So my father has become another number.

President Bush doesn't believe that the country is in a recession...in fact, he thinks his little "stimulus checks" are making a difference.

But nope. Not a damn bit. Gas prices are still skyrocketing, food prices are skyrocketing, the dollar is weakening, and jobs are being lost around the country.

Jobs like the one my dad had less than twenty-four hours ago.

You know, it's easy to look at the downward trends, the negative reports, the bad numbers, and think it doesn't really affect you. Easy to hear so-and-so company has laid off twenty thousand jobs and say "so what? It ain't mine."

Well, sometimes it is yours.

My dad has been working at Albertson's for over a decade, and in the food service industry since I was a kid. He worked his way up the company over the years, going from check-out boy to manager. The pay wasn't superb, but it was enough to get by reasonably comfortably.

And when I was young...I think 7 or 8...the Albertson's where my dad worked was robbed. And my dad was shot in the leg. He survived, and without any crippling aftereffects, but it changed his life forever, even if he doesn't talk about it much.

But today I find out that Publix has bought out all the Albertson's stores in the region, and most of the workers---particularly the high-ranking ones getting large paychecks---are being laid off. As in fired. As in, there goes your job security and the work of over ten years and the paycheck you need to pay the mortgage and the power bill and the water bill and the food and the gas and everything else that's ticking skyward.

My father, who took a fucking bullet for the company and his family, is damn near certain to be in those numbers. And so, for a family of nine, with four kids under the age of ten struggling to get by, things are about to get a lot harder.

Remember that the next time you listen to the news and hear about thousands of lay-offs and try to ignore it.

One of them is my father.

Next time it might be yours.

And a stimulus check won't feed you for very long.

*********

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ConnerBomb 2008-06-09 21:16:43

I honestly don't know what to say... I'm really sorry for you. :(

Hopefully everything will turn out okay in the end.

SlashFirestorm 2008-06-09 21:16:43

Thanks. It's going to be hard---there ain't many jobs left around Pensacola, and my dad and the older kids (including myself) aren't going to have an easy time finding some, but hopefully we'll manage.

Aznime 2008-06-09 21:35:54

Hope it can become alright :(

SlashFirestorm 2008-06-09 21:35:54

Me too.

We still have it better off than a lot of people, but our family has bought our house and expanded with the assumption that we'd always have the same income, but now we're going to have to make some significant cutbacks.

ADR3-N 2008-06-10 04:57:50

='( My family is having the same problem. My dad could barely support me even before this bull-shit, but now, even my mom is struggling. I've had to skip some meals thanks to the Bush administration. I'm fed up with it. That's part of the reason why I'll be moving to France soon. It may not be 'a free country' but atleast you can afford to live.

SlashFirestorm 2008-06-10 04:57:50

If things don't shape up (I'm really hoping the election will change things, but I suppose McCain might cheat and win), I'm moving back to Canada. Same quality of life and less than half of the bullshit.

mrbobbyjoe 2008-06-10 19:09:51

Your father gets shot while working for a company, and then years later, after all of his loyalty to the company, he gets fired? That is one fucked up system for keeping workers during a lay-off. I hope everything can get better for you and your family. Maybe if you're lucky, working members of your family can find some decent jobs and manage to get by.

But on another matter, how can Bush possibly believe that the country isn't going into a recession? The value of the dollar is dropping pretty much daily and prices for gas and food are soaring. And then there's the gradually falling economy of the US. If those aren't considered to be factors for a recession, I don't know what are.

Lots of people I know are already suffering from the combination of rising prices and lowering salaries, along with any problems that their family might have with things like the war in Iraq. In fact, my own family is worried about being laid off almost every day, because of recent company mergings. To be honest, my family isn't doing badly right now, but at the rate things are going right now, I'm going to be joining the struggle to stay alive pretty soon.

If he really wants to help the country, why doesn't Bush try and make some more jobs for the tens of thousands of people who are losing them, instead of just adding his little checks that aren't really making all that much of a difference?

SlashFirestorm 2008-06-10 19:09:51

There is some hope.

Publix is encouraging all laid off workers to apply for a job with them! Oh, how generous---my dad gets to beg for a job with half the pay and half the dignity of his old one! Thank you, corporate America, for giving us the opportunity to beg to be your bitch.

Fucking shits.

And while all the older members of the family are going to be getting jobs, pretty soon gas will be so high that we'll be in the red from commuting alone. Pfft.

StevensA 2008-06-11 01:17:12

I know how it is, man. My dad was laid off earlier this year as well.

Granted, we got lucky and he got called back, but we suffered for quite a bit. I just hope it doesn't happen again, because we might not be so lucky next time.

I hope for the best for your family.

SlashFirestorm 2008-06-11 01:17:12

I have a terrible fear of ending up like the family on Good Times.

lol, now you know one of Slash's secret fears.

Also, needles.

Swordstick76 2008-06-15 23:38:38

Scary... I'm worried about my old man too...