Opportunity

"Equality means dignity. And dignity demands a job and a paycheck that lasts through the week."
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

I am really enjoying work these days. Mr. Moore and I are deep into our preparations for the 8th Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Job Fair, and we have made it a priority to do some street-level marketing for this, as I am currently learning, all-too-important day.

There’s something about getting out of the office and walking these streets with my boss that has cultivated within me a feeling of connectedness to this neighborhood. We try to stay out at least an hour a day, clipboards and pens in hand, and simply roam the streets of Johnston Square, searching for anyone who might be looking for a job. And let me tell you, they aren’t very hard to find.

After the first week of this, I’d become adept at picking out the “job-seekers.” They are the group of young men standing on the corner with their hands in their pockets. They are the single mothers, with a grocery bag in one hand and a toddler in the other, returning from a quick run to the corner store. They are the elderly who walk the sidewalks with a limp or a cane, but nevertheless, still walk. And all I have to do when I make eye contact with them is say, “Excuse me, we’re having a job fair on MLK Day…”

Nearly everyone responds, “Oh, I need a job.” And as I take their information and hand them a flier, I begin to think, this is how easy it should be. If you want a job and are willing to work, you should be able to. These past few weeks, if nothing else, have shown me the enormous amounts of time wasted by people who simply don’t have an opportunity to work. Guys with birth years later than my little sister, out of school and wasting their days away as the cold urban wind begins to blow their faces to stone. The potential for this neighborhood to be something great is there, it’s tangible, I can see it for myself. So why can’t we reach it?

I am falling back on the Community Center for some answers. While we might not “fix” neighborhoods like Johnston Square anytime soon, we can continue to do what we can to bring some equality into the picture. And for a neighborhood like Johnston Square, equality means jobs that pay a living wage. Everyone here wants to work; I know this because they’ve told me so. The man born in the 1940’s wants to work. The woman who just had twins wants to work. The man who walked out of the prison after six years and happened to run into me wants to work. If anyone has a new business idea and is looking for some motivated employees, I’ve got your labor force right here.

I know it’s not as simple as giving jobs to those who ask for them. I realize that, especially now, sometimes the jobs just simply aren’t there. But there still always exists the need for opportunity for people, especially now. And I suppose I could sum up the work this Community Center does in one word: Opportunity. This job fair is an opportunity, if only for a day, for people to feel like they have a chance to reach their potential. We are not promising some grand life changes just by showing up and sticking your hand out. The people I’ve met on these streets, the ones who have asked me if being incarcerated would disqualify them from coming, or the ones who simply do not believe that anyone would care enough about this neighborhood to have a job fair here, know all too well the struggles involved in living a hard-worked, decent life. But if they are willing and committed, if they want to reach out for something higher than the Latrobe Homes housing project or a prison cell on Eager Street, shouldn’t they be given the chance?

Thank you, Mr. Moore and the St. Frances Academy Community Center, for being there, and for believing, even when it is cold.