They had a tendency to hire ex-military in the office, and when I applied for my unemployment benefits their story had changed. "Oh no, he wasn't fired. He was just temporarily laid off."
When I was called back to work I was assigned to a rookie foreman, a nice enough guy with no railroad experience and no heavy-duty equipment experience. The problem was that he was too eager to please the railroad, which would put the machine in peril. If the machine broke down the company didn't get paid. Then, when the rookie foreman would call in to the office they would tell him to put me on the line. "You're the senior man on the job; don't you let him screw anything up."
Finally after the third such conversation, I remarked, "Then why don't you make me the foreman and him the operator and stop putting me in the middle?"
There was a shocked silence and then a bubbling rage, "Listen you! You do as you're told and you don't question why! Do as you're told or get gone! But you understand this, if you let him tear up that machine, you're as good as fired!"
The very next day we were working in Cicero (Chicago) on mainline commuter tracks that carried forty commuter trains a day plus freight trains plus Amtrak. The railroad decided we didn't need a backhoe, even though the contract called for one. Instead of twenty laborers they brought seven. I walked, without a backhoe it would destroy the machine.
From there I went into the parts business, first driving a delivery truck, then working at the counter, then as a store manager. Then I became the manager of an industrial engine distributorship. I managed the parts inventory; I forecasted engine sales. I handled all the warranty claims; I handled a half million dollar military contract. I called on equipment manufacturers and set up dealers. I set the company sales record for parts sales and for engine sales.
I was well thought of in engine circles. I even had the factory referring people to me to ask questions about different assemblies. I held service schools and I went to distributor conferences and hobnobbed with millionaires. I sat in on corporate strategy meetings and knew vice presidents and presidents on a first name basis.
I tell you these things not to bore you, but to warn you. Do I sound like someone who would end up homeless? I don't do drugs and drink very little; I was employed in the parts business for twenty-five consecutive years. I never missed a paycheck for over a quarter of a century. Now I am unemployed for over a year and the prospects for employment are bleak. I tell you these things not to garner pity, because I don't want your pity. I want a job!
I want the people in the rah, rah crowd for Obama's stimulus to know that to those of us out here in the cheap seats it is not very stimulating. Every time I go out I see hungry, struggling people standing at intersections or on off ramps holding signs begging for money, and I don't get out much. I see entire shopping centers empty and closed up office buildings. Where do you suppose all those workers have gone to? How do you suppose they are paying their bills now? And I don't get out much, so try to understand this. The next homeless person that you see is me, and be afraid because the next one after that is you.
Don't say it can't happen to me, or that they need me too much, or I'd find something else, because you're wrong, just wrong. It can happen to you and until we understand that we can't solve the problem, and meanwhile the problem grows.
If you didn't care what happened to me,
And I didn't care for you,
We would zig zag our way through the boredom and pain
Occasionally glancing up through the rain.
Wondering which of the buggars to blame
And watching for pigs on the wing.
(Roger Waters)
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