Signs of the Times

I saw a news item today that really has my blood boiling. I usually write columns in an effort to make people aware of the issues facing our Province. To discuss the utter neglect shown by Ottawa and to provide some insight into what this outpost in the Atlantic is all about. I enjoy doing that. Today is not an enjoyable day.

Today I find myself in the unenviable position of having to discuss something that I had hoped was a dying issue in Newfoundland and Labrador. A situation that embarrasses me like no other, but cannot be ignored. A situation that should sicken anyone with a grain of decency and even an ounce of pride left in their body.

The reason for my current foul mood and the catalyst for making a very large vein in my forehead to begin pulsating in time with my heart, is a news item carried on the CBC website. It told the story of a Springdale business man who has begun recruiting expatriate Newfoundlanders, from places like Alberta, to work with him in his operation. This man isn’t where my problem lies. In fact I don’t have a problem with what he’s doing at all. I actually applaud him for taking the initiative to find his workforce among those who wish to come home and I’m glad to see that some of our people have been given that opportunity. What galls me to no end is the reason why his company has had to resort to this hiring practice in the first place.

According to the article “…there are plenty of people who could do the jobs here, but he (the business owner) said many don't want to work until their employment insurance runs out.
(He)… said he is up against a bad attitude that has been nurtured by a long history of government assistance.

Hang on a second. I need to take a deep breath and compose myself before taking on this issue.

OK, I’ve counted to ten, then to twenty. I think my blood pressure is under control now so I’ll say what needs to be said here.

First, let me say that I won’t comment directly about the company referenced in the CBC article. I don’t have enough details to even attempt doing that. I don’t know for example what the working conditions or salaries are like. I don’t know if perhaps the employer is, well let’s just say “not nice” to his employees. I have no way of knowing any of that so I’ll speak in general terms instead.

Here goes the rant:

In my humble opinion, if anyone in this Province, or anywhere else for that matter, is too G%& Damn lazy to get off their ass and take a job that’s been offered to them, they should be kicked out into the streets and ridiculed by the masses. If anyone would rather sit at home and collect employment insurance instead of earning an honest living they should be cut off from their benefits. If anyone, especially anyone in this Province, can look around them at the potential this place has if we only worked together, but still wants to play the system for all it’s worth, they should be put on a raft and let drift out to sea.

I don’t know if I can say it any clearer than that.

I also want to say that I don’t have a problem with those who legitimately need the sort of safety net EI provides. I’m not referring to those unfortunate folks. What I am talking about are the type of lazy, “you owe me” louts who make it their life’s ambition to get just enough stamps for their next unemployment claim before moving onto their big comfy couches and vegetating their lives away at everyone else’s expense.

If the article I read today was the only story of its kind I’d heard I might simply write it off as an aberration, but it isn’t. I’ve heard the same sort of story before, quite recently in fact. I also recall witnessing a similar situation myself in a former career. At the time, I was interviewing someone for a job. After the introductions were out of the way I began informing the potential candidate of the job’s particulars. When I had gone on for a few minutes the young man in question looked me square in the eye and asked point blank, “Will I get my stamps out of this?” My response was simply that it was a full time job and that we would let him know if he qualified. What I really wanted to say was, “No you lazy A-hole you won’t get your stamps out of it because you aren’t getting the job.”

I guess I’ve been living in a dream world the past ten years or so but I had almost convinced myself that the sort of dependency displayed in these situations was becoming a thing of the past in our Province. It looks now like my feelings were nothing more than wishful thinking.

I could sit here and blame both levels of government for fostering this sort of mentality in our people over the years, but I won’t. I could blame the fact that the only thing many people in rural communities have known for decades is the type of seasonal work that leads to this mentality. I won’t do that either. The reason I won’t is because it’s BULL. What I will do is put the blame exactly where it belongs. On the lazy S.O.B.’s who deserve it.

A job is a job is a job and any able bodied Newfoundlander or Labradorean who would turn up their nose at a job in favor of EI or Social Assistance payments is no better than a common criminal. It’s time they stood up, or sat down if they can’t find the energy to move, and admitted that they are the problem, nobody else.

I originally came from a small town where work was scarce to say the least. At a young age I moved away from my home Province where I found employment wherever I could. Over a period of ten years or so I worked at anything I could find. I washed dishes, made deliveries, worked in construction, at a dockyard, on an assembly line and on and on. By the time I was a little older I had acquired the skills and education necessary to enter my current career, back where my heart was, and I moved home. Even now I haven’t made it all the way back to the small town where I was born. Instead I live in the St. John’s area, where my WORK is located, but I still dream that one day I’ll make it all the way back to where I belong.

You may be wondering why I shared that slice of my life with you all. The reason is simple. Yes, in my early years I also needed the support structures of EI, or UI as it was called at the time. But I certainly didn’t take advantage of the system. I used it as it was intended, to help me transition from one employment situation to another as required and make sure I had enough to eat while I was doing it. I left my home town like so many of our people, at least those who truly want to work, are doing today. I know how difficult finding gainful employment can be and what it takes to uproot your life to find it.

I understand as well why some people living in small towns find themselves in situations where they must rely on assistance of some form to survive between seasonal or temporary jobs. I can also understand how, for one reason or another, it may be too much for them to simply uproot their families, homes and lives to move away. Finally, I understand why others in similar situations give it all up and move away to improve their situation. What I fail to understand and won’t even try to understand in fact, are those who willingly choose the road of system addiction over a locally available job.

When I recall what it took for me to do what I did years ago or when I see the hardships others have endured to make a decent living and contribute to our society, it makes me physically ill to know that there are still able bodied people out there who would rather live off the system we all pay for.

I’ve been living back in my native Province for about 15 years now and in that short time I’ve seen some amazing changes. I’ve seen the economy begin to turn in an upward direction. I’ve seen a change in attitude regarding our place in this Country. I’ve seen our people from coast to coast begin to stand up and be heard. Those things have all begun to make me believe that the potential of this place is just now beginning to be seen. Yes, our outports and rural areas are in serious trouble but I have the hope that in time these areas will also begin to see improvements.

Something else I’ve seen in the past few years that I cannot recall ever seeing in my younger days. Signs, that’s right, signs. Small, rectangular hand written signs hanging in shop windows proclaiming for all to see, “Help Wanted, Apply Within.” I’ve seen them in the urban centers and I’ve even begun seeing them in smaller towns across the Province.

Seeing those signs begin to appear over the past few years made me proud to think that there was finally some work where very little had existed before. It gave me hope for our future. Today I see those signs without the rosy tint I had on my glasses just yesterday. Today I don’t see these signs as a benchmark of our progress at all. Instead I see the signs as a display of the apathy that has settled into so many of our people.

I wonder now if I was wrong all along. Maybe we haven’t begun to grow in the direction I thought we were heading. Perhaps those help wanted signs aren’t being hung in shop windows because we are doing so well but because so many of our people are simply too damn lazy to walk in and take them down. I pray I’m wrong.