| She watched me put my cookies on the conveyor belt. She smiled and said "I want to go where you're heading tonite. You're having a party!" I said I was hoping to celebrate tonite and I held up my fingers which were crossed. She then said ruefully that she wished she could celebrate.. she just wanted a job - any job. An accountant, she told me she had been laid off in July and had had no luck finding steady work since then. I told her a friend had just told me today he was laid off two weeks ago, and my brother, a lawyer was facing the closing of his office too.
The pain of knowing exactly how she felt hit me right then. Oh yes, I had definitely been there. On election night, I envisioned celebrating the win of Obama, but there are so many folks like the accountant I just met, for whom a celebration would be quite premature. If you have ever fallen through the cracks, it is a feeling you always have in the back of your mind, that your current comfort is so ephemeral, so fragile, so temporary, that it could take flight at any moment and leave you despairing, terrified, and ashamed all at the very same moment. All because of some decision made by someone somewhere - without a face, without a name in some conference room somewhere. A decision that changes your life's direction in a moment, in a few words so devastating, so difficult to process after hearing them, that folks with "secure" jobs lose sleep, afraid they will hear them any moment, that "Your position has been eliminated", "Your services are no longer needed", "Your plant is closing", "You're fired", "You're laid off" The result is the same. Shock, abject fear, a feeling the floor was just pulled from under you like a party trick where the table cloth is yanked. But this time, things don't stay standing. It seems like everything crashes to the floor.
It took me years of having a good income to shake that feeling that I was still poor, and still needed to be ashamed for the financial situation I am in due to years of medical bills and one career change made years ago. Remembering the good agencies I had dealt with and the bad ones, I recommended a few to her. I wished her well and really meant it. It is hard to be out of work. On my drive home, I realized that this is what this election is really all about. Folks just like her, and my friend, and my brother. And me, years ago.
Our American society so values work that we put it before everything, and see our own value in what we do for a living. Being stripped of that, forces a total re-evaluation of one's self-worth.
It was the Stock Market crash of 29 that forced a lot of wealthy folks to realize - there but for the grace of God, go I. It was only when it happened to them that it was a "crisis". Some who had measured their worth in dollars only realized then that we were all in this together. The New Deal needed the Crash. Perhaps our change of direction needed this Wall Street meltdown. We needed to completely redefine who we were because money is a temporary condition. And everybody found that out in 1929 in a hurry. Unfortunately, my brother is realizing that now as well. What persists? What is the measure of a person? Character. Integrity. It has nothing to do with what job you may be in the right place at the right time for. It has nothing to do with being born into a wealthy family, or a poor one. Circumstances change. Skills and timing vary. But character and integrity persist and overcome nearly every obstacle.
At this moment in time, we need to help our friends and family who are having a difficult time. Help them see their worth and value comes from inside of them, not from the temporary circumstances of their health or wealth. Invite them over for dinner, just call them up and talk, stop by for a visit. You just need to let them know that when they are doubting their worth, and their life's direction that you can remind them of who they are and what they mean to you. It is the most important thing you can do for them at this difficult time. All they need to help themselves overcome obstacles in life is inside them, it is up to us to remind them and help them through it.
As I drove home with more sobering thoughts than I left with, I was grateful to that woman who had reminded me of just why this election was so important. I was ready to gloat over our side winning, just an hour before, but the weight of the implications of Election Day really gave me pause.
Later that evening, after the Local celebration of our volunteer firefighters winning their ballot question for an increase in their service awards, and the win of the Tenafly Dems, I was sitting home with my boyfriend when Obama had the very nice decency to get THIS election over by 11 pm Eastern time.
It was over faster than a BCDO special election - (well, almost)
When I saw Jesse Jackson with tears in his eyes, I just lost all control over my own tears. I looked over at my boyfriend - who was crying too. We cried for quite a while. I remember meeting Jesse Jackson on the steps of the Hackensack Courthouse at a rally with Bill Clinton. I remembered my very first political rally at Rutgers when we tried to get Rutgers to divest their funds from businesses in Apartheid South Africa. Jesse Jackson was the very first major political figure I had been so moved by. He spoke passionately and the feeling in the crowd was electric as we marched toward the Rutgers President's office where Jackson met with President Bloustein. To Bloustein, our demonstration was nothing like the 60's ones he had lived through, and he was not persuaded to see our point, but shortly after, NJ divested itself from those investments. And now we know that apartheid was defeated.
Each step builds on the progress of the step before, and I felt a debt of gratitude to Jesse Jackson and all the others who had fought so valiantly to see this day. Of all the images Election day, the sight of Jesse Jackson was the one that so moved me, that when I saw it next day, the tears instantly welled up again.
And like I was reminded earlier on election nite, and again with the news today that we have lost over a million jobs in 2008, an Obama win is just the start of the healing, it will take a while to help each other out of this mess. Let's get started.. |
