Day 20 March 25, 2003
1. Names. Schedule notes: 4/1 is the English Festival, I’ll be occupied. 4/3 we’ll discuss DTRT and talk more about the poster sessions. I’m going to postpone the “possible solutions” paper till then as well.
Last session on this book, Thursday.
Be sure to read that last section carefully.
2. In the News:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,82026,00.html
Missing teen recovered.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-War-Wounded-Soldiers.html
Wounded Soldiers Flown to
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2003-03-24-bush-cost-war_x.htm On costs of the war.
http://www.counterpunch.org/fisk03252003.html
Robert Fisk in
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0324OscarsMoore24-ON.html Michael Moore at the Oscars.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/25/international/worldspecial/25POW.html?th POW’s shown on TV.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/25/opinion/25KRUG.html
: Paul Krugman on the Dixie Chicks, Clear Channel,
etc.
2. On Nickel and Dimed, part 2:
A fascinating counterpoint in your responses: from
identification to skepticism. I’m still trying to figure out what the reasons
for those varying responses are.
It has something to do with class, doesn’t it? What class do we consider ourselves part of? I remember meetings where people talked about “working class” and “middle class,” and realizing that I didn’t grow up part of either one, as they were using the terms. I was a farm kid, and that was something different yet.
Or is it a question of tone?
90: “A productive fake member of the working class.”
68: Versions of Jesus. “The true business of modern Christianity is to crucify him again and again so that he can never get a word out of his mouth.”
79: the maids are mostly “embedded in extended families.” That makes it possible to get by, if not to live well.
85: never a moment for job hunting.
95: “If we’re cleaning their house, they’re wealthy.” Anybody here have parents who hired their cleaning done? We did, for years, though currently not . . .
99 maids and “invisibility.” Isn’t this a big theme of the book? 117: “The poor have disappeared from the culture at large. . . . Even religion seems to have little to say about the plight of the poor . . . . The moneylenders have finally gotten Jesus out of the temple.”
106: “Work fills the landscape.” Hard to do anything else, look for another job, find out what’s happening in the world.
Holly’s injury and attempts to get help for her. Ted, the supervisor. What about him? 110 ff. 115: “the word
I am thinking of is pimp.”
118: how do her fellow maids feel about those they work for? They would just like to have some of what they have.
Three, Selling in
124-5 tests, and getting hired. She’s worried because of her “chemical indiscretion.” 128: she figures it cost about $77,000 to find each drug user. Why?
135: “one of the effects of drug testing is to limit worker
mobility—maybe even one of the functions.”
127: the problem of lying relentlessly on the test, and looking “both perky and compliant at the same time.”
139 ff: again, the apartment search. The Budgie Adventure at the loaned apartment, and again the shortage of affordable apartments.
143: The Cult of Sam and Wal-Mart.
Student Responses:
This book is very interesting to read, due to the facts about poverty, but is
also difficult for me to read. For the past two summers, I've worked at
It was also sad reading of the people working there, because they are exactly
like people I work with. One woman in the book is a room attendant, older woman
with no teeth. She is exactly like a woman at the hotel. There are dorms at
Cedar Point, which only cost about 12 dollars a week. I stay there, but is
really sad is that there are several older men that stay there too. I always
wonder where they go when Cedar Point is closed and they can't stay there
anymore. I laughed at the section about the Maids where she discussed the
wealthy people she cleaned for. They are like many guests at Cedar Point.
Though some guests are very nice and appreciate what you do, some look down on
you or won't even notice you exist.
This book is also interesting to me because, as a Music Liberal Arts/
Performance major, there aren't a lot of jobs out there which this major
will be of much use. I often wonder, even before reading this book, what sort
of job I will be able to acquire after college. It can be scary to think about.
My only comfort is that people often go into a career which is completely
different from what they went to college for and so there may be something out
there for me.
An article I found in the Counterpunch is by Robert Fisk. It is called A
Cauldron of Fire: Irresistible, Unquestionable Power. It gives a first-hand
account of the bombing of
across the
Matt Gothard
I think that Barb gets more involved in her
assignment when she goes to
She had to do some tough work depending on how big the house was, but she didn't complain about it like she did with waitressing. One thing I noticed is that she stood up for herself and her coworkers when one of them was sick or injured. She tells her boss what she thinks and thinks that she will get fired but all he does is thank her for her concern and goes on like nothing happened. I believed that she realized that when people are making such low pay they have to stand up for themselves or people are just going to walk on them for the rest of their lives.
The thing that was funny is her tactics for quitting. She tells a coworker to tell her boss whatever she wants to. She doesn't care to tell her employers that she is leaving or what she was doing there in the first place.
I also read some of the
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,82026,00.html
Missing Michigan Teen Recovered Safe in
Why are teenagers so stupid nowadays. This girl willing went with this older man that she barely knew. I don't see how her parents could not know I mean they must not have been involved in her life as much as they should have been. This guy was convicted of murder and you think that would have been a big sign for her not to go with him. My cousin did the same thing once and it just makes me wonder what has happened to the parent children relationships over the years.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-War-Wounded-Soldiers.html
Wounded Soldiers Flown to
I swear people in this world are so crazy. Supposedly a fellow soldier threw a grenade into tents and injured his own people. It doesn't say what this guy was thinking but obviously he couldn't take it. They are investigating and I am really interested to find out what happens.
-Candy Apperson
I am really enjoying the book "Nickel
and Dimmed." I think her experience
of taking on the role of a lower class worker is very interesting and shows the
reader when she is doing some of these dead end jobs that it does not matter who she is and how many years of education she has
had over the years. It is true she is
unable to get the whole experience of a lower class worker when she has money
to fall back on and is able to make the occassional
trip to an Applebees.
However, I give her a lot of credit for even doing the experiment to the
extent she is, for example holding jobs that pay $6-7.00 an hour and living in
the lower income housing. I have enjoyed
reading about her different experiences with her different jobs and the people
who come into her path along the way.
Through her experience she sees people discriminated again, for example
the busboy at the very first restraunt she
worked. Since he was an immigrant, which
caused other employees to believe he was dishonest and stole from the restraunt. I am so
caught up in my own live and living comfortable in my dorm room or at home, I
don't think about the living conditions of lower class workers. I was amazed at some of the stories she told,
such as two people living in a one person trailor and
a group of immigrants sharing one room. All the jobs Barbara has held to this
point in the book have been tiring and strainous. The one example that comes to mind is when
she is working for "The Maid" company. She has the carry the vacumm
on her back not to mention getting on her knees to scrub the floors. I give her a great amount of credit for
taking on this experiment, however I think if I were
in her position I would not have lasted a week.
The article I chose to read for this week was
from fox news. It was titled
"Missing Michigan Teen Recovered Safe in
Amanda Egley
I agree with alot of what Kelly said last week during class. I don't
feel
like she is getting the whole
experience by having that credit card to fall
back on. I kind of think that it
defeats the whole purpose of the experience
but yet I do give her credit
for going out and doing this cause I definitely
wouldn't have the guts to do that,
especially alone. I would be too scared
to do that on my own. But I like how she gives us the insight of
things
going on throughout her
jobs. I like the journaling that she
does cause it
kind of gives us an idea on what
it is like, day in and day out to live like
that, if we never experience
that ourselves. I feel like I did
experience
it myself my going to
did live in a homeless shelter
so we kind of got to see some of this poverty
first hand even though these
people weren't living in hotels or what not,
but we did see the poverty that
Barb saw. I did enjoy the book, I did
read
the whole thing once
again. I did notice that a couple times
throughout the
book that she would go from
situation to situation without really saying
that she was switching
situations and it kind of confused me because it
would start talking about
something totally different and I wouldn't
understand what she was talking about
so I would have to reread it. But
other than that, I thought it was
a good book, but I felt that throughout
the whole thing, she should
have done some things different to really live
out the situation a little
better.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,82026,00.html
In reading this story, it
doesn't sound like the parents are gonna press any
charges or the courts either for
that matter. But yet, it doesn't sound like
she was kidnapped either. By
reading the story, the writers pretty much make
it out to sound like she went
to meet him on her own will and that they went
where ever they went together and
she wanted to go with him. Its kind of
fishy to me. Why would such a
young girl want to be with a man, a married
man for that matter. The wife didn't seem like she was too
distraught over
this who situation. But all in all, its
good that she is home where she
needs to be. Happy endings are
always good.
Amber Fitzwater
I must say that I admire Barbara’s dedication to this
assignment. As I’m
reading this book and picturing her
doing this manual labor I can’t imagine
that it is at all easy for
her. At one point she mentions that she
has done
waitressing before but now she is a lot
older and not so sure that her body
can handle it. If I were in her place and I knew that my
middle-class home
and my job and all my friends
were waiting for me I would definitely be
tempted to just give it up and go
back. Especially since it seems like she
wasn’t all that eager to take the
job in the first place; she was kind of
pushed into it. But I don’t notice Barbara complaining
much. I’m really
surprised that she doesn’t mention
her family or friends more. She did say
she had a live in boyfriend and
I would think it would be hard for her to go
this long without seeing him,
and I would think that she would miss him, but
she doesn’t mention these
feelings so I’m not sure if they never existed or
if she just choose not to
write about them because it didn’t really have
anything to do with the topic at
hand.
I’ve done some waitressing and I find
it interesting that I can relate to a lot of what she says. Although there’s also a lot she talks about
that
doesn’t really fit my
experience. I can vouch that many of the
people in
this profession do smoke and I
thought the reason she gave for this was very
insightful, this is the only thing
they can do for themselves, I’m not sure
if it’s true or not, but it
would make sense. I’ve also experienced
the “no
standing around” that she talks
of. In my restaurant it’s not enforced a
whole lot unless the big boss is
there, and then we all make sure to stay
busy, or at least look
busy. I really hate this because
sometimes there’s
not a lot that needs to be done
but you’ll have to find something to do
anyway. I’ve heard waitresses complain when they have
to do cleaning during
slow time because they say we
only get payed $2.13 an hour and that’s not
enough for cleaning. So in a lot of ways I can understand how
Barbara
feels.
I read in the Christian Science Monitor, “In Texas, New Option for Murder Sentencing?” This article tells how
possibility of parole be an
option. This bill passed in the Senate
but was
turned down in the House by 5
votes. They think that it will pass next
time.
-Alisha
Fought
I must say that this book is
turning out to be very interesting. It
is definitely not what I expected it to be.
It has proven to be very easy reading.
Before I knew it, I was more than half way through the book.
After reading through the
first ten pages or so, I was
not quite sure how I was going
to like it. The entire
idea behind the book did not
really seem to interest
me at all.
I think that my main problem
or source of skepticism
with the idea behind this book
was that I did not see
how there was any way that the
author was going to be
able to completely separate from
her current lifestyle
and jump into such a different
lifestyle. The
differences between the two lifestyles
are so great
that I cannot even imagine how
she was able to do such
a thing. Going from being an author with no boss, not
having specific hours to work, and
working wherever
her laptop will go, to the
extreme opposite of working
long, set hours with many other
people, having a boss
to report to, and in less than
perfect facilities
seems like such a big change for
one person. The
author did this all in a very
capable and manageable
way. The various difficulties that she faced in
each
of the cities, such as finding
a job and living
facilities, proved to be quite
challenging.
I would have to say that the
part thus far that I have
found the most entertaining was
her frantic detox
efforts as she describes them. I guess I just did not
expect that the author would admit
to smoking and how
it might have possible hurt
her possibilities for
certain jobs that required drug
testing. Her
“increasingly
aqueous condition” (pg. 130) as she
called it, ended up working out in
the end for both of
the potential jobs at Wal-Mart
and Home Depot.
Overall, I would have to say
that the author’s
presentations of her experiences were
overly
informational and yet entertaining. She seems to
truthfully reveal how living in what
many consider to
be low-wage
working poor.
For my article I read from
today’s issue of the New
President Bush estimated
that the total war costs
would total roughly seventy
billion dollars, but many
feel that this number will be
even higher (www.newyorktimes.com).
-Lesley Johanns
On page 52 the author talks
about how she is living like the "truely
poor"
yet she is renting a motel
until she can get on her feet with a job and an
apartment. If she wanted to live like the "truely poor" she would have
taken very little money with her
and found a way to get out to
then when she got there she
would have tried to find a place to live and a
job without the help of the
internet or without being able to go there and
scout it out ahead of time. Also she would not have the comfort to go
home
seemingly whenever she wants to and
know that all the luxuries of home are
just a call away or a drive away
and she can afford things if she does get
into trouble. I guess it
frustrates me when people feel like they put
themselves in other peoples shoes by
doing something half heartedly but
glamorizing it so that everyone thinks
they deserve the right to empathize
with them. It seems to me that this is even going on out
on the lawn next
to founders. These people think that they are
"suffering" for their voices
to be heard but they have all
the modern luxuries and are really just having
a good time displaying what
they believe. Same with the people that
went
over to the middle east to act
as "human sheilds." They went way before the
war effort and came back long
before any fighting started, now they have the
right to say that they did their
part? That's ludicrous!!!! These people
may have made a statement but
they obviously did not have enough conviction
to really see this thing
through or they would still be there. I
know they
have jobs and families but so do
these other people and they are putting
them on the line for what they
believe in, sounds like that's conviction to
me. If you are going to go for something or
believe in something go all the
way!
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2003-03-24-bush-cost-war_x.htm
I found this article interesting
that we the
for anyone else but looking
only to our own pocket book would be spending
money on other countries. Boy we must not be as bad as I thought, from
what
I heard we are just after
money in this whole thing anyways. I
guess you
have to spend money to make
money huh? I think the thing that is
most
interesting in this whole article is
how we are helping
really helping us but is sitting
in fear waiting for Saddam to bomb them,
which seems to me why we are in
this thing in the first place, kinda seems
to me that in a way some of
the prophecies are coming true about
always being around and the Lord
protecting His people. (that's a whole
different topic for a shorter
e-mail.) I just thought this was real
interesting that some people are still
interested what it will cost their
pocket book instead of what it
will cost them in human lives.
-Allan King
As I read this book I really started to get intrigued. I am lucky that I am privileged to live in a house with my two parents who work to give me a good living. I understand what she is going through though. At one point most or all of us started out working at minimum wage and working pretty hard to make very little. That is the only part I understand. Right now I have a nice job that I go back to each summer that helps me pay for school. She needed money to live and worked so many jobs and moved around a lot. I never understood how bad people making such low wages lived. This really opened my eyes to the world. I could be working right now and not getting a higher education. But I remember each time I think about my future, and I always think this will help me so much more and I will be able to give my family so much more then. I have always worked hard I think. I really don’t want to live this way. This book has opened my eyes to what my life could be. I can also relate when she leaves work and is totally exhausted. She knows she needs a place to live so she is willing to sacrifice working so much to live a nice life. I personally love going to work most of the time. That may be because I love my job. I just thought it was interesting that, which is how she was making a living. Working little jobs at minimum wage to pay for everything. I want something more. I think this book was very inspiring though. I am glad we were asked to read this book for class. I think it was a great choice!
Michael Moore a documentary writer, while receiving his
Oscar spoke out against the war. He
criticized Bush and the
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0324OscarsMoore24-ON.html
Jeff Hinderschied
After class last Thursday, I left thinking about a lot of things. The established institutions in our country. The cycles. The injustices. The way minimum wage jobs are even perceived. Or even more, how the people who do minimum wage jobs are perceived. Then you look at these problems, ever so present and a very near reality to our nation, and you wonder about the freedoms citizens of America really have, and then the freedoms we are spending our money and waging war and violence to bring forth for other nations… it somehow makes sense if you hold on to the rhetoric of, “We are the superpower, and we should be helping countries stand on their own feet.” HOWEVER, we know there is so much more behind that. We know that the story doesn’t end there. We know that this war may have been preventable. We know that our own gains for our own country have some part in this, however much we citizens understand of our own country.
But there is something that continuously doesn’t make sense. And that is our own apathetic attitudes. Trusting that who we elect will always make the right decisions for us and our country, even without our voice holding accountable their decisions. Interesting concept of democracy.
Watching the Oscars last night, Michael Moore held his gold statue in hand,
saying, “Shame on you, Mr. Bush! We like nonfiction because we live in a fictitious
world…(and something about ‘in a country with
fictitious elections. And elect fictitious leaders.’) We are against this war! Shame on you!” While half the audience sat there clapping,
or maybe like 1/3, and the rest booed. The cameramen flurried to zoom in on
some major stars and their reactions. Most were sitting wide-eyed, some were
smiling. People across America, I am sure, sat open-mouthed, in shock, in
celebration that a director had the gumption to ruin his reputation to be THAT
bold receiving an award (note how he waited until he had that award in his hand
to say anything), while some likely in disgust—get this man off stage, who does
he think he is, if you don’t like our country, then just leave. I have heard
that comment by more than one American in the news lately. A pro-war protester
on the
Standing around the fire in the make-shift camp of tents Friday night, half the
people there supported the war; half were against it. Unfortunately, I am
unsure either side really knew how to keep emotions in tact to have a “civil
discussion,” and the argument, “We were born in this privileged country, so
it’s obvious that we ARE better than the Iraqis and need to go over there and
get control” was presented a few times. Most of us sat with our mouths shut,
especially when the argument, “Yeah, well you guys can sit out here. I have
buddies over there. I have friends, OVER THERE. I have a cousin OVER THERE. Who
are you not to support him?” And I wanted to say, “I have friends over there! I
have buddies over there! I’ve had cousins and uncles and people I admire very
much over there before.. and
guess what? I don’t want them to be there! Name someone who is excited to get
that phone call that sends them out the door with only a big duffle bag that’s
some ugly green?” I can’t honestly believe how much of a movie like thing the
media is making this war. Who wants to see their son or daughter interviewed,
let alone as a prisoner of war? One family had their son interviewed, as was
shown in the NY Times today, and they knew right away how scared he was. His
brother said, “I'm lost. I'm scared to death. I'm afraid of losing my family.
That's my heart." And mothers, they can see their sons, US POWs, before
they are even notified by the
And the prayer service at our college, well, maybe there could have been more prayer. Maybe some people could have talked a little less. But the two people that went on and on had not slept in days because they were talking about these issues, and all of those things just came pouring out. At least students are involved enough to say more than “I don’t know,” or “I don’t care.” But also, those who have been very active from the beginning are burnt out I think, just by talking with them. All of this social activism stuff is pretty new.
My old roommate sent me an email of an NPR statement: ”All right, let me see if I understand the logic of this correctly. We are going to ignore the United Nations in order to make clear to Saddam Hussein that the United Nations cannot be ignored. We're going to wage war to preserve the UN's ability to avert war . The paramount principle is that the UN's word must be taken seriously, and if we have to subvert its word to guarantee that it is, then by gum, we will. Peace is too important not to take up arms to defend. Am I getting this right?” (PETER FREUNDLICH: National Public Radio Commentary: March 13,2003.).
Then I received an email form some
international friends, who are circulating an email about how important it is
for each of them to stay close to where they are, traveling only if necessary,
and always carrying forms with them. “The new Department of Homeland
Security is strictly enforcing an old immigration regulation which states that
all individuals who are not
And this, is freedom.
Kathy Dickson