Tearing Apart the Great Society

 

Who else remembers Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society? I was 8 when President Johnson was sworn in after President Kennedy was assassinated. I was 13 when Johnson decided not to run for re-election. Although he accomplished a great deal, he was most connected to the Viet Nam war.

After JFK was assassinated, Johnson was determined to carry out programs Kennedy had wanted to get off the ground. In 1964, Johnson announced the beginning of The Great Society. New and revolutionary programs need creative names, like The New Deal during FDR’s administration.

Johnson had a lot of experience and power. He’d been the Senate Majority leader before becoming JFK’s Vice President. He knew how to negotiate with or strong-arm opponents into voting for sweeping social reforms.

I was busy being a little kid and then an insecure teenager during the Great Society. I didn’t really become aware of what was going on in the country until Rev. Martin Luther King and then Senator Bobby Kennedy were both gunned down and assassinated.

Here is what was created or passed during the Great Society:

Civil Rights Act

Voting Rights Act

Job Corps (as part of the War on Poverty)

Affirmative Action

Medicare/Medicaid

Head Start

Elementary/Secondary Education Act

Housing and Urban Development Act

National Endowment for the Humanities/Arts

Water Quality Act

Consumer Product Safety Commission

Child Safety Act

Immigration & Naturalization Act

I’m sure I haven’t listed all of Johnson’s accomplishments. He was a better President than he gets credit for because of his ability to get so much done.

The Great Society was meant to make lives better for people, especially those marginalized or living in poverty. Of course, Republicans hated it.

By the time Johnson left office and Nixon was voted in, I had begun following the news more closely. However, I didn’t see that, behind the scenes, Nixon and his party began working to tear the Great Society down. Nixon found favor with Judge William Lewis Powell.

Why?

Powell was irritated with activist Ralph Nader. I totally remember Nader. He was the activist lawyer that labored for consumer protection rights. He went after the auto industry’s poor safety record. I remember news stories focusing on his exposure of the Ford Pinto’s danger issues. Nader was instrumental in the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act passed in 1966.

Powell saw Nader’s successes and the formation of Nader’s Raiders to fight consumer safety issues with other corporations as a dangerous path to (gasp!) socialism. So, Powell wrote a memo. I have read articles that Powell’s memo is a blueprint for conservatives to infiltrate political offices, local, state, and federal with people who would work to take down Great Society social reforms. Ultimately, the strategy would be to place conservatives on the Supreme Court which could sway and undo all of these acts and programs.

It was to be a long game. It would take years to accomplish.

The Powell memo went from the Dept of Commerce to President Nixon’s desk. Nixon was most favorably impressed. He nominated William Lewis Powell to the Supreme Court in 1971, not too long after Powell had written that memo.  That was a bare blip registering with me that fall of my junior year in high school, but it was the beginning of the long game to upend democracy in favor of some kind of conservative right-wing rule.

Now fast forward 40-50 years. We have an ultra-right-wing corrupt majority on the Supreme Court. The Civil Rights Act of 1965 was eviscerated, making it harder AGAIN for people of color to vote. The Court has made decisions to weaken the Water Quality Act in favor of corporations.

Most recently, the court overturned affirmative action in college admissions. That’s probably going to lead to the same thing when it comes to employment.

The Court and Rethuglicans in Congress are bound and determined to gut any and all of the programs that would benefit “regular” people—people like you and me. Cases in point: forced changes to the SNAP (food stamps) and WIC programs that would make it more difficult for low-income people to feed themselves and their children.  Think of it: Rethuglicans are okay with hungry children.

We know that Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are the number one targets of the thugs in power. They are waiting breathlessly for the first opportunity to do make seniors and the disabled suffer more than they already do.

Democracy hangs on by a thread.

President Biden is making headway trying to reverse the Rethuglican machinations of the last 40-50 years. Sadly, he gets little credit and continues to suffer a low approval rate.

Thanks to President Biden’s efforts to rebuild the middle class, unemployment has gone down, new jobs are being created every month, and the economy is better. We haven’t gone into a period of inflation. I don’t understand why half the country has a poor opinion of Biden.

Helpful accomplishments:

Lower the cost of prescriptions, especially for Medicare/Medicaid recipients.

Inflation Reduction Act, a broad program that addresses climate change, credits, and incentives for companies to develop energy-saving products, financing for homeowners to switch to more environmentally friendly sources of heating/air conditioning/electricity, infrastructure (repairing roads & bridges)

Gun safety—doesn’t go far enough but it’s a start. It does provide funding for mental health.

An attempt to cancel the horrendous student debt. I call it an attempt because, of course, the conservatives are yelling and screaming and challenging it in courts. I believe it’s a case before the Supreme Court now.

The CHIPS Act will encourage growth in American companies.

American Rescue Act, which provided stimulus checks to everyone suffering from the covid pandemic and quarantine. It also provided funds to help stimulate the economy, and it worked.

Veterans from the wars in Afghanistan and Iran suffered side effects from the burn pits. Rethuglicans didn’t care to help with the vets’ health issues resulting from the burn pits. The PACT Act helps vets get the care they need.

When SCOTUS overturned Roe v. Wade, other fundamental rights could be endangered. So, President Biden signed the Respect for Marriage Act into law. It protects same-sex and interracial marriages, which was a possible next target.

Bidenomics: a total rejection of Reaganomics (the trickle-down strategy that only benefits corporations. Nothing ever trickles down to the people who need it)

These are just a few of what President Biden has managed to get done in spite of strong opposition from the Rethuglicans. Biden negotiates for what he wants and has been successful. Yet, he is denigrated and put down because of his age, never mind the fact that Congress and 2024 presidential candidates are close in age.

President Biden is trying to uphold the vision of the Great Society.

Why does half the country think it puts us in the wrong direction? These are people who would benefit from these programs. They vote against their own best interests, supporting greedy and criminal white men who are interested only in giving tax cuts to the rich. I just don’t get it.

Do we want to go down the road of fascism and suppression, where the 1% live in luxury and the middle class continues to disintegrate? Or do we want to save the Great Society? I think we Democrats need to become a lot more vocal and drown out Rethuglican noise. And we need to vote, vote, vote.

 

 

 

 

When One Door Closes, Look For An Open One

 

A little history. I am 68.

My first “real” job out of high school was as a clerk typist for an insurance company. I am a fast typist not only because of a class I took but because I am a writer with a Remington at home to type away on.

I went from there to the State of Maryland as a unit secretary for a hearing and speech office. I was fluent in American Sign Language as well and communicated with Deaf clients. I moved on to become an executive secretary at Gallaudet University.

One day, a Deaf client signed to me: “Why are you making coffee? You should be an interpreter.” I became certified with the National Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf.

After 5 years of clerical experience, I made a major career change. Over the next 20 odd years, I signed and voiced for Deaf clients in schools, doctors’ offices, hospitals, vocational training centers, workshops, plays, government and other meetings, and places of employment. I loved it.

My hands and wrists developed repetitive motion injuries in the 1990s. Up until then, an interpreter had to sign without a break unless the speaker gave one to the class/group. I kept interpreting, sometimes wearing splints on my hands. Many interpreters were developing similar injuries and so, finally, teams of two interpreters were sent to any assignment that would last 2 hours or more.  One would sign for 30 minutes and then rest, while the second would take over.

I also had a side gig, working alongside my first husband at a market research company. I began as an interviewer and then worked my way up to shift supervisor. Interpreting jobs slowed in the summer and working at this company kept the dollars coming in. During the school year, I’d limit my hours there to weekends.

My first husband died in 2001, and my hand/wrist injuries worsened. I had to stop early in 2002.

I met and married a wonderful man I met online. My 3 children and I moved to New Jersey. My new husband was a union sheet metal worker, a draftsman at the time. He thought I shouldn’t continue working unless I wanted to, and I decided to stay home to finish raising my kids.

So, there was a gap, a long one. I wasn’t inactive, however. I volunteered for different organizations. My favorite one was as a reader for Book Mates, a program to encourage a love of reading in kids who needed extra attention.

The pandemic and quarantine added to my gap.

After it was over, I realized the kids had grown up and moved out on their own. My husband had become disabled, tearing both his right and left rotator cuffs. He had surgery five times on the right shoulder, all failures, and most recently, a reverse shoulder replacement. 

We’d both received disability income and payments from his pension. At age 65, we went from disability income to social security retirement. Expenses increased; our incomes didn’t keep up.

I joined AARP. One of their articles was about older people working in remote jobs; it was supposed to be easier for us older folk to return to or remain in the workforce.  I wanted to bring in extra income so that we weren’t always just treading water.

How hard could this be? I was a proficient typist and had at least 5 years of clerical experience. I had another 4-5 years of market research experience. I couldn’t interpret anymore but for many of those 20+ years, I’d worked as an interpreter/tutor for many school districts.  I could explain away the gap by saying I was raising my kids and then the pandemic.

I followed some of the links AARP provided and became quickly frustrated because 1 link always led to another and to another and to another. The job I’d originally been interested in seemed to move further away from me instead of moving closer. I went to the State of New Jersey website as suggested but they didn’t have an option for remote jobs only.

My daughters suggested I stick with Indeed and stay away from the other help-you-find-a-job sites. They were on target. The others all wanted to send me on wild goose link checking places.  Indeed sent me lists of places I felt I could apply to, and I did.  I applied for entry level customer service or call center jobs. AARP said those were the types of jobs I’d be most likely get.

Wrong.

Some places sent polite emails thanking me for applying but after consideration, they’d decided to move on with other candidates.  Most didn’t bother to notify me at all. Month after month, job after job, I was getting nowhere.

Well, I thought, OK, I’m not proud. I’ll look for no experience necessary. Maybe my skills are too outdated. I got plenty of invitations to webinars. I went to several and about 10 minutes in, I knew they were either about sales or they were scams. By scams, here’s an example: I could be a travel agent, yes! And there’d be all these wonderful benefits…normally such a fantastic training deal complete with website and other assists would cost about $100/mo. but for this month only, it would be reduced to $69/mo. No, thanks.

Maybe remote wasn’t for me. How about our local school district? Oh, look, here are plenty of classroom aide positions. I applied for several and interviewed at two. I looked at the other people who came to be interviewed. I was the oldest. That shouldn’t matter, right?  I felt I did very well with the interviews but … no.  As for the other school aide positions, they all went to candidates without me being selected for an interview.

One early childhood center looked promising, and we went back and forth. One of the questions they asked (and many do ask this question, very sneaky) was in what year did I graduate high school? 1973. Well, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to subtract 17 or 18 from 1973 and come up with 1954-55 as a birth year.

It seems our school district and Kinder Care may not believe a 68 year old can handle young children. Ever heard of grandchildren, people?

I heard from a company called Arise. They seemed very willing to work with me. All I had to do was register and then sign up for one of their many clients. They were all about remote, customer service jobs. I had many choices but finally selected Holland America Lines. Training provided.

I was so relieved! At last, after months of searching, a job! Part of the training involved what was called “prework” and “homework”. Believe me, it was work. The expectation was one would do 3 hours of this homework and then go sit in a 4 hour class from M-F for several weeks. I was determined to do it.

Meanwhile, I also heard from a tutoring company, and I was thrilled. I loved being in the classroom, working with kids and especially on reading/language skills. The tutoring organization  provided a curriculum to follow. I went through a brief paid training and then sent away fingerprint kits. I would be tutoring in several states and CA, TX, FL, MD, and MI all required fingerprints and background checks.

While I waited to get those packets, I began training on the Arise platform. One of my first biggest surprises was that training was NOT paid for. The philosophy, I guess, was we were getting all this wonderful FREE training and were self-employed contractors to boot. Oh.

My family’s reaction: unheard of! Why waste your valuable time doing all that prework and classwork and not get paid? My answer: well, no one else will hire me and I haven’t gotten all my security clearances from the states yet for the tutoring company.

Besides, learning about cruise travel was fun. The class was fun. The teacher was awesome. But there were big problems still coming. We were supposed to get codes from the client so that we would be able to access their systems so that we could practice. Weeks went by. No codes. Now we were supposed to go on the phone and get paid to take a few calls and practice. No codes, no calls. I began to get restless. It was getting close to Christmas, and I was hoping for the extra income for gift shopping.

We didn’t get the codes until two days before we were to go online full time without having full access to coaches. We felt like we were being thrown into the deep end of the ocean without a life raft. Worse, one of their systems wasn’t compatible with my laptop and their tech support couldn’t figure out how to fix it.

Long story short: I’d passed the course with a 96% but was unable to service the contract not because of inexperience but because of this tech issue.

It was depressing. I was back to square one most of January, applying for jobs without any real hope of success. Finally, though, my clearances for enough of the states came through so that I could finally begin tutoring. That was at the end of February of this year.

Here is another incorrect assumption I’d made about the tutoring. I thought I would be provided with a schedule. No. The way it worked was that opportunities would be “dropped” at a specific time and hundreds of tutors would compete for them.  Does anyone remember the Cabbage Patch Doll frenzy? That’s what it felt like!

Over March and April, though, I managed to pick up 10 half hour sessions meeting 3 times a week. For two months, April and May, I was bringing in a decent check. In June, school’s out for summer. There would be some summertime opportunities but all the teachers in the country were also out of school, and many were competing for the few summer jobs.

I needed a summer gig.

Here we go again.

After weeks of no-nibbles from places I applied to in May and early June, I went back to Arise. They had only one opportunity: Home Depot. OK, that’s a good company. This time I knew what to expect: no paid training. Still, it looked like I would start earning after just a week of training so it wouldn’t be so bad. I knew the drill: prework and homework.

I got it all done. I spent several hours Friday, Saturday, Sunday and yesterday getting all the required work done and even a bit of todays. I was feeling pretty good during the class. The teacher said something about a glitch in which 2 Home Depots had shown up and most of us had been in the “wrong” Home Depot. All the work was wiped out. Oh wow, I thought, how awful. I’m so glad that didn’t happen to me.

Until we broke for all the unfortunates to “do over” all the work they’d lost for the “right” Home Depot. I went to check and see how many modules I needed to complete for the Tuesday class and saw I had nothing. Nada. Zip. All that work I’d done was gone. It had been there when I went into class. Now, I was looking at 0 completed modules.

I went ballistic. Everyone else had scurried off to try and cram 4 days of work into a night, but not me. The teacher was a bit of a cold fish. She seemed incredulous that I hadn’t realized I might have been in the wrong class too. I’d seen there were two classes but went to the room with the same name I’d signed up for. Well, she said she would talk to the uppity ups and see if something could get worked out. She didn’t understand why I was the only one complaining, though.

I thought it was because everyone else is too young to know better or to scared to protest how unfair this is. What I did say was if I couldn’t get credit for the work I’d done, I would drop. “That’s your choice,” she said. Yeah, way to be all about those Home Depot values.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not blaming Home Depot. They’re a good company. I blame Arise. You know that old saying, Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me? Well, I’m the fool.

Month after month, I’ve been beating my head against a wall trying to find a customer service or call center job. Last night, after I finally calmed down, I had a little talk with God. So, what’s up? I wondered. Is this a message that this is not for me? I should stop this and focus on … what?

Writing? Yes, but I need more discipline and guidance. Tutoring online? Yes, that door hadn’t shut, and no one seemed to care how old I was. I just needed more access to other tutoring companies. They all wanted tutors with bachelor’s degrees, and I only had an AA.

TB and I had a long talk about what I want to do. I have two gifts: writing and tutoring, born of being an empathic soul. So, there are two things I would like to do.  Yes, I am 68 but have no intention of sitting in my rocking chair all day.

I’m going to apply to Rowan and get a bachelor’s degree in education Inclusion. Having a BA will open more teaching and tutoring positions.

And I’m going to focus a lot more of my energy on writing. I have had a lot of experiences that I can share with adults and kids too.

Onward and upward, one foot in front of the other.