Why This Particular Recovery Is So Bad at Creating New Jobs

Yesterday, my daughter told me that my 5th grade granddaughter talked to her about the Junior Achievement project at her school.  They are setting up a community  and the children had a chance to apply for a listing of jobs.  Here is their conversation.

Mom:  Well, which job did you decide to apply for today? You had great options, web designer, healthcare specialist, CEO First TN and CFO at FedEx.


Kynnedy:  Wow, never thought I would have so many experiences at my age to qualify for those jobs!  Being a part of Black Girls Code helped me qualify for Web Designer. My family background in healthcare and my rare skin ailment that I know so much about helped me with that healthcare specialist job. I have the highest math scores in school, so I qualified for the CFO and my jewelry line helped me with CEO.   I chose CFO for FedEx because I am really good a math.
Mom:  Did your friend Jamie run for Mayor?  How was her speech?
Kynnedy:  Yeah, she's running but I'm not voting for her.
Mom:  But, she's your friend!
Kynnedy:  Yeah, and she is still my friend but I am not voting her for Mayor because she tried to bribe us.
Mom:  Bribe you?  How?
Kynnedy:  By saying, she would not raise our taxes and give us our tax money back. You can't run a government without  money, and you shouldn't make promises you can't keep. No money, no service. No, I am not voting for her...nobody's got time for that.
That conversation was so funny.  I cracked up laughing. Then, I thought if the world were so simple our unemployment rate wouldn't be so high in this community.  I took pride in a school and program that teach children how to think independently and correlate training and experiences to skills.

 
Dear Lord, 


Today, I pray we have a good announcement about jobs for the citizens in Memphis and Shelby County. The Chamber has a regional focus, but City and County Governments should focus on Memphis and Shelby. Please give our corporate leaders wisdom to understand that our citizens need their help in training to prepare for the new jobs. They need training centers and a government to provide them without cost to our citizens who are already struggling. They need living wages to provide for themselves and their families. They need health care to protect the quality of their lives and the longevity of the work careers.
Give our corporate leaders a heart to extend mercy and forgiveness to one time felons who are really trying to change their lives. Hope gives one a different perspective on life and usually produces activity that cultivates peace and extends goodwill. 
And Dear God, I am not trying to be a throne in one's side. But, I understand the value of being a squeaky wheel, and some don't know how to raise their voices to power. I just want to help a crying citizenry be heard. Use me, Lord for these your people, too. Help me to find ways to be their voice in a noisy world. Lord bless our leaders locally and nationally. May they never lose focus of their desire to serve others.

I pray for education and its challenges as it tries to prepare the next workforce generation. May they not face the same issues of high unemployment and underemployment that we are dealing with today.

Amen


Please read this link.  The article is by Timothy Noah writer for the Pacific Standard.  It is very good.


Why This Particular Recovery Is So Bad at Creating New Jobs

I Am Going To Respect My Husband's Wishes...

My husband said he wishes I would be a little less controversial  because if someone says something out of the way to me he will have to get in it. Awww... my Superman!  LOL 

Writing on the chalkboard.
I am going to respect my husband's wishes. I am going to respect my husband's wishes. I am going to respect my husband's wishes. I am going to respect my husband's wishes. I am going to respect my husband's wishes...

But, let me ask these two questions, "Why do we need with another high power elite committee to run P-K when we have a school system with educational experts with a P-K program already? And why would Mayor Luttrell support giving Head Start to a private entity until "Our Lady Miss Commissioner Henri E. Brooks" brought a resolution recommending that if it is transferred it should go to the educational system represented by the people,the Shelby County Schools ? Why would he then try to take credit for her idea? (Sorry, that's three questions.)

I am going to respect my husband's wishes. I am going to respect my husband's wishes. I am going to respect my husband's wishes. I am going to respect my husband's wishes...

Vintaged Values...Lessons from Mom (Giving)

I am going to have to limit my 84 year old Mom's television time. She loves Wendy Williams, Steve Harvey and the Mearl Purvis Show (her name for the news show, not mine).

She called me excited because Alicia Keys was on and didn't want me to miss her: Alicia Keys, not Nancy Wilson.

Then, one day  when I took her to the doctor and her general physician suggested that he needed to remove her moles around her neck because they have multiplied. She asked him, "Are you a Dermatologist? I thought you were a General Medical Physician."

Her doctor confirmed his area was general medical. Then, she responded, "Well, you know I love you Dr. Hardy, but I am going to need you to stay in your lane".  Dr. Hardy and I bought laughed so hard.  I told him, I am going to have to limit her television time and shows because she is getting fresh for me.

Then, this morning she said Mearl Purvis is really looking good on television and "there's a glow" about her. "Do you watch The Mearl Purvis Show? LOL

But here is the lesson I really wanted to share with you based on our conversation.

Mama:  What are you doing tonight?
Me:       Hanging out with the girls celebrating Gale's birthday at a Steak House.

Mama:   Oh, I love how you young women (Gale is 39 and I am 60) will enjoy life with each other and not
             wait for a gentleman to take you to dinner.  Get my greeting card box and my purse. I am going to
             help you buy Gale's Stake.  (She puts $5.00 in the card.)

My Mother has no sense of how much a dinner costs at Ruth Chris Steak House. ( LOL LMBO)  But, I love the fact that she keeps "Vintaged Values" in style.  She never gives a greeting card without putting a little something in it.

I can remember her sending get-well cards to the church's sick and shut-in list religiously and to kids in college away from home. She believes that "little becomes much in the Master's Hands". She believes that if she does her part and others did their part, the small gifts would be enough to pay for medicine, gas, meal or whatever is needed at a time of need.

All these years, and I realize that it's the same concept that Gale and I use when we ask friends to give $10 over the cost of a movie ticket.  That $10 from many raised over $10,000  to fee the hungry, provide shelter for those fleeing from domestic violence, treatment for alcohol and drug dependency and a financial literacy program. 

But I love how my Mom incorporates the new and treasure her Vintaged Values. So, every now and then, I'll take a break from politics and remind us of Vintaged Values.

• about a minute ago · Like

Rape!!!

Project Unbreakable was created in October of 2011 by Grace Brown. Grace works with survivors of sexual assault, photographing them holding a poster with a quote from their attacker.

RAPE!!!

How would you feel if one day someone violated you sexually and all your cries for help went unanswered. Feeling ashamed and alone you managed to go through the process of reporting, reliving and re evaluating every moment of the nightmare to make sure someone is held accountable.  Through it all,  you hold on to the "one thread of hope" in a dark situation: "Maybe I can help prevent this from happening to another human being just by reporting it."

Well, for about 10,000 mostly women, children, and a few men, they were raped and the City of Memphis took their "one thread of hope".

I applaud the Memphis City Council for taking action to correct this horrific nightmare. The Council approved a resolution that re-appropriates $500,000 in the MPD budget to be used for the testing of some of the over 10,000 rape kits that have never been tested.  Unfortunately, some of the kits were not only untested they were not maintained in one location. There were some in one area, a little or here and some kept who knows where.  So, the Director Toney Armstrong asked for funds for a climate-controlled facility to store and catalog the evidence. That, will cost the public another $1million but it is more of a priority than a Tiger Blue Lane or International Paper's Crosswalk.  

Councilwoman Wanda Halbert asked probing questions but was rebuffed as if they were frivolous questions. Excuse me, Halbert has a right to ask those questions and the public is waiting for the answers.

It is necessary to correct the situation but it is also important to know how this occurred.  We need to hold those who breached the trust of 10,000 victims accountable.

I recall the harassment of City Attorney Elbert Jefferson. The DA attempted to oust him from his appointment as City Attorney because he claimed he was negligent in his duties.  A charge that was never substantiated, but evidently lead Jefferson to resign.

I recall the attack on Councilwoman Barbara Swearengen Ware over a felony conviction for $5.00.

I recall the "witch hunt" on Shep Wilbun and the charges were dismissed.

I recall the missing dog, Capone, who was found is Mississippi and to this day this is no account of how he ended up in Mississippi, but the charges against a low level animal shelter worker were dismissed.  But her career was destroyed with their zealous prosecution.

Well, today, I am hollering "Rape" for 10,000 who had a right to have their rape kits processed and the reports investigating as result of the information compiled through a criminal lab. I am looking for the Federal District Attorney to intervene and the Justice Department to ask questions. If the people who are responsible for this mess are in other high profile positions of authority for the public, they should be exposed.

We should demand to know how this happened, under whose watch, who authorizes the process for the testing, and who knew what when?  RAPE!!!