bad habits
they tend to return;
they may promise not to, but
it’s hard to resist.
the smedley log - suburban scrawl
YouTube Tuesday: 7 days at minimum wage
This week, in honor of Halloween, a scary story about life at the bottom end of the payscale. It comes via Seven Days at Minimum Wage, a project focused on bringing the experiences of full-time minimum wage workers to light. Below is day one:
Returning homeless: ‘taking up space’
“He’s a true American. He had nothing and he built a business up, and that’s what the American dream is. Guys like me, you know, we just like ruin the American dream … we just don’t live up fully to what it should be.”(story)
The quote is from Cpl. Joe Raicaldo, a Iraq war vet who was rendered 20% disabled (as well as homeless upon his return stateside) by a combat injury. Raicaldo tells of giving the flag he brought home to a childhood friend who’d become a successful businessman. I can’t express how sad it made me feel that someone who risked his life for his country would think of himself that way, as though he had failed the American dream. That he would somehow see his service as less meritorious than his old friend’s moneymaking endeavors, that’s enough to hollow out the pit of my stomach. Then there’s this:
“The worst feeling for me is being useless. That’s just what I am, I’m just like, just annoying people, taking up space…”
What does it say about our society that we let our distinguished service people go homeless? (At this point, it’s a multi-generational trend.) What does it say about our society that these same folks who risk themselves in our name should feel like they’ve failed the American dream?
Click here to hear Cpl. Raicaldo’s story (and to read more about the ways in which the government is trying to alleviate the homeless veteran issue).
Want to do something about it? Consider a gift to the Pennsylvania American Legion’s Housing for Homeless Veterans.
Update (10/30/06): Another charitable option is Army Emergency Relief – though it is limited to the Army, it has been heralded as a fine organization that helps many soldiers (and soldiers’ families), whether active or retired.
Friday random ten
(like some disgraced cosmonaut)
In honor of her birthday, a bunch of songs my sister probably can’t stand:
1. Waiting for You – Bonehead
2. Lotus – R.E.M.
3. I’ve Been Delivered – Wallflowers
4. Happy Day Mama – Better than Ezra
5. Cruel and Pretty – Over the Rhine
6. I Still Miss Someone (live) – Johnny Cash
7. Progress – Midnight Oil
8. Revival – Allman Brothers Band
9. Low – Cracker
10. Fool You – King’s X
Favorite: 1
Least: 2
Songs that bring back the (most) memories: 7, 9 & 10
Most highly recommended album from this list: Ohio by Over the Rhine
Others walking in the big parade: Ben, Ellen, Fred, Jess
Now that’s what I call music… no, not that
I just saw an ad on TV for Now That’s What I Call Music! Vol. 23.
Volume 23?
First thing that popped into my head upon seeing this ad: skepticism. Since the U.S. version of this series hit the market in 1998, have there really been enough Top 40 hits to produce 23 albums of material befitting such enthusiastic titling? – maybe there’s been enough for two or three albums, but I think even that’s a bit generous.
The second thing that popped into my head? The November Paste Magazine, the sampler of which contains some pretty good music, albeit on a less-heralded (and much less expensive) disc. Pleasantly surprised was I to find track 10, a number from Philly’s own Melody Gardot. It’s called “Goodnite” and it’ll be on her upcoming CD, Worrisome Heart (due out November 7).
Though I absolutely recommend the current issue of Paste Magazine, you can also catch a sampling of Melody’s wares from her MySpace site. There. That’s all for now.
Kinder, gentler (and more fashionable?)
What if our foreign policy was to replace all rogue regimes with rouge regimes?
Turning up
(For a penny minted in 1916)
I wonder how many hands you had to pass through to get to mine.
How many coin purses,
give-a-penny-take-a-penny trays,
cash register tills,
how many coin rolls?
I wonder about the years you’ve seen,
and the places you’ve been.
What are the chances you’ve spent
your whole existence
in this city,
this state or
even this country?
Has your feathered tail traveled overseas
in the pocket of a tourist or a soldier
off to any of the wars
(or possibly all of them) since Wilson presided?
Might you have been carried by James Dean
as a child walking to the store
to buy some penny candy?
Might you have been given as a reward
to a child, or to generations of children?
How many people with no other discernible connection
could be linked simply by their possession of you?
(Or, considering how many of your carriers you’ve likely outlived,
perhaps they’re linked by your possession of them.)
Whose skin have you touched?
What purchases have you helped afford?
What adventures must you have endured
to attain such a weathered face?
How did you bear seeing your utility dry
to the point that a child can’t even use you
to ransom candy from a penny vendor anymore?
Your once proud copper image, now reduced to
biding time in ash trays and couch cushions
until someone seeks you in desperation
(or until you are summoned by the vacuum cleaner).
What are the chances you’d not have found yourself
in the bottom of a river or lake or ocean, and if you have,
what would be the chances you’d find your way back?
How is it you’ve escaped the fate of your poor cousins
mutilated by the souvenir penny grinders?
How many of your brethren born the same year
are liable to thrive (or even exist) these years later?
Is it accomplishment or sorrow, seniority or old age,
you feel as you see all the newer, shinier models
rolling out every year.
And as you hear of other old coins kept by collectors,
valued at thousands of times their face,
do you find yourself green with envy (or just corrosion)?
Or perhaps you just soldier on,
resigned to serve whatever purpose you can,
however seemingly small,
satisfied,
knowing
you’ll probably outlast us all.
Friday random ten
(crime and gun decisions)
Fire up the digital music player, set it to random and see what comes out. (Yes, I even did the YouTube thing again…)
1. All Grown up – Elvis Costello
2. Bedlam Bridge – Midnight Oil
3. Any Side of Anywhere – Vigilantes of Love
4. Point Breeze – Marah
5. Beautiful – The Smashing Pumpkins
6. Nobody’s Fault – 77’s
7. Zooropa – U2
8. The Last Testament of Angus Shane – Lost Dogs
9. On My Own – Familiar 48
10. In Hiding – Pearl Jam
Most to least favorite: 8, 2, 10, 3, 9, 6, 5, 4, 1, 7
Number of times the talents of Mike Roe appear in this week’s list: 2
Number of vocalists from this list who’ve held elected office (as far as I’m aware): 1
Most highly recommended album on this list: Audible Sigh by Vigilantes of Love
Other lists: Ben, Brian, Ellen, Fred, Jess, Marisa, Mark, Matt,
