April 24, 2007
stepping stones...
my mother and father had me at an early age. 16 for her, 17 for him. They were in no ways well off. Mom worked at a Boise Paper plant before hurting her back. A few months after that she worked at the Burger King down the street from where we lived. Dad worked construction during the day and bussed tables at the howard johnson's. Before he joined the service he worked at the local newspaper printing plant.
Not the uppity jobs that one would just dive into as you can imagine.
dad joined the service when he was 24. he didn't want to end up printing newspapers for the rest of his life in a medium town community. mom hadn't worked much as she stayed home with me most of the time.
they split while dad was in the service... growing pains is what i can gather from the stories from either side.
mom began working in a nursing home and gathered more responsibility as she went along. dad started rising in the ranks.
a year or so before dad got out of the service mom began working for the county treasurer's office. dad ended up getting a huge military award and a step promotion....
i guess it's a little easier to see the achievements and steps forward that my parents made in their life to get away from being in the poverty class because I basically grew up with them.
I told you all of that to say this:
I believe in my mind of minds... through lessons and experience... that if someone wants to achieve past the poverty scale, they have to take some risks. When I say risks, i don't mean going out selling drugs, robbing and stealing, or putting all personal energy to some sports scholarship in hopes of going pro, popping out babies like nobodies business, or staying in an area of no potential growth.
They are so many choices in life...
...thing though is this... i do get that in this country there are areas of just factories... grandpa worked there, dad worked there, and now its your turn...
I also get that in inner cities it's hard to get out of the mentality that there's no way to get something better... the education is poor... and normally, if you're smart... you have to rely on yourself... because the street mentality doesn't understand you.
National leaders look down from their hundred dollar glasses and their thousand dollar suits and say... your family before you came from nothing... you still have nothing... and you'll be lucky to even get something... and it's not really your fault... so don't worry about it... that's just the way it is...
...and they leave town.
What help is that? The only help is for them... the poorer everyone stays... the longer they can stand to make money... and for doing what?... pointing out class envy and creating problems... where 70% of the time has nothing to do with a reason they state but their fingers started hitting lint in their pockets... and they don't want to be at the same level of the people they preach to.
In today's world... there's no reason for a reasonably educated person not being able to advance by taking their own life in their hands and making it their own...leaving all the hopelessness behind.
I know from my own experience.