For the past week, I’ve been caught in a whirlwind of
door-to-door begging. I was a canvasser and wouldn’t have made my constantly
rising “quota” to save my life and instead of being fired I quit.
Now, this was not an easy decision for me. My parents said
work the last day anyway. Its $54 a day for traversing local neighborhoods in
105-degree heat and asking them to support something they had never heard of
until I showed up, clipboard in hand to ask them for their hard-earned money.
It was horrible, to say the least! We’ve had 100-plus days
of heat and I was walking from noon to 9 p.m. Brutal work, I tell ya.
The bosses were fresh-out-of-college 20 somethings, (ready
to change the world). Cynicism was not part of their perky, upbeat, urban-dictionary-found
vocabulary. It was sickening.
In addition, if you did not meet an almost-unattainable
quota within three days, you were ousted.
The nonprofit, grassroots organization is raising money for
itself to spread the word about the importance of the American Jobs Act,
introduced by President Barack Obama in his second year of the four-year term.
It was immediately knocked out of contention by the Republican-led House of
Representatives and committees are tearing it apart trying to salvage aspects
of the legislation.
The intent is good. In a nutshell, if the greedy 1 percent
of our population, who hold 98 percent of the wealth would be taxed an
additional penny (yes, 1 cent), it would garner $80 billion to pay for the
American Jobs Act. The stalemate in Congress since President Obama took office
is that Republicans, the Grand Old Party, have vowed to vote No on every single
piece of legislation the President has brought before them. The GOP has kept
its vow.
Maybe the job is not meant for middle-age, old-time Hippies
who still want to save the country. It’s a young person’s job and unfortunately
the employee base in my hometown of Pueblo, Colo., (home of the Consumer Guide)
is made up of middle age, laid-off, vulnerable and desperate people. In my first week, all three of us hired were
out of a job because we could not meet the quota set by people who had never
heard of Pueblo, let alone studied its demographics before.
Regardless, I am happy with my decision. And I hope the best
for ColoradoFairShare.org.
