Earlier this year I wrote about
ordering a gift basket by phone, only to have the call veer quickly toward a quite
personal conversation as the agent unburdened himself about the difficulties
he’s had getting a teaching position. Well, I don’t know if it’s a sign of the
times or simple coincidence, but I just had another routine call turn
unexpectedly into a revealing conversation – though this one had a happy
ending.
I
was calling about phone service and was routed to a technical unit. The young
man on the other end had to conduct various tests, some involving other units,
so there was down time that he gradually began to fill with questions: “So
how’s the weather in Santa Monica?” and “Have you been to Venice Beach?” As we
talked, it became clear that he knew the area, said he had grown up in Southern
California. “Where are you now?” I asked. Utah. “Oh,” I ventured, “are you a
skier?” No, he said, though he’s done some snowboarding. “I’m not much of a
skier,” he added with a slight dip in his voice… then energetically, “I really
like the beach.” I said there’s not a lot of beaches in Utah, and we both
laughed. This was the back and forth for a few minutes, interrupted by him
performing another test or getting a reply from another unit.
Dead time. Then he
asked, “So what do you like to do for fun?” I felt a little grip of caution,
but told him that I like to do what I’m about to do – and this was also a nudge
to move the transaction along – and that is to go out to dinner with friends.
“And you,” I asked. “Snowmobiling,” he said. “It’s a blast.”
Another
pause. Then he started talking about the beaches again, this time
nostalgically… and with a gentle shift he added, “I kinda had to leave. Things
weren’t working out for me. So I came up here to enter a program – Job Corps,
have you heard of it?”
He
credited Job Corps with giving him the skills to get the job he has now. And it
was in the program where he met his fiancée. His voice, youthful and casual,
got even lighter when he mentioned her.
The
last test completed, things wrapped up. I congratulated him on getting his life
together and on his engagement. He ended the call by saying he hoped I had a
nice time with my friends.
It’s
become commonplace – and not only in conservative circles – to describe the War
on Poverty as a failure or at least to emphasize its failures. This simplified
version of a complex history is in line with current cynicism about the role of
government and the celebration of market- based solutions to social and
educational problems. The Job Corps was founded in 1964 as part of the War on
Poverty, and its most recent funding comes through the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act (the “Stimulus Bill”). Modeled on the Depression-era Civilian Conservation
Corps, it provides free education and job training for low- income youth. For
one affable young man caught in the underside of Southern California beach
life, the program provided a fresh start, a job, the beginnings of a family. It didn’t take much for him to tell the
story, and we certainly need to hear such stories now.
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