Ehrenreich-city of Maine

Ehrenreich decides to go to Maine where it was predominantly white and English speaking. She got there by a bus and is lost in this foreign state. She brought clothes, books, shoes, laptop and $1000 that was left from the $1500. While immediately looking for a place to stay she realizes that 30 min away, in Portland is cheaper than where she was at. After looking some more, she finds a tiny cottage for $120 a week. It has everything you need from a TV, to a kitchen, to a bedroom and bathroom. Now that she had a place, she needed a job. She was in Maine in August and due to in being the end of summer, waitressing jobs were really hard to get. She looked for other jobs in different fields such as office helper, but could not do it because of the clothes she had. Ehrenreich realizes after seeing so many hiring ads, she finds that all the jobs are a staggering $6-7 an hour. Its real depressing to have to look so hard for such little pay. After a couple of days, she gets offered two positions, one at a nursing home serving paying $7 and a 40 hour work week that paid $6.65 as a maid.

She decides to take both jobs first starting at nursing home. Thinking that all the menus would be pre-prepared and easy to hand out, she thought wrong. Residents were able to order anything they wanted off the menu. What she found out later that day was her job was to not only to feed them anything they wanted but had to do all the dishes, clean up all food the they dropped on the floor, vacuuming floors, clearing tables and so much more.

Off to the next job as a maid being paid $6.65. She gets an outfit to wear and the rules were: no smoking eating or drinking, or gum chewing. Everyone working there was female except for one and the ages ranging from 20’s to elderly. The maids are sorted out into teams of 2 or 3 and it may differ every day. Since it was her first day she stayed back and had to watch videos for orientation. A week went by a she could not believe how numb she was and how she outworked people that were 20 years younger than her. But of course she says “…our world of pain is managed by Excedrin and Advil compensated for with cigarettes and booze on the weekends.” As she soon realizes working there for a little all the employees are living with extended family members an luckily one are homeless. She finds that one of her employees forgets a sponge at a house and between the two other people in her group, they cannot come up with $2 to buy another one. Getting to know each person there, she realizes there are childcare issues, food problems (not enough), rent and vehicle problems, a never ending battle to sacrificing the solution to one problem to solve another. She is depressed to hear these stories. She hears from another woman that there is pain with her teeth and cannot get in looked at unless she finds free dental care which is almost invincible. She makes a notation to herself and it says, “ If you can’t stand being around suffering people, than you have no business in the low-wage workforce as a journalist or anything else.” I think that was her reality kick to realize how many people around her suffer every day and just cannot do it. It is not fair to people that want to do better but cannot because they can never be above water. So after hard long days at work she goes back home to realize that her cottage is $200 a week since supposedly tourist season has not ended yet and she is short money and now has to go to food pantries and emergency aid.

Back when this book was made the minimum wage was $6.00 and now it is $7.50 in Maine. Clearly that is not an amount that you could live off of. Ehrenreich needed two jobs to barely make it. According to http://www.livingwage.geog.psu.edu/places/2300560545, the living wage in Portland, Maine for one adult and one child is $18.19 an hour, one adult $9.60, two adults $14.09, two adults one child $22.64. These are some facts that are stated for this particular city.



http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20080924-BIZ-809240309

Ch 4

In Chapter 4 it discusses the question why welfare? Rhonda is a white woman with a son and a father that comes around once a month to help out but does not pay child support. She moved from a trailer to an apartment with subsidized housing. She does not talk with the neighbors because she thinks they are criminals and have no interest helping them selves. Even though she is on the welfare system she thinks differently about someone else that is on it. Rhonda feels that she has only been on and off of welfare for four years and the people she know have been on it for 8-12 years and they do not care to get off of it. She wants a better life and only goes on it when she tries to find more work. She is trying to go to school and make things better while her child is sick from lead-paint poisoning. I feel that she should be on it from time to time because she is trying to make a difference in her life. What I think the system should do is have welfare counselors that come to your house once a month and physically checks the employers businesses to see that you physically are trying. The only proof you need now is a list of places you have sent your resume to. The government does not do any more than check that you wrote down these places. And actually they do not do that for everyone. My mother is on Medicaid because of cancer not being able for her to work. I think she should be on it and not because she is my mother but because of the circumstances. I feel that these are examples of people in need and that every applicant should be monitored closely so that our taxes and money are going to the right places. I do not completely disagree with the system but I think with strict stipulations, half the people would not be on welfare.

I think there should be other ways in our system today so that people can make better decisions. For example people that do not have a GED they should be able to go for free so that those people could try and find work. Also people should be on welfare only for a certain amount of time like a couple of years not a decade. That way if we had welfare counselors helping people get jobs, and get their GED's there will be a higher rate of success and not more taxes being distributed to them.

As Saccome states, many people can find jobs but not sitters to watch their children. Then they try to put them in child care and what ends up happening is all their money goes to the child care. Also there are not after school activities in the neighborhoods so that the kids can stay at school longer while the parent is working. Instead the neighborhood are more troublesome and bad behavior is promoted because then you have you kids on the streets causing trouble. I think Saccome is trying to let us know how hard it really is and to not make judgements when you really do not have the research and answers of how and why people are on welfare.

Ch 3

Ch 3 discusses very important topics about how one is stigmatized by their surrounding people. What I mean by that is people that are on welfare are constantly hearing negative comments about them. Dawn states that she hears these comments all the time but people really do not know what it is like to be on it. She also says if she was not on it, her kids would not eat. I have many pros and cons about welfare and unfortunately I still am more towards the con side. I just feel that many people I know are working the system and if I know many people doing that then how many more people are working it as well. Some people do not have the resources to make them better as a person and succeed but some people have more and more kids so that the government will give them more money so they do not have to work. And it seems to me that the stereotypes fit the picture alot of the time. As I stated in my last chapter reflection, I know someone real close to me that is on welfare and does not need to be. She is a smart person and has made bad decisions before and you would think she would learn from her mistakes the first time, but she did not. Now she has a second child with a deadbeat father and cannot work because she has to watch her child.
Reading about racism and welfare in this chapter should make me want to change my mind about the system but what is described in here is what I believe. It just so happens that it is stereotypical but with the people I know. I have one friend that is white that is on the system and the rest are not. It says in the book that many whites feel the reverse discrimination and that minorities reap employment and social welfare benefits. I do believe that with our history from the slaves movement, African Americans do get more because they have a past of not getting any. So the government wants to make sure they favor them more but I think in the end it hurts them and keeps them at a comfortable stage. Why should a 21 year old that has two kids get welfare and food stamps when I work my but off to get the things I want when they can be doing the same? I think this system is jacked up because all my taxes go to them while they keep popping out kids. I'm not talking about one race I'm talking in general anyone that decides to have a kid before they can financially do it. I think that welfare does not teach you a lesson instead it promotes people to get knocked up and not to worry if the father does not be in the child's life because there is the government to help. Personally, I am enraged at this matter and really after all the classes I have taken, it has made no difference in my decisions that I have encountered. Some people do not have good resources to do good or be good and I feel for those people but personally with experiences in my life with the people I know, they clearly do not need to be on it. They have grown up with great resources and know the right decisions to make.

Going into the context where stigma and discrimination occurs, Saccome states that stereotypes believe that many women on welfare should be monitored to prevent irresponsible behavior, like shopping for steak and shrimp. Many people on welfare should be embarrassed because they have given up a lot of their privacy and their choices as Saccomes states. I am really bias and I guess it has to do with the people I know that are on the system. Thats really all I can say. When there are not just one but a few doing the same thing, its hard to not follow the stereotypes. I think Saccome wants us to have a better understanding on racism and discrimination by telling us the facts, real stories and the stereotypes. Unfortunately it will take more than what I have read and learned from her to really make me change my mind.

Kimberley S

Kimberley was a very interesting person to listen to. I never really had someone come into class and speak deeply about her life. I really appreciated her doing so because it made me realize that every person on the street is not the same but similar. She was in and out of jail five times and during her in between times of not being in jail she was a drug abuser as she stated and a prostitute. I think what takes a big part in the mess she was in was that she was raped several times by family members. Thats where I felt she did not care for her body because of the trama that went with her past. Her drugs of choice was heroin and cocaine and would do anything and everything for it. She said it started off getting free heroin from her siblings that were dealing it and then once she became hooked they were not around to support her habit and she went into bad debt trying to support the drug habit and nothing else. She became homeless and had to be on the streets. At first she said it was hard to be on the strett but then it got better with experience and you started to know a lot more people than when you started. Thats when she finally went on the streets and then got pregnant not once but twice.

She has been in and out of the streets for 26 years and is 40 years old. She has been clean for 20 months and decided that she does not want to be in jail anymore and to not do that she had to stay clean. She cleaned up her act and now wants to be a good role model for her two sons but she does not have custody of them and unfortunate one is incarcerated. You have to really truly want to have a better life to be able to change for the better permanently. If you do not, you are in for a disaster and off to the streets you will be. I am very proud of Kimberley that she decided to be better and stop the street living.

Action Project Proposal.

Miguel, Marnie, Clarence and myself are in group one together. We decided that we are volunteering with a charity called Grace House. It provides a place called home for for the women who have been dismissed from corrections. The women of Grace House have chosen to support the SOS Children's Village of Haiti by putting together a fundraiser which will take place this week Friday which is the 19th of March and will offer the public and friends and family the option to order meals for lunch, and/or dinner. The money the people spend on the food is what is going to be donated to the children's village for the children in Haiti. The SOS Children's Village is an independent non-governmental social development organization. This village helps out many people and transforms their lives. I hope to and know that I will have a better love for helping people in need and to make the world a better place.

Boston part 2

Boston according to the http://usconferencemayorreportboston.org states that there are 2625 homeless people in shelters and 22317 that are not. There are over 600 families not in homes and families unsheltered 18554. This information states that there has been a decrease in the services provided from last year and there are unmet needs. The issue is the non affordable housing and Boston needs to come up with a better plan to distribute their money so that there can be at least government owned property or subsidized property and no t this many people homeless and on the streets.

Critique 2

Timothy has the same title as me, Hunger and Homelessness. As for the beauty of this blog, he also has a very basic page with no pictures though and no difference in fonts and color. I read it on March 5. His information is very basic and that he does not go into as much detail as I did. I'm not saying that is bad it all depends on what you really look for. I personally have to write a lot to get my point across and some people do not have to. It seems as though Timothy summarizes the material given to him and not really discusses it.

Critique 1

Hunger and Homelessness is Micheal's title. I viewed it on March 5th. His blog is very simple and clean. If you wanted just that I think he would be good but if you wanted to have it more in depth, I would recommend that he adds more pictures and more colors. From what I've read of his work, he seems to clarify and go into detail on important aspects of this class. I enjoyed reading his blog but felt as though there should be a little more excitement as I continue to read.