By Nature or By Design?

I was reading the paper the other morning and on the front page was a story about a few of the thousands of out of work mill workers this state is home to.

Unemployed mill workers are not uncommon, common as #3 stickers on the back of Pick Ups and mullets, well , as mullets in Pick Ups. What was interesting, at least to me was that many these people could not read above a grade school level. These people didn't leave school till they were in their teens, well after they should have mastered reading and some what advanced maths. You think we just started having problems with illiterate high school drop outs?

Suddenly jobless, 45 and functionally illiterate.

Those mill jobs were according to the story "forever jobs". The mills closed, and these people can't read well enough to fill out an application at McDonald's. How did they get through the last 20 years at the mill? How did the mill communicate with them? Did they just have some old boy wander around the floor and act like a Town Crier? Did they just learn to rely on the few that did read to let them know what was going on?

That's a lot of trust. A mean spirited person could run roughshod over those people. How easy it would be to take advantage of those people?, I bet the mills took advantage of that. I bet a lot of business took advantage of that.

Or was that only the people who were all ready going to drop out, not college bound go to those jobs? Quit school early because it was all ready too much, there was all ready too much to do to stay in school, Ill parents, needy siblings easy money at the mill. Don't need no diploma at the mill. Get your task down, spend the next 40 years doing that task, do what you're told. Retire, watch TV, die.

I guess if you know how to cook, you don't always need to be able to read a recipe so you can feed yourself and your family. Kiddy books are easy to read so you can to your kids, maybe they won't have to drop out and work at the mill. But what happens if working at the mill isn't choice X? It could be for the best. A "forever" job after all. Safety, security , salvation, slavery?

How long can you cover not reading? Or not reading very well? everything is reading. Maps, menus, street signs, Birthday Cards, Announcements, Obits.

They mentioned one man who was having to learn write! They all had limited math skills. Why didn't the mills offer classes? Improve their workers! Make their lives easier. Make them better. make them more likely to find better jobs! Yeah.

They promise to take care of these people and then they close up shop and send them out on the street. What can these people do in today's work force? How many 45 year old fry cooks does one town need? Grocery baggers?, yard men or God Forbid, CNAs?

The local community colleges hired up a lot of new instructors and found more space for all the incoming students. Job training, tech classes, skills workshops. They can't take the tech classes, the job training and the workshops if they can't read the material.

I just can't understand. Where was the rest of the society? Didn't any one say anything? Did't anyone notice? Didn'tt any one up in the office say "Hey, ya know what, I think some of these people don't read too well. I think we should do something!" anything! How can this just now be news. The mills were full of these people and no one noticed? even if it was only one in fifty with literacy problems. Thousands were put out of work.

Any is too many.