I Am Not A Victim

I was listening to the radio today and the talk show host was talking about an issue I have given a lot of thought to. He was speaking about our country re-introducing the draft. I know, "draft" is a four letter word and it isn't something I would ever support and it certainly hasn't been anything I have given any thought to, but what he said about the reason for the draft I found to be noteworthy. His proposal isn't your ordinary draft. It is a draft that gives a person the choice between military service and community service i.e. helping elderly, the disabled, teaching children to read etc. Huh.

As some of you know, Fryanegg, Arvin and I have spent some time in Germany. Not all together or at the same time, but in Germany nonetheless. And in Germany there is system that does this very thing. Now I am going to try my best to explain it. (hopefully the forementioned people will help me if I leave anything out or if I misspoke.)
From what I understand, German students do a sort of job training in their last year of High School. The student works for a local business, I believe for free, while gaining valuable working skills and credit. Now I don't believe in free work, but I do think young people working is a good idea. After high school, Germans have to do a mandatory year in the military or in community service. I totally support this idea, just not the whole mandatory thing. Although, I do think we as a country could provide an incentive so that people will enlist. But how do we do that?

When I was living in San Luis Obispo a couple of years ago, I was working for a Non-profit organization called LifeSteps. It was an organization that assisted disabled adults and it was sorta cool...at first. But after our leadership fell apart, then the whole thing seemed to fall apart. Since then I can say that working for LifeSteps opened my eyes to a myriad of life lessons.
1. No such thing as non-profit
2. Working with people who need help can be rewarding, but is very challenging.
3. Very few people fall into "victim status" and those who do should be taken care of. (And no San Francisco, you certainly have not cornered the market in victims. Bums maybe, but not victims)

To my first point about "no such thing as non-profit" I will say this. I really don't know how non-profits work, eventhough I worked at one for two years. I know religious organizations do non-profit work, but from what I understand "non-profit" just means "tax exempt." What I do know is that LifeSteps had every intention of making a profit. The org. was constantly trying to figure out ways to make a buck. One example has to do with workers comp. We had a serious problem with people claiming on job injuries and this was hurting our insurance package. So what did the Org. do? They brought in $3000.00 hoyer lifts, per resident, to assist with tranfers. Afterwards they washed their hands of anyone claiming injury. Now for a company that is profit minded this makes tons of sense, but LifeSteps? (Personally, I felt that most of the injuries were B.S., but that is what they get for hiring bottom of the barrel staff who only seemed to be working for the benefits. I don't know what happened after those benefits were marginalized.)

Another example of LifeSteps want for profit was their want for more clients. How it works is this, when somebody in California is born with a disability or obtained an injury before the age of 18, they are eligible for "assistance." That assistance, "tax dollars", goes to an assisted living program "LifeSteps." Our clients used to live in big hospitals, but the state costs were too high so they began living in assisted living situations. We were there to help them live somewhat independent lives and try get them to work as much as they can for society. What a joke...only a couple of my clients actually were capable of doing that. The rest needed almost total support. In other words they should have remained in the hospital. But how does a state afford such costs? How do we expect taxpayers to pay for people that aren't, most of the time, being helped by their own families? I will get to that later.

Continuing on, in order for LifeSteps to make more money it needed more clients. The idea of this made me sick. I mean we were already doing a mediocre job helping "the helpless" who should have been living in hospitals, and now they wanted more? Then my imagination got the better of me. All I could think about was how the leaders of the Org. were hoping for more birth defects and more injuries. I went so far as to think of a short story where a LifeStpes big wig started lobbying the state in order to repeal helmet and seatbelt laws so that there would be more potential clients. I never got around to writing it though.
Summing up, LifeSteps made money by giving emloyees shit pay with benefits and receiving tax dollars for lousy work. Sounds Super. (By the way, those who think that more tax dollars would have solved the situation, the answer to that is "nope")

God, I think I said enough about that.

So how to fix it. I am one of those people who believes the Govt. is a necessary evil and should be responsible for just a few things. Postal, Firemen, Police, Infrastructure, Military and lastly helping the helpless. And to make things clear, Alcoholics, drug addicts and victims of society (you know who you are) does not mean "helpless." I proprose this, stop all programs, all non-profit that aren't charity based, and all the tax dollar vacuum suck and put it under one umbrella, give it a jazzy name and then recruit high school students. (Ages 19-21 were my favorite co-workers anyway) Offer a GI bill and all that stuff. Train them to be teachers, and nurses, and physical therapists, and dietitians for the elderly. Let them travel the world in order to help others in need. Give em shit pay, and shit hours, but also give them the opportunity to help others rather than sit on the couch playing nintendo. I said before that the job is rewarding, and it is, but it is not fulfilling and it should only be seen as a stepping stone.