at least according to lots and lots of outspoken folks in the public. Public opinion on this case is insane... Some poor sap is dead, another wounded, and the shooter is the victim? He was drove to desperation because there were no jobs. Crap I say, crappity crap crap. The truth is being bitch slapped around and being skewed to all sorts of bad twisted angles. Crappity crap crapper. Turning the criminal in question into the victim in most cases is utter crap. Smelly stinky crap.

Now, lots of agencies are looking into the same options I am looking into. For one, security. As in guys in uniforms who will kick your sorry ass if you even think about showing it. Everybody who is in the employment security fields has been abuzz about zero tolerance options. Everybody is angry. My self included. I think about one of my staff members getting shot or injured and it shoots my blood pressure through the roof. My ears ring. That blood vessel in my neck feels like a live snake thrashing around next to my adam's apple. It's bad enough that these ungrateful creeps bitch and piss and moan over how unfair life is because they made bad choices and now that have to live with it. But to insult the providers of services that keep them in homes and keep their families fed, or, worse, to shoot somebody that was just trying to help their sorry ass out is unacceptable. It's almost a daily event now that the police are summoned to remove applicants that show their butts at my offices and act like jerks.

And on the other side are the folks who firmly believe that their white brothers are being treated unfairly. Men in power who are themselves educated and have powerful public voices. These men are putting a lot of pressure on the providers to come up solutions. Somehow, it's our fault that these bozos never finished high school, can't read past a 5th or 6th grade level, and have zilch for motivation in their lives. The finger is being pointed squarely at us. We are the monsters here. Nobody seems to care that minorities are being offered these same jobs and are somehow not offended. Nobody seems concerned to lift them from their unfortunate plight. No, agencies that speak for those folks praise us for providing services that lift them out of the hellholes most of them are caught in. We have tons of crappy awards from NAACP folks and other outspoken types that think we go above and beyond to provide the very best in services that provide a path to a better life. We try to provide these same services for the caucasian communies who are also caught in said same hellhole and we get no thanks, nope, jjust a kick in the teeth for our efforts and a lot of horse shit accusations. Somehow, folks like the outspoken members of the APS seem to think the folks they are the mouthpiece for are model citizens, all of whom have a Ph.D. and are elevated pillars of the community and are being forced down into the much far far below their station in life.

Ew.

When I hear those same dolts on the news or on the radio screaming bloody frigging murder that nobody is providing suitable jobs for the downtrodden caucasian race, I want to throw up. When I hear the economy is in the toilet and there are no jobs and nobody is hiring I want to barf. I have to go and eat a whole frigging roll of Tums and then gnaw my tongue out of frusteration. When politicians on the TV talk about how there are no jobs in South Carolina and how they promise to bring jobs back to South Carolina I want to go take a little road trip and then jam pile after pile of jobs that are open and I don't have enough people to fill and how the sort of person who is counted in all these employment charts turns their nose up at these available jobs. If I could I would sit on the Governer's chest and jam paper after paper down his big fat gob like he was a paper shredder. And for dessert, I would jam a few thousand pages of other folks' reports and paper work on entry level jobs and how they are not being filled, why they are being ignored, and the racial demographic that is turning these jobs down and making South Carolina look much worse then it really is.

AHEM. Pardon. I uh, must have ate my Wheaties this morning. Or coffee... Coffee makes a body bitter, to paraphrase those old milk commercials.

I have a huge meeting coming up in a few days where a whole bunch of heads from different agencies all dealing with this problem are going to get together and bitch and probably drink a lot of beer and feel sorry for one another. I am going to need to find some sort of answers and soon. If not me, then somebody. And mean time, I am going to need lots of Tums. I am going to have to regurgitate a whole lot of useless facts and figures and at least try to pretend that I know what I am doing, we all are. Things are getting worse and there is nothing that we can do to slow down this horrible decay that has set in and made the local economy into a total outhouse crap hole.

Had to cut back on drinking a case of cream soda a day for diabetic reasons. 24 bottles in a case, 24 hours in a day, turns out is not enough time to deal with all the incoming sugar. I am such a puss... I can survive horrible awful mutilation but live in fear of sugar that may or may not kill me. Bah humbug I say.

I think I am going to go eat a giant meatball sammich with extra cheese. All this bitching has made me wicked hungry.

[Doc]

To begin with, this is not angry ranting I have not had any sleep in God knows how many days Doc. This is I just had a restful few short hours of slumber and now I am somewhat rational and only slightly ranting Doc.

I see a real powderkeg situation brewing here. More and more folks are straining to make resources meet. The Department of Health and Human Services as well as the Department of Social Services are working under critical conditions. Honestly, just one or two more caseloads... Or one or two more straws and the camel's back is going to bust. SC Employment Security Commision is running dangerously low on funds and is a nervous wreck after the shooting. Several good kind hearted people who dedicated them selves to public service have quit their jobs. Other agencies are also at a breaking point. They take a lot of public and government donations, and those are running thin... And that's looking at it through rose coloured glasses. The whole system, by my best estimation, is on the verge of collapse.

What we have here is a very large section of the population refusing to do their share. These folks that don't take jobs go and get every free hand out they can. And when those dry up, they go some place else. The system it self is partially to blame for it's own collapse. Various agencies, the way I see it, need to act as a whole. A collective.

My idea, and one I plan to look into and probably even pitch to other respective heads, is a universal blacklist. Don't work, don't eat.

If for example, one person went into one place, asked for a job, and found none to his or her liking, went down the street and found the same jobs listed, and, not being one to do work beneath his or her self, decided to take the free hand outs instead, going from place to place, getting "no"s from some folks and "yes"s from others. In a sense, the very agencies put there to protect these folks from the demons of poverty are part of the problem.

In my idea, as the unshaped lump of clay that it is right now, is a vast community database, bridged between government and private entities. Person comes in to apply for services at any office, get's their picture snapped, gets the SS or green card number entered, and goes into said database. Now, from here, lots of things can happen. This person decides to work, and everybody in a sense, goes to work to provide as much as they can. DH&S starts up the medical options and family services with out a long painful visit to their office. DSS cranks up it's internal workings for power and rent assistance as well as food and clothing vouchers. Other folks, like the United Way, also gets this person into their databases as a case file is started so they can do what they do. Something like a shared resource system to distibute the load over a wide area. My offices do what they do. Etc etc etc. You get the idea. The Employment Security Department goes into long term search mode, and, instead of finding temp entry level spots, can instead dump every last bit of effort into finding long term permanate work or apprentice training positions giving the applicant a satisfying and rewarding job that they are pleased with. Technical aspects be damned, I see this as a real working possibility. As a big bonus, people with limited reading and writing skills would have access to duplicate applications everywhere, so getting a job or getting aid would be super easy with no other papers to fill out. Automated job applications strike me as potentially being the best thing since sliced bread. It can be degrading and painful to walk into a business and either have trouble or be unable to read and fill out a job application, and, it can be bad for the employer as well. Having a universal system in place would take a lot of stress out of this situation, er, at least in my own opinion. I might be wrong.

On the other hand, refusal to work with out a damn good reason would blacklist somebody from the whole system. No free hand outs anywhere to be found. Nowhere to go, everybody in the whole system would already know that you were a sorry ass freeloader with no will or motivation to actually help your self. Everybody, from government agencies to private agencies would close their door. The only way to actually recieve aid from anywhere would be to actually go in and accept a job that you are qualified for.

These are desperate times. We have bank robberies two, three, four times a week or so now. Armed robbery of stores. I don't know how to fix this, but, I know it's linked to the bigger problem. Some of these faces on the news I recognize as faces of folks in a database that have been through the system. Not all of them, but, let me tell you, there is an alarming number. No telling how many other folks in my shoes also look through the records and see some of those faces as well. Some of these folks turned down jobs, get turned away from services, and decided to go out and take by force what they feel is owed to them. Some of these folks would rather kill maim and injure rather then go out and do an honest days work. I have no idea how to help those sorts of people. I am at a loss. I feel for them. I know if I had a family with a bunch of kids or whatever, I would be desperate too. But a vast majority of these folks are not victims. They brough it on themselves and viewing them as victims is wrong. That guy that went into the Employment Office and pulled the trigger is not a victim, contrary to popular media claims. He is a criminal that made poor choices, and will be tried in a court of law. And hopefully will get what he deserves. I am losing my faith in that rapidly though, as everybody is screaming at the top of their lungs that this poor sap was the real victim here and that there were no good jobs to be had and he was driven to desperate acts on the account of the newfangled psychobabble bullshit called "White Rage." I will not even bother to explain it, but it's a brand new bit of work being tossed round these parts as an excuse. White folks just snapping and going postal because of the unfair and cruel atrocities being visited upon them by other races and seeing their dominant position in society being threatened causing them insecurity fear and loathing. It gets... deeper then an outhouse basement. If it were any other colour of rage, it would be grounds for that person to go straight to jail. It would be looked down upon, frowned upon. It would be a manace to society at large. The very idea of any sort of of any colour of rage would be used as a tool for public paranoia and propoganda and even more fear mongering. But nope... This, according to the experts, is White Rage. A known psychological condition that should be treated gently with a lot of care and understanding. Umm hmm. Mmmkay. I suffer from sympathy aversion. I show sympathy by offering a swift kick in the ass. Don't hate me, I suffer daily. There is no cure. Take pity on me.

I am waiting for the match to fall. This is a huge mess and I fear there will be disasterous social consequences. To be honest, I have never actually seen a situation quite like this and I have a LOT of experience to draw on. And I don't actually know what to do as a complete solution. The best I can come up with is at best, considered spit and bailing wire to allow a temporary fix to allow the system time for a breather.

I predict total collapse. This area is barely fit for industrial, certainly not for globalization, and definately not up to par for technical.

I mean, damn, most of the local schools are using state of the art 486s for crying out loud. We be in a heap of trouble I think.

[barron of ideas]

Faith, Hope and Charity, and the greatest of these is Charity.

Try to feel better. You are doing good work. If it was easy, anyone could do it.


On the other hand, you are likely correct. I read part of what you say and think, you know, Economics predicts you get more of what you pay for. If you pay people to be unemployed, you get more of them.

There is infinite demand for a free good. Can you charge for your services somehow? To be waived if they take a job you offer? Or if they keep it for x days? People tend to respect what they pay for.

If they went to a commercial job placement office they would pay a month's wage, if I recall correctly. Some executive recruitment offices charge the companies they represent as much as a year's salary to provide a high level executive. So it isn't unknown to have a charge.

You want to keep the people away who won't take a typical job you have to offer. If they know they had to pay for your services they would stay away or be more likely to take the job to get their fee back. It doesn't have to be a big fee. How much is a carton of cigarettes or a case of beer?

They might even have more self-respect if it were on a business basis, they aren't getting a hand-out, they are hiring your agency to find them a job. Think of your agency as a restaurant. Maybe not all the patrons like the coffee you serve. Sounds like you don't like the coffee you serve. Some won't come in, some will order it, and leave without drinking it all. But they won't be angry about it, at least not angry enough to shoot someone. I hope. For some, I hope, it is the charity part they don't like. If they paid for it, they would feel differently. Maybe. Some of them.

For a marginal improvement, try it. It might work. Free advice, Free advice, costs you nothing and worth the price.

[Kabuki]

Doc. Wow!

This is the first time I've really read your posts and they gave me alot to think about. Not so much the situation, as your reactions and means of handling the situation your in. And I am really glad you are posting this where I can see it.

I suppose I should put in some responses:

Your situation seems familiar to that of my mom, who works for Save the Children in Angola, at least with regards to the kind of skills that the people coming to you have. The needs for self-sustainability is obviously different, but the development of sustainable incomes in developing countries may not be a bad idea if you are running out of ideas.

-----

Considering the kind of problems you face ensuring that someone at the office is armed. Yes, that may sound crazy to some folks, but in my mind and the in the mind of the data I have seen it makes sense. See Lotts article for more on this: Lott's article at the University of Chicago journals. Also training, or at least an awareness of what to do if a situation arises might make your workers, and you feel safer. Something I've done myself and my martial arts group here have regularly is instruction by the local police specialist on spotting risk factors. Usually it takes the form of a lecture that includes videos from real events that allow you develop a sense of the kind of things you will run into. I've found it helpful in reading people as to their intentions, and again, it might make your workers feel safer and develop a better sense of what may happen and how people react in stess situation.

----

When you say your Draconian measures rub you the wrong way, I can understand that, however if they work and benefit a single person, and can pull a single family out of welfare and abject poverty it is good. If some people get lost along the way *shrug* you gave them a chance and they didn't take it. It is simply the cost of doing business with people who can't see beyond their nose.

To put it in the simplest terms, if I'm not willing to work on a fishing trawler or in a mill or where ever it takes, doing whatever it takes to feed my family, why should you save me? Not your job, not your life, you have enough trouble helping those who want and are willing to take your help. The rest... *shrug* I'm sure not going to care.

I'll leave it at this for now.

Keep up the good work Doc!