Defending the Constitution Plus Uncle Ernie Who Used to Run That Card Game in the Basement

[mallorys_camera]

I just loved Philly. The past integrated with the present; the 19th century townhouses cheek and jowl with the 21st century skyscrapers. And all the spectacular murals! It's a terrific place.

The AmeriCorps VISTA training was… interesting. I suspect much of my LJ for the next year at least is going to have to be Friends-Only because joining AmeriCorps VISTA turns out to be exactly like joining the military – I am now a sworn upholder and defender of the Constitution. I am necessarily going to have to be extremely circumspect in the things I say in public forums. I know I have some readers who aren't on LJ. If you want to keep reading you'll have to get LJ accounts and Friend me.

It was distinctly odd being the token Old Person in a group of 26 year olds. Happens that more than most Old People, I blend pretty well into groups of 26 year olds – not as an authority figure, but as one of the clone – so I got along pretty well with them. Like, "Wow! Get down, Patrizia! You've got the moves!" when we were all dancing together. Right, honey, I thought. And I've been having them moves since before you were a minor irritation in yo' Daddy's epididymis.

One of the more interesting things at the training was observing the split between the privileged kids who'd gone to great colleges and the kids who'd pulled themselves up by their own bootstraps. Extra credit if you can guess the skin tones of those two groups! Duh – it's not hard.

VISTA's ostensible mission is to end poverty, although like all organizations – government and otherwise – its real purpose is to perpetuate the organization's existence. The kids who'd gone to great schools knew about poverty, of course, as a sociological concept. They talked a lot about it during the orientation. But the kids who'd come up the mean way mostly kept their mouths shut.

There was a huge amount of social interaction among the kids of the first group. Kids in the second group tended not to socialize, not even with each other.

One of the most daunting things about my upcoming assignment, of course, is how I – as an elderly white female – am going to relate to a target demograpic of mostly black and Hispanic teenagers who are just going to be counting down the days till they can drop out of high school. I mean, what do I tell them: Stay in school so you can end up like moi, an overeducated, old white woman teetering precariously on the edge of the financial abyss and prone to acute episodes of existential despair? I'm hardly a role model.

I am absolutely terrific at programmatic type stuff, though. I can formulate action plans and write grants like nobody's business. So at least I can position the program to be dynamic in years to come.



The high point of the trip was meeting Dan and his wife Connie. Dan is actually my father's half-brother. Parenthetically, one of the reasons I stay on Facebook is because of the DiLucchios on Facebook. I figure they're all related to me – it's not a particularly common last name, right? Who knows, I may need a kidney donation some day. Twin whammies of my own peculiar upbringing and the extremely dysfunctional paternal line are such that it was not until I was well into middle age that I began putting the DiLucchio family jigsaw together.

Anyway, Dan is the product of my paternal grandfather's final marriage. We are actually close in age. He's a terrific guy, and his wife is similarly terrific. We talked at great length about the DiLucchio family's Mob connections. (They survive even unto the present generation if we include the career arc of one of my half-brothers.)

I had a really good time with him, and got to eat some terrific Mexican food.
"

Comments

[robby.livejournal.com]

Even the military is now being very choosy in terms of recruits. What will happen with that group of young people without a basic education and very little real opportunity? We're building a huge underclass, just like the third world, where people with jobs and money live behind high walls

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

Well, that's a big question. Poughkeepsie High School has a dropout rate of 46%, which is just staggering to me. People who take GEDs are included in graduation statistics, so dropouts are kids without that.

(I'm not a big believer in the myth that everyone-MUST-go-to-college by the way. I think it's perpetuated by the college prep industry, and of course, the colleges themselves for whom, increasingly, the education they provide is a commodity.)

But high school education... No way you succeed without that.

Remembering back to that time in my own life, I wanted to make $$$. So a lot of my own thoughts at this very preparatory stage are about how to introduce these kids to the joys of making money -- as an incentive to stay in school. Recently, I've been toying with the idea of writing grants to come up with funding to buy food trucks and then empowering kids run those -- with adult guidance, of course -- as their own cooperative businesses. We shall see...

[robby.livejournal.com]

On a macro scale, the US must restore manufacturing capability, and stress quality products, not try to compete on cost. I'm shocked at how shoddy the consumer products are that flood in from Asia. They cut every corner they can in materials and quality, and much of it is junk.

We must create decent paying jobs, and let the world see that a quality product is worth the extra cost.

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

The U.S. is never going to restore manufacturing jobs. Or at least not for the next 100 years. Labor costs are too high. Mind you, I personally believe in paying labor good wages and paid much higher than the going rate when I had my own business. I'm speaking from the purely economic point of view here -- liquidity is almost alway a problem for businesses, and labor is perceived as the squeezable variable.

And I'm sure you know that the U.S. still has quite a few manufacturing jobs, htough I see them disappearing in the next two decades.

[robby.livejournal.com]

I disagree. Do you know that labor costs are rising in Asia, based on the US dollar? I think a modern efficient factory in the US, making quality products can compete. As of now, we've hemorrhaging our economic lifeblood, and creating a permanent underclass, in exchange for shoddy imported products that fail quickly.

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

The "shoddy products that fail quickly" is part of an economic process called planned obsolescence. :-) In that way, unskilled labor markets are true evangelists of supplier-induced demand. :-)

The issue, of course, is that American factory owners can't or don't want to pay their laborers a fair wage. This is a scale thing -- smaller business owners literally can't; larger business owners (who could probably afford to) won't.

Business owners must make the decisions that are most effective for their businesses, of course. I do think the federal government could help here, though, for providing major tax credits to manufacturing businesses that stay in the United States.

[robby.livejournal.com]

I've bought a number of things that fall apart almost right out of the box, and I believe that quality products can command a premium price and those employers can pay a decent wage. The alternative is a decline to third world status.

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

You "believe," but what are you basing that belief on? Not trying to be snarky here. I'm seriously interested.

[robby.livejournal.com]

A domestic art cinema is being manufactured in Santa Fe.

http://www.jeancocteaucinema.com/

[anais-pf.livejournal.com]

If you have a passport, you have already sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution. I imagine the U.S. government just has a little more clout with which to make sure you do just that, now that you're working for them.

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

I've had a passport since I was 16. (I got one waaaay before I got a driver's license.) Huh. I don't remember swearing to uphold the Constitution in order to get one, though I suppose I must have. :-)

[anais-pf.livejournal.com]

I remember when I was nine years old, at the passport office in Washington DC, my father swore on my behalf to uphold and defend the Constitution, which was a bit interesting because he was never a U.S. citizen. He carefully explained to me that he was going to swear on my behalf, and he explained what it meant. But yes, you have to swear that to get a passport.