Last post to this blog...

Hey everyone. This will be my last post on the job search blog. There may be more guest posts if people decide to send their stories in, but I will not be actively blogging here. Instead, I am going to try to finish translating http://chaimeliyah.blogspot.com/ and then I will be using that space as my creative outlet.

I wrote this poem, the verse of which was inspired by another author's work.

From behind the lines, or prison bars

They lock up our lives with pleadings
I find myself pleading just for life
Accused, I sit alone
Abused, bitter and cold
Because I can't find the right form to file

Proper service; proper service from a nation
Long overdue for a jailbreak
The Russians stood in bread lines,
    fearing starvation,
While we stand in lines for our TWO MINUTES HATE
Never alone on the phone
For he is always on the line
Listening,
   watching,
       waiting
Like a demon who finds solace in the terror of time
Keeping us afraid to just take back our lives
Shackled and chained by the hate that they spew--
   is it me?
   is it you?
Is it the immigrants or the Jews?

It's got to be somebody's fault!

Battles fought along lines of color and income
And if you're lucky you'll move out of the daily conundrum
To a professional job with some shiny rewards
While people die
   in the streets
       in the jails
           in the hospital wards
           in the ghetto
               in custody
                   or hanging from cords

Step away from your privilege
And see
There may be a guilty party, but it isn't just you
And it sure as hell has never been just little old me

I would move for a settlement
Or move for a judgment
But in the end the cards are stacked
  contrary to all of us

I'll sit and I'll smoke
A death sentence, I know
And I'll dream of a world
   filled with us
   filled with love
   filled with beautiful thoughts of we
                                                               --free.

Great news!

Hey everyone! So the seemingly endless job search is nearly over. I found a part time position with Seattle CISPES (mentioned in mylast post 15 days ago) and I am extremely humbled by this opportunity to serve the community, to work toward social justice and to continue teaching the students that I can. Now that I can pay the bills, it will be a lot easier to focus on my next steps and the things in life that I love. I will create a link from here to any new blogs that I create.

Having said that, I will still be telling the stories of those who continue to be ill affected by this "jobless recovery," like my friend D who is now staying in his van after losing his job last month. I will also be accepting guest blog entries like the one published earlier this month.

I will post the community announcement of my new position after this blog post in an unabashed display of my sheer and utter joy.

In peace and solidarity,

Chaim Eliyah

After much discussion and careful reviewing of eight strong applications, last week the hiring subcommittee for the new coordinator position of Seattle CISPES invited five of the applicants to interview.

The 5 member subcommittee's deliberation resulted in offering the position to Chaim “Jaime” Eliyah. Chaim has accepted our offer, and becomes our new Seattle CISPES staff coordinator!

Chaim (pronounced Hime - kinda like lime, but with an H) is a graduate of the University of Washington, and has a strong background in community organizing with groups such as the Student Labor Action Project (SLAP), Jobs with Justice, UFCW, Black Student Union among others. He has traveled to Argentina, Ecuador, and has most recently returned from a volunteer trip to Costa Rica, where he taught English in addition to learning rural community organizing, and graduating from a language academy. Chaim comes to us highly praised for his work in the community. We look forward to having his knowledge and expertise within our CISPES familia.

Chaim will start on October 4, Monday, and there will be a two week overlap with Cameron to facilitate training.

Please join the hiring subcommittee in welcoming Chaim to Seattle CISPES!



- The hiring subcommittee

Updates...

Hey everyone. So I just wanted to give a couple of updates on prior blog posts.

First off, about the CISPES organizer position, I have been called in for an interview. I'm super excited. I don't think I've been as excited as this for a job interview since the Jobs with Justice interview in Portland a year and a half ago. Luckily, I don't have to drive for four hours to get to this one. In fact, I could walk. Please wish me luck.

In other news, regarding the tragic death of carver John T. Williams, there is a major action being organized by a number of community groups that will take place tomorrow, Thursday September 16, at 2:00 pm. Demonstrators will begin marching from Boren Ave. and Howell St. in Seattle, where John was shot four times at a distance of ten feet by Seattle Police Department officer Ian Birk.

OK that's all for now! Thanks for reading and I will post more updates soon.

From Edmonds,

Chaim Eliyah

No More Email Rejections, Please!

GUEST BLOG: Michael Miller, Managing Director, Let Kids Be Kids Inc.

You see the perfect job advertised online. The job you could have created for yourself if you had had the opportunity to solicit yourself for the position. It's perfect!

First of all, let’s get this all in perspective! XYZ Company cannot find anyone internally to fill a position so they solicit from the great unwashed out there to save their bacon and solve their management challenge. If they were such a hotshot company, why couldn’t they solve their problems from the inside? So many companies are over-burdened with MBA grads who have little or nothing to bring to a company until they've been around long enough to actually realize how companies operate, which is really at the whim of the big cheese who runs the place. If they were smart, they would actually know how to go about hiring people or better yet not get themselves into a position where there is no one internally who they can brow beat or cajole into solving their self-made "crisis." Job hunters are in fact problem solvers–the other guy's problems.

I digress!

You take the time to complete an online-only application form that gives you no opportunity to explain why your skills are perfect for the job. As you fill in the endless, invasive form that asks you such woefully pertinent questions as your major in high school thirty years ago or questions you on your first job, you try to thwart their ability to figure out your age, marital status, race, religion, sexual preferences and how little you are actually willing to work for in today’s climate.

As you are completing the form, you wonder exactly who is going to screen your application. Is it going to be scanned by a computer program looking for all the key words you forgot, or, more likely, didn’t know to use? Will the lowest paid employee in the targeted company look it over not understanding why you listed such-and-such as examples of your expertise? Will it be a print out on some HR person’s desk that knows the least of all about line responsibilities? Who is going to read the bloody thing? You/we should be able to find this out, like we did in the old days–before online applications made us feel like less of a human being.

Now that you have successfully filled out the form, you have to write a cover letter. You have to go back a number of times as you keep forgetting to mark a box or radio button, swearing everything you said in the application was the whole truth.

Who do you write the cover letter to? HR, the company president, the vice president, or maybe a name you got online? What if it’s not the right person? What do you know about this non-person? In the good ol' days, you would wear the right school tie or pin to the initial informational interview and perhaps say something reflecting your membership in Rotary, Kiwanis, Moose, or Elks, or do whatever else it took to show some human connection with the hiring authority. Anything to get a conversation going, to reduce your anxiety and to endear yourself to your potential new boss. Those days are gone, my friend!

So, you write the cover letter to no one; "To Whom It May Concern." You try to guess what to say in a single page that will summarize your lifetime of experience, wondering if it is really reducible to just four paragraphs. Job seekers are told employers don’t want to read anything more than one page. Perhaps we should all boycott companies that limit their inquisitiveness to bullet points.

We need the money, so we write something–hoping it will garner us an interview.

Now we wait. And wait. And wait. The application forbade phone calls or any attempt to solicit a decision so we just wait, and maybe pray a little, as we are now thirty days from being totally broke.

Finally you get an email, with implied happy music playing in the background, telling you that the company was swamped with excellent applicants. Unfortunately, you are not one of them. They thank you for taking the time to send in your life story and they will hoard and guard it in their vaults for the next time they can’t solve an internal crisis.

Thanks for the additional insult! Please, XYZ Company; don’t tell me how too many excellent candidates swamped you and that it took you four months to sort through them. I don’t care that you have so many challenges; I just want a job.

Recently a friend applied for a position that was created for him. He went through all the above steps, hoping the application was submitted correctly. He had the advantage of knowing who the hiring authority was and tailor-made his cover letter to that person's experience with him as a volunteer, board member of a non-profit and fellow graduate of a large University.

Yep! He got an email telling him how happy they were he applied for the position. Nicely, he was told he was not one of the finalists in a field of billions who had more impressive credentials. They didn’t say that exactly, but you get the point. They did end it with a solicitation for their foundation and happiness that they would see him at an upcoming volunteer meeting where it was anticipated he would lead a subcommittee!

Please. We are people out here trying to solve your problem. Please remember you asked us for help. Please try to treat us like we actually matter.

Ableism: The game is afoot!

In college we had a lot of discussions about racism, sexism and classism. The less frequent and slightly less popular discussion topic was ableism. I took one class on the civil rights that people with disabilities have in our country, and I learned that most of the things that inhibit our ability to perform certain jobs are not, legally defined, "disabilities." I am going to dedicate this blog to a discussion of these ailments as they pertain to my experience and studies.

A disability, according to the legal definition, is an ailment which significantly limits or prohibits a major daily activity. There is a lot of room for interpretation here. A person missing one arm, for example, isn't necessarily disabled. They can still brush their teeth, write, and carry things with the other arm. They can apply for jobs that require two hands, but the employer has the right to turn down their application if the job description requires typing, carrying objects with two hands, operating machinery, et cetera. Therefore, while the person has a disadvantage when it comes to seeking employment, they do not have a legal disability.

I am concerned by this because there are a number of people who are not defined as disabled that still have debilitating psychological and/or physiological ailments for whom support services are often inadequate or nonexistent.

I once had psychological issues that prevented me from doing much of anything productive for a good two years of my life. I would get jobs and lose them because I couldn't hold things together mentally. I was mentally unstable, but not "disabled." I received minimal support from DSHS, but the Social Security Administration denied my claim for benefits. These were, naturally, the same two years of my life that I was homeless. I dread to think of all of the people wandering the street at this moment who probably would have a good chance at becoming functional again if they could find a place to live and experience a series of stable friendships. Stress exacerbates mental illness, and there is nothing more stressful (let me assure you) than wondering if anybody cares whether you are dead or alive as you wander the streets of a well-to-do city.

Nobody should be forced into this position. It is a downward spiral of negativity and despair. I'm surprised from day to day that I survived that period of my life. People with personality disorders or clinical depression may not be considered "disabled," but we need some way to provide support for destitute people regardless of their disability status. People need a place where they can stay.

There are several extant arguments against this idea. Chief among them is the idea that providing services to people who otherwise could work only causes them to be dependent and to assume that society will take care of them no matter what they do. Granted, it would be hard to argue that a non-competitive market is as productive as a competitive market, but when we are talking about providing the basic necessities, we are talking about the right to life. It is not a matter of economics. If we can imagine the environment as an externality (as many economists often do), it shouldn't be too much of a stretch of the imagination for us to picture issues of human rights as external to laissez-faire market practices. It is pompous to say to the least among us that they must compete in order to live; this goes against the principle of solidarity and is contrary to many of the teachings of the world's religions. Providing a warm place to sleep and cook meals is neither beyond the capacity of our great society nor threatening to the industriousness of the American worker. To the contrary, it is my belief that our productivity as a society would be greatly increased by extending a helping hand to those who suffer.

Physical ailments, on the other side of the spectrum, are a whole different ball game. Most aches and pains do not prevent work, although many people believe that they do. Some things that are thought of as physical conditions are actually psychological ones. My father, who was a chemical dependency counselor, once had a patient who thought that his hearing had been wrecked by an assault. The patient could hear fine in both ears, but was convinced that he was going deaf. He probably had some tinnitus, which I also have; it doesn't specifically limit your hearing ability, but it sure is annoying. Apparently, it's also largely psychological, from what I've read. But even in terms of actual physical affliction, psychological stress will exacerbate just about any condition. Physical and mental health are inextricably linked. Even so, most physical ailments can be dealt with on and off the job, and even those conditions that are severe enough to limit our daily activities cannot necessarily keep us out of the workforce entirely. It is important to be aware of our strengths as well as our weaknesses when seeking employment.

Many people find the dichotomy between ability (to perform) and disability to be emblematic of ableism, a "discrimination in favor of able-bodied people" (Oxford American Dictionary). For this reason, many people use other terms such as "disAbled," "differently abled," "otherwise able," et cetera to emphasize their abilities rather than their disabilities. A person who cannot walk long distances but can type seventy words per minute, for example, is hardly disabled. Unfortunately, ableism--like racism and sexism--works on many different levels in society, including within the person's self, and so we become overtly aware of the things we cannot do and tend to emphasize those limitations over our skills. Our incapacitations become part of our identity and often obscure our strengths. This is something to be fought against.

I had trouble walking as a kid. I couldn't run more than fifty or sixty yards on the track during P.E., and my feet constantly hurt when I went to the mall with my parents. After a while, my dad (who had custody) wanted to know what was going on, and took me to a doctor. The doctor recommended me to a podiatrist. (Apparently, in Greek, "pod" means "foot" and "iatros" means "physician." So it's a fancy way of saying foot doctor. Go figure.) The podiatrist told me that I had flat feet and pointed out that I was walking funny. After some X-rays were taken, he told me that he wanted to perform surgery.

I was on state medical care at the time, and in those days the state medical care for children paid 100% of the medical costs deemed as "necessary" by physicians, so cost wasn't an issue. That left me with one simple question for the foot doctor: "Will I be able to run?"

He answered in the affirmative, saying that I should have no problem running. I told him I really wanted to be able to play soccer. He said it should be fine.

For anyone out there reading this, I would like to relate one thing I have learned over the years about surgeries. Surgeons, at best, can keep a condition from killing you. On an average day, they can keep a condition from getting worse. Surgery almost never makes you 100% better. Anyone who tells you otherwise is trying to take your money. (Or, in this case, the government's money. It all depends on how you see things.)

I didn't know that then, and so I agreed to the surgeries. The next two years of my life became a cycle of cast-wearing, learning to walk again and undergoing physical therapy for each foot. I was 11 when I went under the knife the first time, 12 when they did my left foot. I wound up with minuscule arches and some entrapped nerves in my left foot. I was told it would take a while before I would be able to run.

During my freshman year of high school I signed up for cross country running the first quarter. I tried for the first several weeks to keep up with the other runners. My friend Joe was concerned when I would stop at even a slow pace and he would often ask what was wrong. My feet still hurt. They burned. They ached. I don't think I ever finished a single practice without stopping, and in the competitions I was just a joke. I quit after the first two.

I survived high school by lettering in chess (yeah, chess) and performing guitar in jazz band and singing in jazz choir. I eventually dropped out to go to work and pay the rent as my dad fought to keep his Social Security Income benefits after becoming permanently disabled. Working long shifts at Safeway, I would use my arms to lean against the checkout counters (when bagging) or stand on my knees while I stocked shelves. I've never had a job where I haven't had to worry about my feet. Sometimes I've cried from the pain, which is embarrassing when you have to wipe your eyes and tell your co-workers, "it's just allergies." The last thing I ever wanted to be seen as was less-than-able.

At some point during my college career I finally reached a point where I no longer had to stand all day to get income. Most of my tutoring sessions have been one-on-one while seated. Even when I have to stand up to illustrate a lesson (as I often did while teaching English in Costa Rica), I have had the option of sitting down afterwards. This has been a great relief.

Now, looking for a job, I realize how many positions out there require you to stand or to be on your feet all day. Of course, they have to say this in the job description; if everyone just assumed that standing would be part of their work, standing would become a major daily activity and those who weren't able to stand all day would become (dis)abled. But I'm also glad that I have the skills to apply for a lot of positions that don't require constant uprightness (no pun intended).

I was reminded of all of this yesterday when someone paid me to help them move. I was fine for the first four hours of heavy lifting and running up and down stairs, and then my feet started to give out. I was thankful for the iron handrails on the stairs, which I used to my advantage. When the pain got really bad, I started alternating between walking on my knees and on my feet, still packing things and carrying them down one of the two flights of stairs for my work partner to pick up. It felt good to be working but humiliating to be reminded of my physical limitations.

Well, it's a good thing that moving jobs aren't the only jobs out there right now. As long as I don't wind up with carpal tunnel syndrome or ALS (both are conditions that run in my family), I should be able to perform any of the tutoring, teaching or paralegal jobs for which I am currently applying. Today, so far, I have turned in three applications and I intend to apply for several more positions as soon as I finish this blog and get something to eat.

So, in sum, we need to remind ourselves and each other of the things we are able to do, and try to focus less on our limitations. It's good to be aware of limitations, but we need to fight ableism within ourselves and within the society at large so that our shortcomings don't define who we are as human beings.

Let's get our dreams off the ground again!

From Seattle,

Chaim Eliyah

A quick thought...

I thought this was an interesting example of everything I think is wrong with society:

Facebook friend: Homeless woman on the walk to the Sounders game told me I'd be homeless one day after I told her I wasn't going to give her money.

Don't worry. I corrected her.

How can someone be so crass and self-assured? I mean, there's all of the obvious arguments, like maybe this guy could get hit by a bus and wind up in a wheelchair and slowly lose whatever fortune he has, but his ignorance isn't what concerns me. It's his arrogance. It's the fact that during a time when so many people are suffering and scared out of their wits, he can simply cruise by a "homeless woman" asking for change and say (I imagine) "No, I won't be homeless." Ever. Not in my lifetime. I've got too much privilege. And you have to sleep in the cold tonight. And that's just the way it is.

Is this right? Is this how we should be as a society? As human beings?

John Trouble Williams

Trouble really was his middle name, a fact confirmed last night by members of the American Indian Movement who knew John. John was shot last Monday by officer Ian Birk of the Seattle Police Department. Members of his tribe held a vigil last Thursday, which I attended. As the Jewish new year (Rosh HaShana) began last night, I was attending a meeting of the newly revived Native American Advisory Council to the Seattle Police.

Wait, you might say. Isn't this a blog about unemployment? Well, technically speaking, John was unemployed--at least, according to traditional notions of employment. John did not write code for Microsoft or clean up airplane coolant on a Boeing tarmac floor. John's chosen profession was to carve totem statues with a whittling knife. John sold his work personally to people passing through Seattle's Pike Place Market, but he also sold it to stores that sell Native art.

According to the Seattle Weekly blog, "Ye Olde Curiousity Shop had been buying Williams' work for years, owner Andy James told SW this morning. In fact, James said that the store has bought from the Williams' family---famous carvers family from the Nitinaht tribe in British Columbia--for more than 100 years. James says he knew Williams' father, Ray, a fine carver, now deceased. James also stocks a selection of work from Williams' brother Rick."

Rick confirmed that his brother had "fallen on hard times," according to the SW blog. As much as we may try to separate ourselves from one another, we are all connected. Therefore, I humbly dedicate this blog entry to John T. Williams, who could have been any one of us in these hard times. In this post, I will try to relay the positive things that were said about him; however, due to the heinous nature of his death, there was a considerable animus against the past and present actions of the Seattle Police Department, and I feel that this entry wouldn't be accurate without revisiting the evening's acrimony.

John was a Native American elder of the Nuu-Chah-Nulth tribe of British Columbia. His work was part of an artisan tradition extending back to the 18th century, tribal members said. The entire Williams family has a strong tradition of carving.

What follows is an account of what was said at the Advisory Council meeting. The vigil I attended was not a time for open discussion, although one person did say that he had received a text from his friend, who was a shaman, who had a window on the back of her hand and could see John's soul. She said that John was very happy that all of us were at his vigil and that he loved all of us.

Members of many nations were present at the Advisory Council meeting. The Lummi, Duwamish, Nuu-chah-nulth tribe, Makah and other First Nations were present. The United States and Canada were represented. Community organizations that were present included the Seattle Police, Mothers for Police Accountability, the American Indian Movement, Unity and Struggle, and, of course, the Native American Advisory Council.

The meeting began with words and song from an elder who knew John and his family. The words and songs, he said, were not an invocation; his people put words and prayers into the ground, and if other people find them useful, they can pick them up and take them when they leave.

After the elder spoke, the members of the police liaison to the Native American Advisory Council were introduced. Among these people were John Hayes, the Command Staff Advisor, Linda Hill, the official Native liaison, Chief John Diaz, and Kathryn Olson with the Office of Professional Accountability, a "civilian" organization closely associated with the SPD.

All speakers were asked to hold an eagle feather from the Muckleshoot First Nation to represent the veracity of their statements.

Chief Diaz gave his condolences to the family of John and the broader community. He said that he hopes to make sure that every person understands what will occur, and that the most important thing is a commitment to work together to bring peace to the community. His comments were later criticized by those addressing the attendees; one person who knew John said, "peace would have kept the bullets in the chamber." Diaz and the civilian observer extolled the virtues and rigorous training of police officers, saying that the majority of police work goes well; however, several people questioned why the instances that don't go well typically have to do with "people of different colors."

One speaker from the Lummi Nation pointed out that even though 25 percent of Seattle's homeless people are Native, John was not homeless. Harriet Walden of Mothers for Police Accountability asked several questions about why the officer was involved with John in the first place, given that he was carrying only the tools of his trade (a 3" [legal] blade and a piece of wood), to which Chief Diaz responded that no calls had been received regarding John and that being on the street was not, in fact, a crime. These admissions set a certain tone for the rest of the meeting: Was John's crime that he was a Native American?

One Native woman from West Seattle described her interactions with Seattle police. She said she once called the police to say that a sacred feather had been stolen from her and she was laughed at by the dispatch officer. She also said that she was beat up by cops in 1976 and that she was now afraid to call the police to help with her kids. She says she used to carry a pocketknife, but doesn't anymore, and in any interaction with police she makes it overtly clear that she is "not armed and not resisting." "You've got to make it to tomorrow morning," she said, "so you can get a lawyer. [...] It could have been any of us."

Several people commended the police on their commitment to peace, but were skeptical of that commitment. Others had specific messages regarding peace with the police. "No justice, no peace," said one lady. "How could John scare a 27 year old healthy officer?" In tears, she said: "You cannot condemn our people; you did that before, we will not let you do it again." Another lady said, "We didn't breach the peace, it was breached for us." A father, who spoke with his son present, identified the police as his enemies; he asked, "What are the rules of engagement? How do I protect my kids?"

Many other interesting points were brought up, like the dedicated military service so many Native American veterans have given to the United States, as well as the disproportionate treatment that their peoples receive from police officers. Many people were concerned about the four shots the officer fired, which was for some an obvious excess. Others were concerned about the cultural training of the police officers; one man thought that anti-racist training should be mandatory for all police officers.

Police chief John Diaz responded to comments by saying that this case is being "openly and transparently reviewed; [...] you all will see the outcome." "You need to have answers, and you will." In response to questions about what else could have been done, he said that the force is "trying a hundred things," not just one, and that increasing the distribution of tazers and increasing crisis intervention training are options that are being pursued. "If we're not part of the community, we're failing," he said.

Ms. Olson with the OPA said that the case, like all police-involved shootings, is being investigated both internally by the department and by county prosecutors. A jury will determine if the officer's use of force was justified or unjustified, and said that if the decision is that the use of force was unjustified, there could be criminal charges. Ms. Olson, and surprisingly many Native speakers, stressed the importance of police officers; she said that training is an ongoing process and that officers who misuse force are subject to felony and administrative charges. She emphasized that the process is part of a system of checks and balances.

John Hayes apologized for his defamation of Mr. Williams; "I said he was arrested multiple times," he clarified, under scrutiny, and added, "it was not something I should have said." John's arrest record had no apparent bearing on the officer's decision to fire four rounds at him. Hayes defended police training, however, saying that officers are subject to extensive background checks and many more hours of training than is required by most other professions.

For me, two questions remain; if things like this are still happening after all the years that we have been witness to the use of excessive force by police, why should we believe that the police are doing something about it now? And, if police are able to still receive paid leave and have the benefit of an arbitrary jury deciding whether or not their violent acts are justified before they are even subject to disciplinary action or trial, what is the incentive for police officers to refrain from the use of violence?

The next meeting is at 2203 Airport Way South, at 6:00 pm, on September 22.