EI, Welfare, Debt Management, Retraining, Temporary Layoffs no Comfort as You Sink to Bottom of Pool
"At a time when banks, Five Star brokerage houses, GM, Chrysler and Nortel are teetering on the edge of extinction I don't think I am overstating my case. If there are any leaders at City Hall in London, Toronto, Ottawa, in our places of worship or elsewhere we need them NOW!!"
I was eight years old. It was July and I was having the time of my life. I was swimming with my Little League Team (TheBeavers) at a Saturday afternoon pool party when I suddenly drifted into the deep end when I tried to grab a pool toy. I was quickly caught up in what seemed to be a tornado of water and my lungs were full of the awful chlorinated water.
From The Editor
I saw everyone around me in slow motion. I screamed and nobody would help me. It seemed like hours passed until suddenly my coach screamed DAVID!! and he passed a pool stick to me and guided me to safety. He quickly took me out of the water in his big arms, layed me on the picnic table and took got the water out of my lungs. I scared the hell out of myself, my teammates and the other adults. That was 35 years ago and I still remember the hopeless feeling that I was going down to the bottom of the pool and nobody would notice. Some people in London today are losing their jobs, housings, cars and more and feeling the same way.
Ever since the bottom fell out of the US economy and jobs have been dropping like flies all over Southwestern Ontario and the World for that matter that 35 year old sinking feeling has returned.
My circumstances are okay...............for now. One by one I'm starting to here of friends, relatives and acquaintances who wonder how they will pay the mortgage, rent, car bill, phone bill, you name it.
The safety net of EI turns out to be Swiss cheese as it pays out only 55% of the previous earnings for a period much shorter than a year than you are on to welfare (forget about that Harris term of Ontario Works).
A program called the Kipps Lane Initiative begun two years ago to help one of the poorest most crime ridden sections of London on Kipps Lane doesn't appear to grasp this reality. We've spent most of the last two meetings dreaming up a utopian vision statement for the street and trying to rename it even though few seem to want it renamed. I wonder how much job loss has occurred on Kipps Lane in the two years the City's Initiative has been there spending $180,000 a year on the program.
We are in Deep ****. Many families will see the EI run out and Welfare will kick in and the hurting will start. Of course you will not see the details explained in your daily newspaper or the nightly news. I'll give it a shot on this site in the next few weeks but it won't be easy. Those who program the news on television and radio or write newspaper copy don't dare fill it with the reality of how little families will live on when jobs are gone.
Those people will be sitting at the bottom of the pool That big strong coach won't be there to lift them up and comfort them and explain what has happened. Premier McGuinty has been hiding for months and the whole gang in Ottawa is too busiy fighting for power.
My coach didn't scold me for drifting into the deep end. He made sure I was safe and I was ok. He took me with him and made sure I rejoined the party. Soon all was forgotten as things go for 8 year olds. The rule is the same with children as it is with adults who are in physical or emotional distress. Take care of the immediate needs, reassure them and make certain they are well before you leave them.
Unfortunately the media, the politicians, the clergy and so many others who could comfort the families in distress over losing their livelihoods, homes, jobs and possibly futures and standing on the sidelines analyzing what's wrong, unwilling to get their hands dirty reaching out to those who are truly in distress in these horrible times. At a time when banks, brokerage houses, GM, Chrysler and Nortel are teetering on the edge of extinction I don't think I am overstating my case. If there are any leaders at City Hall in London, Tornoton, Ottawa, in our places of worship or elsewhere we need them NOW!!
Who will comfort, help and understand those who are drowning in debt, depression and hopelessiness as this recession deepens even further?
