I was unable to watch last night's speeches live last night. I caught part of Biden's speech on the radio as I drove home. It pained me to miss the festivities. Pained me even more to wade through all the punditry when I hit the bed to catch Bill Clinton's performance.
Last night, I conducted the last of five, two-hour resume-writing workshops for teens and adults at Oak Cliff's Hampton-Illinois branch of the Dallas Public Library. Over the last five weeks, I've had the privilege of meeting and working with about 20 total adults of every race, from every walk of life, pull together and package the details of their experience, skills and job history to begin yet another job search.
Last night, six "repeat customers" came to take advantage of our last session.
More below:
When I arrived at the library 15 minutes before our 6 p.m. class was set to start, one of the librarians there was already on the lookout for me.
"Hey, I'm going to be in your class tonight," he said. You? "Yep. I need to update my resume. There's a rumor that there are going to be more library budget cuts, so I need to be ready to apply for some city rec or programming jobs."
He unlocked the door with the laptops, and as the door swung open, two second-timers walked in behind us and took their place at the table. The first? A stay-at-home mom out of the workforce for 9 years, looking for ways to make her old data-entry experience and lack of college education to look as strong as possible as she begins a search to supplement her family's income.
"My husband has a good job, but he used to earn lots of overtime and weekend time," she said. "They cut his overtime a couple of years ago, and they told him last month that they're ending all overtime on September 1." That's tough. "Yeah," she agreed. "It wouldn't be that bad, but they just told us they're dropping our health insurance. They're going to give us $1,500 a year to help pay our own premiums. I called a couple of insurance companies, and I don't think we're going to be able to afford a policy for our whole family."
Our second customer: An Hispanic engineer whose company told him that layoffs will be eminent because they're going to offshore a large part of his department's work to an Indian subcontractor. "I've worked with them 11 years," he said. "I've been looking at the job ads, and there just aren't that many jobs out there for what I do. I have a friend who was laid off 22 months ago and he just took a job earning about half of what he made before. I can't be out of work 22 months."
As I moved around the room, logging on the library laptops, I kept checking CNN on my handheld, waiting for a breaking news banner that Obama's nomination was official. (When I had left my house, the roll call had just started.) I muttered something like, "Damn! No news yet." under my breath as our third customer came in.
"What news?" she asked. Obama's nomination. "Well, let me know when you get word! We NEED that man in office." Agreement all around the room.
As this third customer, a striking African-American woman in her early 50s sat down, her family began trickling in as well: husband (with a cane), a younger teenaged boy, two preteen girls, and a toddler. "That's my grandbaby," she beamed. She's beautiful! I'll just take her home! "No way! She's such a good baby, and she's the only thing I have left of her momma!"
Her husband asked for the car keys to take the children home, took her wallet to pick up some gas and groceries on the way home, then herded the kids out and limped along behind them to the parking lot. "Her momma got killed in a parking lot last year." I'm so sorry! "Me, too. And my husband broke his back on the job two years ago. He's on Social Security disability, but now that we're taking care of the grandbaby, we've got to have some more money coming in. I'm a public-school teaching assistant, but I need to get a part-time job, too. Maybe something like a companion to a senior or a handicapped person, where I can help them out but also work on my laptop while I'm there."
Your laptop? What are you working on? "I'm going to school online to finish my degree so I can get a real teaching job. With a real teaching job, I might be able to make ends meet without a second job so I can spend more time with the baby." I admire you. Taking on a baby at this stage in life must be tough. "I'm 56," she said. "You have NO idea."
Our fourth customer, the librarian, returned with his backpack and a copy of his resume. "I'm so glad I was able to get in here before these classes ended," he said. "I just want to make sure my resume is as good as it could be because I may need it even sooner than I expect."
My handheld buzzed, and there it was -- the alert! It's official, I said. Obama just officially took the nomination. The rollcall vote is over. All four "customers" in the room cheered. The 56-year-old grandmother did a little happy dance.
As we staged a mini celebration, another librarian brought in two more students: a white man in his mid-50s, and another Hispanic man in his early 40s. "What's going on in here?" the librarian asked. Just found out that the roll-call vote is over and Obama officially has the nomination. "Thank god!" he said. "Another four years of this crap? No way!"
The whole room -- new customers and all -- agreed.
Student 5? A white man in his early 50s -- former middle-school music teacher turned collections agent. "I taught music for 26 years, but after No Child Left Behind was put in place, my school decided to suspend its music program to give teachers more time during the day to prepare for the TAKS test," he said.
"The music store where I used to refer kids to buy reeds and music and rent instruments told me they were having more and more trouble keeping their customers current on their accounts, so they hired me to collect. I hated it, but I needed the money." Now? "I know it may take a while, but I want to get back into the classroom. Music, sure, but maybe history? I just can't go back to listening to people tell me how miserable they are in this economy."
Student 6? An engineer who immigrated legally from Mexico, seeking to make a leap from the maritime engineering position he'd held south of the border to another type of engineering. "I know my English isn't the best, but I want to make it good enough that people stop asking me if I have a green card," he said. That ask that? "The last man I talked to about a job made a joke about la migra." I can't believe that! "He wanted me to laugh, too." Wow!
We all tucked into work, me reviewing print-outs of working and making suggestions, re-ordering sections, brainstorming skills sets with each as and when they needed help -- writing sections myself where I could be of greatest assistance and, sometimes, just listening to their stories. (I found over these five weeks that this class was as much group therapy as it was practical, hands-on document creation.)
Our librarian: "I thought a city job was about as secure a job as you could have, but if they cut me here, this will be my third," he said. "The city keeps cutting and cutting and cutting the budget. I'd go to the private sector, but that doesn't look any better, given what my friends are going through. At least with the city, you get some notice and a little severence when they cut you. My friend just lost a job he'd had for five years, and they cut him with no warning and no severence -- just told him to clean out his desk."
Everyone in the room told a story just like it. Job losses with no benefits. No way to afford COBRA payments, so no insurance. No severance. No warning.
"I hate what the Republicans have done to this country," said our group grandmother. "This isn't the country it was under Clinton."
The music teacher chimed in: "I voted for Bush both times, but I'm NEVER voting Republican again. I can't believe that the Texas GOP controls every aspect of Texas government and they STILL can't come up with a school-funding plan that makes any sense. Why doesn't anybody still trust these clowns?"
Our stay-at-home mom took the floor: "I think people's eyes are open," she said. "My whole family is Republican, and they hate John McCain." Will they vote Democrat this year? "I can't guarantee they all will, but I will say that my dad -- who has ALWAYS hated Democrats -- says he plans to hold his nose and vote for Obama this fall."
Wow. And, then, the whole room agreed, all saying they didn't really know anybody who would be voting for McCain.
Six people from different backgrounds. Different professions. Didn't know me -- or each other -- before this workshop.
All ready for change. All fed up. All supporting Obama.
I missed last night's speeches, but I saw and heard everything I needed to know to gain some peace of mind about November.
Six people.
Si se fucking puede!