About the only people who feel any sort of joy when others lose their jobs are the denizens of Wall Street, where the watch-phrase is “the more (on the streets), the merrier (for us).”
Layoffs, cutbacks, downsizing, rightsizing, outsourcing and just plain getting canned seem to make the stock market leap for joy as people are ejected from gainful employment, a steady paycheck and health benefits for the common “good.”
A few years ago, when the big Wall Street firms were laying people off, I wondered if any of them thought of the irony that those who once cheered the misfortunes of others now had the same misfortunes visited upon themselves.
I thought I was destined to join the ranks of the once-productive recently, when the big company announced cutbacks on the way. Revenues were down, profits were down and all those folks who had already lost their jobs all over America were not spending like they used to, and neither were the people who still had jobs.
But I lucked out. I live in an area that’s growing like mad, our newspaper is growing circulation and no one was going bye-bye at our operations. For that, I am grateful.
But if the worst did happen, there are careers that are burgeoning even in these “ship the paperwork to India” or “make it in China” days of disposable Americans.
I came upon this thought after reading that yet another school student has been arrested and probably will be expelled with a police rap sheet to follow them for the rest of their lives for the awesome and horrific crime of bringing a knife to school.
Most of the “knives” are not the switchblades of “West Side Story” or “Blackboard Jungle,” but knives of the plastic variety for applying cream cheese or butter to bagels, of the food-cutting variety or of the novelty variety.
One unfortunate young fellow is facing the permanent ruination of his entire life because he had a knife in his car, which he said was used for stripping wires of insulation for the installation of a car stereo.
I know he’s probably not making that up, because when I was in the Marines and working on aircraft, we were all issued knives called “TL-9”s for such work, and used them to not only strip insulation from wires but also used the end of one of the blades as a kind of substitute screwdriver for removing panels insides the planes.
The poor kids are victims of school security run wild, but their loss is the gain of those us in the adult world in need of steady employment.
For in the post-Columbine, post-9/11 world, “security” is a big issue. Indeed, I have often complained about what I’ve called “security porn,” not “The Ladies of Wackenhut” but the almost breathless recitations of security procedures for events like the Super Bowl, the Olympics and Miss Susan’s kindergarten class. I can understand the need for “tight” security at the airport, though I can’t see how taking my shoes off is making us any safer, but some places – schools, especially – have really gone off their rocker when it comes to security.
The worst part of all this is that it makes education into an ordeal, in which one stupid comment or one accidental bringing of something to class can turn a child’s world into a living hell. Back in the day (late 60s, early 70s) when I was in elementary and high school, fights were accepted as a way to settle disputes, and adults got involved only when too much blood was spilled. Getting into trouble got you reprimanded, and maybe a note sent home to your parents, but the police seldom visited the school unless something really serious happened.
“Oh,” gush the defenders of good order, “but that was then. Today, kids are a lot worse. Look at Columbine, look at the shootings. Without tight security, kids will be out of control even more.”
Really?
We had some wild ones then, and I remember all the gripes and complaints of people in various levels of authority about how we were the worst generation to ever breathe air. And most of us ended up OK.
So the career of choice is school security. School boards are eager to throw money at companies that promise to do a security “audit” of the schools and then spend millions on all sorts of gadgets and gizmos to provide “security.” We don’t need no stinkin’ constitutional rights, when our most pwecious childwen are at stake.
Just before I left my last newspaper, a daily on the east coast of Florida that was busy merging with two other dailies (which was why I left), we did a story on one of those security audits. The person doing it had some conflicts of interest that the school board chose to ignore, like owning security companies and having interests in companies selling security gear, but they didn’t care. In a school bureaucracy, no one will ever punish you for spending money on “security.”
I suppose the next words are a waste of disk space, but needless to say he found that the county’s schools were literally sieves, with students in danger of death or worse, unless immediate measures were taken. All of them were free – for about six months – and then the district could have the comfort of knowing they had done everything to protect the children, and get rid of the spare cash that was cluttering up the closets at district headquarters.
I don’t know what the district did, as I left soon after.
The whole purpose of all this security talk is to get the students used to the new realities in America. That generation will grow up comfortable with the knowledge that they are under surveillance all the time, and that it’s for their own safety. When you know that every gesture you make and every word you say is being recorded and listened to, you learn to watch what you do or say. I’m sure that someday, a means will be found to listen in on the unspoken thoughts of people. When that time comes, I wonder how secure we’ll feel.
Vincent F. Safuto works for a newspaper (still!) in Florida, and occasionally appears on his brother Robert’s podcasts.
