A Recession Activist
It is my goal as a Recession Activist to put myself out of a "job" (that is, being such an activist).
Why?
When the recession is over, that means my services will no longer be needed. Everyone that can be gainfully employed will [be]. The economy will pick up with people buying and businesses selling.
A lot of times, I read and reread what I've posted. As I did at the beginning of this blog-to-book, I ask myself, "will this prevent me from being hired?"
Consider this:
1. I am a self-taught web master, volunteering for my high school's basketball booster club. See: www.cpbasketball.org. What I learned there, I applied here.
2. I did this all with Microsoft Publisher, and will teach myself Dream Weaver once I purchase it.
3. I am teaching myself Cascading Style Sheets, XML and Java.
4. I am getting certified as a high school Math/Physics and Technology teacher. I feel our kids have the potential to be the best students on the planet earth, and I am not willing to concede intellectual supremacy nor our technical edge to other countries.
5. I will pursue a Masters in Science Education and eventually a PhD in Experimental Physics.
I don't at all consider myself a "radical."
Rather, given an adverse situation, I tried to work out some benefit. Given lemons, I've worked to make lemonade.
I've lost both parents now, and on reflection I feel blessed to have known both of them and the "toys" they blessed me with. I "played" with erector sets, chemistry sets, a microscope, a telescope, electrical and electronics kits and a drafting board. I majored in Engineering Physics at North Carolina A&T State University.
However, I had one friend that was executed on death row for killing his wife. I have another classmate on death row for killing his mother due to his addiction to Crack Cocaine. My circumstances could have taken me down dark corridors. For everyone that listened to my parents - my childhood best friends (my "brothers") included: we have never seen the inside of a prison as an inmate, nor want to. We have families and children. We each served our country in all major branches of the service other than the Coast Guard. We are the positive black males that don't make the news at all.
As I've stated without shame or evasion: I grew up in an urban ghetto, that's still to this day an urban ghetto. In my youth, I was exposed to the opportunity to use drugs from drug dealers and peers, saw pimps and prostitutes, stabbings, shootings, and heard of one death over a card game one block over from my childhood home. The fortune in question? A nickel!
This month, I am working to assure that home go in the hands of a Pastor that has a ministry to the inner city, and not a "real estate investor/slumlord" that gives the house over to Section 8. He's also an ex cop: in my neighborhood, it's good to have the Holy Spirit and a GLOC 9 mm!
I'm not bragging when I say I have an incredible story. I could have despaired as many I've read about all over the US and the world that used this downturn to commit suicide, killing themselves and their families. See: Financial Crisis May Worsen Mental Health Woes; German Billionaire Kills Himself; Murder-Suicide Snuffs out Family of 7.
This is not being callous with regards to the previous tragedies listed. As Nietzsche stated: "that which does not kill you, makes you stronger." For this storm, I feel stronger, blessed and obligated to bless others with what I've learned.
I end this essay with the following quote from Tom Dispatch. I don't agree with everything on the site, as you shouldn't agree with everything I say. I think that the height of a democratic society is the vigorous questioning of authority, even if we agree with or benefit from the decision (s) thereof. It is that intellectual rigor that allows us to function as a democratic republic, and avoid the temptations of an authoritarian fascist state:
It's sobering to consider just how many Americans can't sort out propaganda (or simply fiction) from fact in the media madness that passes for our "information age." It's no less sobering to consider a corollary possibility: that we get the society we deserve; that, in fact, our youth in college today are being prepared, as Tom Dispatch regular William Astore (who has taught at both the Air Force Academy and the Pennsylvania College of Technology) suggests, to enter a world in desperate shape, but not to challenge it. Tom
Why?
When the recession is over, that means my services will no longer be needed. Everyone that can be gainfully employed will [be]. The economy will pick up with people buying and businesses selling.
A lot of times, I read and reread what I've posted. As I did at the beginning of this blog-to-book, I ask myself, "will this prevent me from being hired?"
Consider this:
1. I am a self-taught web master, volunteering for my high school's basketball booster club. See: www.cpbasketball.org. What I learned there, I applied here.
2. I did this all with Microsoft Publisher, and will teach myself Dream Weaver once I purchase it.
3. I am teaching myself Cascading Style Sheets, XML and Java.
4. I am getting certified as a high school Math/Physics and Technology teacher. I feel our kids have the potential to be the best students on the planet earth, and I am not willing to concede intellectual supremacy nor our technical edge to other countries.
5. I will pursue a Masters in Science Education and eventually a PhD in Experimental Physics.
I don't at all consider myself a "radical."
Rather, given an adverse situation, I tried to work out some benefit. Given lemons, I've worked to make lemonade.
I've lost both parents now, and on reflection I feel blessed to have known both of them and the "toys" they blessed me with. I "played" with erector sets, chemistry sets, a microscope, a telescope, electrical and electronics kits and a drafting board. I majored in Engineering Physics at North Carolina A&T State University.
However, I had one friend that was executed on death row for killing his wife. I have another classmate on death row for killing his mother due to his addiction to Crack Cocaine. My circumstances could have taken me down dark corridors. For everyone that listened to my parents - my childhood best friends (my "brothers") included: we have never seen the inside of a prison as an inmate, nor want to. We have families and children. We each served our country in all major branches of the service other than the Coast Guard. We are the positive black males that don't make the news at all.
As I've stated without shame or evasion: I grew up in an urban ghetto, that's still to this day an urban ghetto. In my youth, I was exposed to the opportunity to use drugs from drug dealers and peers, saw pimps and prostitutes, stabbings, shootings, and heard of one death over a card game one block over from my childhood home. The fortune in question? A nickel!
This month, I am working to assure that home go in the hands of a Pastor that has a ministry to the inner city, and not a "real estate investor/slumlord" that gives the house over to Section 8. He's also an ex cop: in my neighborhood, it's good to have the Holy Spirit and a GLOC 9 mm!
I'm not bragging when I say I have an incredible story. I could have despaired as many I've read about all over the US and the world that used this downturn to commit suicide, killing themselves and their families. See: Financial Crisis May Worsen Mental Health Woes; German Billionaire Kills Himself; Murder-Suicide Snuffs out Family of 7.
This is not being callous with regards to the previous tragedies listed. As Nietzsche stated: "that which does not kill you, makes you stronger." For this storm, I feel stronger, blessed and obligated to bless others with what I've learned.
I end this essay with the following quote from Tom Dispatch. I don't agree with everything on the site, as you shouldn't agree with everything I say. I think that the height of a democratic society is the vigorous questioning of authority, even if we agree with or benefit from the decision (s) thereof. It is that intellectual rigor that allows us to function as a democratic republic, and avoid the temptations of an authoritarian fascist state:
It's sobering to consider just how many Americans can't sort out propaganda (or simply fiction) from fact in the media madness that passes for our "information age." It's no less sobering to consider a corollary possibility: that we get the society we deserve; that, in fact, our youth in college today are being prepared, as Tom Dispatch regular William Astore (who has taught at both the Air Force Academy and the Pennsylvania College of Technology) suggests, to enter a world in desperate shape, but not to challenge it. Tom
posted by Unemployed | 11:12 AM
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