A vent perhaps, but something that needs to be said. At 46 with a mother who is 80 and a grandmother who is 100 both looking to me to "help" i don't really have the luxury of waiting for a better time to speak/vent
The letter is after the squiggle
Dear President Obama,
First and foremost, let me congratulate you on a well deserved win that was the result of well thought out strategic planning combined with the support, hard work and efforts of the American people. In the end the collective of Americans from all walks of life, all ethnic groups all "classes" ensured a victory and a brighter future for this country going forward.
The celebrations and parties I am sure will continue for a while, there is some serious work that needs to be done. A constant theme that has pervaded this campaign and that has been expressed throughout your first term in office is concern about jobs and the economy.
Everyone watched and listened as the jobs reports were released and the data indicated that the jobs situation was slowly improving for this country. However with a 14.3 percent unemployment rate for African Americans and a 10 percent unemployment rate for Hispanics/Latinos those numbers don't really seem to mean as much or translate into much that is tangible for those communities.
I know because I am one of those African Americans who is unemployed. Every time I hear the words "are things better for you now than they were 4 years ago" I cringe.
See I couldn't "donate" to your campaign because of an economy that has shifted to where the majority of jobs are for the "highly skilled" and the majority of entry level jobs have been taken out of the country and has left me and many like me "stuck" and unable to find steady employment.While I never have stopped looking the grind of constantly applying and not finding anything has taken its toll.
I live in stark contrast to the mantra being freely passed about that espouses the idea that a certain demographic in this country are lazy, don't want to work, and want government handouts.
While my situation could be improved slightly by seeking assistance, I choose not to.
I want to work.
I want a job because working for what you want is the ethic that I was raised on. I don't want a check handed to me and I don't want to take away from someone else.
While freelancing to keep some kind of income flowing, i am also enrolled in college and am halfway through to completing a degree in the technology field. Having a job right now would not only offer me the ability to be more independent, but would also allow me to pay down some of the student loans that I have incurred in the process of trying to retrain and obtain new skills that would allow for me to secure better employment.
It would also allow me to help my 80 year old mother who is retired and my grandmother, her mother who just turned 100 years old this past February(and yes they BOTH voted for you). As an only child they both have little recourse but to look to me to help them. How can I when I can barely help myself.
These are the things that don't show up on a resume or a background check. Most HR departments have no methodology to determine what is going on in a prospective job applicant's life. They scan the resume and do a background check and if anything doesn't fit into their "template" of an ideal candidate - they go on to the next person.
There was a time in this country where there were jobs that "in-betweens" like myself could still get. They might not have paid much but they were opportunities to earn a paycheck. Most if not all of those jobs are no longer in this country.
So ok I get that but in all sincerity Mr. President the jobs situation is way past needing some sort of resolution and being addressed. I understand that you have tried to pass a jobs bill which like many of your initiatives got trapped in partisan politics and agendas that I am hard pressed to say are in the best interests of the American people.
There has to be a way around that. There has to be a way to get jobs out here - there are too many people out here that want to work and cannot no matter where they go or what they do find work. There are too many people like me who send out resumes daily faithfully, spending hours searching for jobs but never quite finding one. Not qualified for one, but overqualified for the other.
It's hard to be entrepreneurial with very limited funds and no steady source of income.
While minorities are disproportionately affected, the bottom line is we are all Americans.
We want to work, we need there to be jobs, not only for our own good, but ultimately for the good all of us.