Thursday, December 27, 2007

6 Responses to “What are your thoughts on the following picture?”

1. Dave Says:
   December 27th, 2007 at 11:57 am

   it is a black and white picture of people holding signs up for jobs and a maid…

2. john Says:
   December 27th, 2007 at 7:13 pm
   Thank you for the deep thoughts by Dave.

   If I could have edited out the maid and the man on the left I would have.

   Any other reactions?

3. Dave Says:
   December 28th, 2007 at 2:58 pm

   seems to be two african american men who are looking for work. and, they seem to be in a long line in an office of some sort. what is the point of all of this?

4. john Says:
   December 28th, 2007 at 5:57 pm
   There are two points: 1) I am trying to get more people to comment. and 2) I want to know if anybody else’s initial reaction is the same as mine without first giving my reaction? I saw the picture, and thought i could do a long blog entry on this. But when I went to write the blog I wanted to know if the picture would prompt somebody else to write an entry themself instead. Our reactions have been very different and therefore you have already made this an interesting experiment.

   My initial reaction to this picture was one of disbelief. Are there people out there who really believe that somebody owe’s them a job? I know how i would feel inside if I ever held up a sign like that, and I’m pretty sure these individuals feel the same way. These men are selling themselves WAAAYY too short, and ought to be ashamed. Frankly, the mentality of a job being a right is incredibly repulsive.

   I don’t care what anybody says (i.e. FDR’s “Economic Bill of Rights”) jobs will never be a right, they have to be earned.
   http://worldpolicy.org/projects/globalrights/econrights/fdr-econbill.html

5. asheen Says:
   December 28th, 2007 at 8:09 pm
   One cannot “earn” what one is qualified for and striving for, but unfairly denied for reasons besides qualification — such as race, gender, religion, nationality, neighborhood, class. I am not saying this is the case, but just presenting an alternative interpretation of a picture devoid of situational context.

6. john Says:
   December 31st, 2007 at 6:00 am
   Great point - Couldn’t agree more. but…

   I have thought a lot about my last comments, and have asked myself 10+ times can I make a judgment call like the one I just made after ONLY seeing a picture.

   But after starting to read “How to Change the World” by David Bornstein, I am realizing social entrepreneurs never have a victim mentality; instead they do something that solves the problem. They work and work and work to overcome grave injustices by doing whatever they can. I realize that what these men in this picture may have to do, may take 20 years. But can you IMAGINE the impact they would potentially leave for generations to come, compared to the impact they will have by demanding somebody give them a job.

   I must confess, I do not believe in impossibilities. If I work at something for 50 years then die, and what I had worked to accomplish was never accomplished, I still would not say what I had worked to accomplish was impossible. If I were quadraplegic, and had learning disabilities, there will be much that is “impossible” to accomplish in this life, but I have a long time to live in the life hereafter.

   Also I have ZERO context!

   I even took an extreme analogy - what if I had a picture of somebody killing somebody else; could I rightly judge that the killer is committing an evil act? Out of context that would be impossible - unless the killer was holding up some message like “I demand you be killed”. For all anybody knows - the “killer” could be simply acting in self defense, and may be absolutely crushed for having to kill a person they would rather serve and help.

   If I was held at gunpoint, then of course I would hold a sign that says “We Demand Jobs”. Otherwise I can think of no other context in which I would be justified to do so. So I guess that is my big assumption: “These men are not literally being held at gun point.”

   The sign could just be poorly written. If the sign just said “We Demand Equal Opportunity” then I would say “good for you - that is your and my right” and I might even pick up a picket sign myself.

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