Third World America

So, reading this book is making me ponder what separates Third World countries from Developed countries. The answer is rather simple: the middle class. A thriving, healthy, stable middle class separates the two.

So, where is the United States? Or rather, where is the United States heading?

Without a doubt, the middle class is shrinking. Not only is it shrinking, it has become incredibly unstable. My parents' generation had planned on getting a job, and keeping it until they retired. That was their plan, that's what they expected. My parents' generation also saw something we don't see anymore - hard work paying off. You know, the American dream? Where anyone could work their way into the middle class, and then work their way into upper middle class if they worked hard enough. This was back when there was middle management - somewhere between the top and the bottom-of-the-middle. This was back when you could get a job that paid the bills out of high school. This was back when America produced something. We stopped being citizens and became consumers somewhere along the line. Today, the American dream isn't based off of hard work. The American dream has become more of a lottery ticket - based off of luck and chance. Today a child of a middle class home with a college education has a smaller chance of gainful employment than a child from the top 20% of earners with no college at all. This is a time where the rich get richer, the poor get poorer, and the middle class gets out sourced. What the hell happened? What will happen? Does anyone in power care enough to do anything? What do I think? I think it time to start looking for jobs in Canada and Europe, that's what I think. Here's a little to think about while you make your decision.

Capitalism - the invisible hand that screws us all

So if you know me, you know I'm not a fan of this already. If you don't know me, you probably aren't reading this... yet. When communism fell as a government, it was because it didn't work. Most of everyone involved in it eventually admitted it, or was killed before hand. When our economy failed horribly, capitalists still said it worked... in fact they said it needed less regulations. They still cling to an ideology that in practice, does not work. As capitalism continues, as Mr. Marx once said, it contains the seed of it's own destruction. So, when that seed blows up on all of us, what did we do? We said plant another seed, but let it grow more freely - make sure it takes EVERYTHING with it. If there was not a huge difference in information distribution and access difference among everyone involved, it wouldn't be so bad. It isn't the access to money that's the issue. Before everything went to hell, most of America had money. The issue wasn't money, it was access to resources and information that destroyed us all. Someone said "if all the money in the US was distributed evenly to everyone, there would still be rich and homeless people." Well, yes. Now I pose the question: if all the knowledge and resources were distributed evenly would there still be rich and homeless people? If people knew how to get a job, keep a job, and invest their money appropriately, would that help? If people didn't have privileged information about how things work, would it make a difference? If we all had equal access to education, vocational training, life skills coaching, health care, and professional training would it make a difference?

Hey, you say to me, we all have equal access to those things already! Hey, I say to you, no. There are levels of these things that only the privileged have access to. The upper parts of it. How would a person without a college education fair better than the person with a college education? Easy, their parents were wealthy. That's not some silly idea I just made up, that's how it works in the US today. There are numbers, real numbers, that you can look at and say, "hey, that number is bigger than that number." It's true that blue-collar Dad can beat up white-collar Dad. However, white-collar Dad can fire your blue-collar Dad and send his job to Mexico and make a PO Box in the Caymans so that blue-collar Dad does not, and will not, have a job to support you and the rest of your family.

Outsourced - not just a TV show. Look around. It's happening to you.

"They took our jobs (or Jerbs if you watch South Park)!"

No, no they didn't. "They" had nothing to do with your job going to Mexico, Indonesia, or China. "They" did not come over through a coup de tat overthrow the CEO and force him to send your job over to "their" place. That's like saying the Africans jumped on one of our boats and said, "Hey, we're your slaves, and you won't ever work your own tobacco farm again." Everyone blames the wrong people in this situation. Why? Probably because it's easier to blame the idea that you have the least control over. There is no possible way for the person whose job has been sent somewhere to control what the workers in Indonesia are doing, or how they feel, or whether they get "your" job. I'm sure "they" were hoping to do your job for an 8th of the pay you received. I'm sure "they" are thanking their lucky stars to be able to make your John Deere hydraulic system for 2 bucks an hour for 80 hours a week with no overtime or benefits. How dare "they" do this to us?

Stock prices and wage gap. That invisible hand that keeps screwing us... that's what you should be angry about. CEOs and other executives at the top of big companies make 150% more than their lower employees. During my parents' generation, it was close to 33%. So, the rich are getting richer... at an exponential rate. What are they doing with their new wealth? Playing with our money. They pass it around, put interest on it, and make more of it - for them. Also, they are keeping more of their money than we are of ours. Warren Buffet noted in 2007 that his receptionist paid 30 percent of her income in taxes, while he paid only 17.7 percent on his taxable income of $46 million. They also keep more of their money by putting a PO Box off shore... places like the Cayman islands. The Caymans are a tax haven - no taxes - for commercial businesses. Here's some numbers for you to look at from the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

83 of the 100 largest publicly traded companies in the country had subsidiaries in tax havens. Of those 83, 74 received contracts in 2007.

More than 18,000 companies are registered at a single address in the Cayman Islands.

Morgan Stanley had 273 subsidiaries in tax havens

Citigroup had 427

Bank of America had 115

Goldman Sachs had 29

Wells Fargo had 18

KBR/Halliburton (see also Dick Cheney) listed 10,500 Americans officially employed by a two companies that "exist in a computer file on the fourth floor of a building on a palm-studded boulevard here in the Caribbean." This means a few things: no medicare or social security taxes were paid by these workers. It also means that when they are fired, they do not qualify for unemployment insurance or other benefits - seeing as how they never officially paid for any of it.

So, as we tax payers foot the bill for these companies (GM has several off shore tax-friendly places like Bermuda and the Cayman Islands shielding them from paying taxes) due to them being "too big to fail" they are not paying taxes... These corporations paid very, very little in taxes, actually. In 2004, U.S. multinational corporations paid roughly $16 billion in taxes on $700 billion in foreign active earnings. For those who hate math, that makes their tax rate around 2.3 percent. Sure, 16 billion is a lot, but if you had 700 billion, would it make much a difference in your day-to-day habits? Would you be suffering like those losing their homes?

It's just the low-skilled jobs leaving, why should I care? I have a degree in engineering after all.

Wrong! AT&T and IBM have nearly 50 percent of their technology development teams (engineers and such) outsourced. Guess what... more white-collar high-skilled jobs are on their way out, too. Why are these jobs leaving the United States? To be blunt... we're dumb. Since we do not value education, but do value that piece of paper - the diploma - many people are getting that paper and not the education. So we have plenty of people with special pieces of paper, and very few people with the skills to do a job. Well, another shocker: other countries have skilled people. Since they value education in other countries, and we live in a global economy, our jobs are going to other countries. It isn't our education system that's broken. It's our population. We put so much value on the dollar, we forget how to get the dollar, and what to do with the dollar once we have it. The privileged who operate the invisible hand know what to do with that dollar, and how to make sure they control it - and you.

The Financial Industry is 40% of our economy... what?

The United States used to produce stuff. Tangible things that you could touch, drive, live in, eat, play with, etc. Today, the United States doesn't really make anything. Currently we make money... somehow. Some how we produce money without producing anything to sell or buy. The industry that is supposed to be an intermediate factor in our economy is becoming our economy. From credit cards to student loans to mortgages, it's all passing pretend money around. So the big banks sell this pretend money to other people, and some how that makes more money. However, that doesn't work if everyone is treated fairly. So, we have these big banks' little minions running around telling the middle class how great this loan is, telling the undergraduate college student how low this card's interest rate is, when they know... no, they ensure that it's all very, very bad. Balloon payments, variable interest rates, limits set at the banks' discretion... Credit card agreements are now over 30 pages long! 30 pages! College students rarely read 12 pages of an assigned reading. You think they're going to study 30+ pages of fine print and financial jargon? No. That was the plan. So, these little minions are out and signing people up to fail. Their boss tells the big bank about all this incoming money. The big bank sells these packaged loans to each other, ensuring each one is crap. The big banks now have this huge crap-trade going on and then... everything falls to shit. But. Before the shit storm (which the banks were well aware of) happened, they made sure they hit up their lobbyists in congress to make these things happen: The bankruptcy bill that President Bush passed in 2005

make it harder for average people to file for bankruptcy protection,

make it easier for landlords to evict a bankrupt tenant

make it more difficult for small businesses to reorganize, while opening new loopholes for the Enrons of the world

allow creditors to provide misleading information

And: did nothing to rein in lending abuses that all too frequently turned manageable debt into unmanageable crisis.

So, they set us up. Not only did they set us up, they made sure we would fall, and they would be kept safe. The shit storm rained on us. After it rained on us... we then forked over our money to clean it up.

Womyn, my 2 cents on gender

I hadn't realized I was a liberal feminist until I realized how some other people outside my little circle of normal contacts think. More specifically, how some women think. With a quantitative sociologist at the helm of a class called "Gender in the Workplace," I have been fed some rather tasty statistics about how women are viewed in paid work, and at home. Did you know that women make 70% of what a man makes? Equal work for Equal pay act from back in 1964 was supposed to resolve that, but... Women aren't involved in the higher paying jobs to begin with. They aren't allowed into the professional social networks needed to move up the sexual stratified promotional ladder, and we, as a society, view women as less valuable.  And the ideology that women belong in the home is still rather strong. True, more women are being integrated into the paid work sector, but they are still assumed to do all the housework after they get off of paid work. It seems ludicrous to me, but, as I find out through class, most of the people in my class think it's fine. One Black female (yeah, Black is the PC work for the previous African American) said there's no real reason for a woman to be on the checking account, or involved in any kind of "business." All she needs to do is know how to write a check. Another older female said she believes that men are supposed to work because it says so in the bible, and that it says women are to be subservient to their husbands. The Good Book also says we can stone gays, and that slavery is acceptable... it's all up to interpretation if you ask me.

Another shocking moment was when the question was posed, "Would you be okay with having a house husband?" Or, if a male, "Would you want to be a house husband?" She wrote "yes" and "no" on the board, and let the class chip in their 2 cents. Only 3 people said that it was okay, or that they would be okay in that position. Myself, and older female, and a young Black male were the only ones who said yes. Many of the ideals as to why not, made it sound as though they believe gender (not sex) is a concrete thing, that there is no grey area. You are a man, so you must be masculine; you are a female, you must be feminine. They also seem to believe that it is a born-in trait. Humans, being logical creatures, have the incredible ability to choose how they act, and gender is learned through socialization, not via some kind of man-stinct. Boys don't play with cars because they have a Y chromosome... it's because they were only given cars to play with. Newborn girls don't wear pink because they have a vagina, it's because their parents chose to put them in it. The nature vs nurture has no place in discussion when dealing with gender. Gender is a learned attribute.

I am a firm believer in an egalitarian relationship with my girlfriend/fiancee. There is no reason she should give up who she is when she accepts me in marriage, or in an intimate relationship at all. If the woman finds herself absorbing the identity of her mate, she needs to take a step back and realize where she is going. An intimate relationship among 2 people is that of 2 individuals that start out as equals. If she looses her identity, what reason does the man have to stay with her? What does she bring to the table of the relationship? Whatever he says she should bring? We should both have a say in where we go to eat. We should both get to drive the car. We should both have an equal chance at being successful professionally. We should both have an equal part in raising our child(ren). A father should not be a distant figure that bring money to the family. Money and wealth is an abstract, static idea that children will not understand for the bulk of their childhood. A child needs to know who that guy is who watches TV and sleeps in the house with you and your mom. Having an affectionate, passionate, and caring father figure is one of the only things that can break the cycle of devaluing women, and keeping men outside the home.

Men can cry, we have emotions, we are capable creatures that have been bread to ignore our real potential. Our potential as humans. Women can be strong, decisive, and competitive. We have to realize and accept that as truth before we can truly live in peace among each other, and have respect for everyone equally.

OfficeMax fires me for posting this on FaceBook

The following narrative was written by me. I made 2 hard copies for other employees to read, and sent a digital copy to the store management's email. Since quite a few OfficeMax hourly employees are on my Facebook friends list, I posted it on Facebook, as a note. I did this so that more could read it, not as a quip against OfficeMax, but as a literary venture. Some big-whig in OfficeMax HR read it, and sent word to my store manager that I am to be terminated for damaging OfficeMax's image. And it was done. I think there's a bit of conflict with the termination and the freedom of speech, but you all can be the judge of that.

The old catch phrase “Would you like fries with that” has long been ridiculed in popular culture for being a lowly, humiliating phrase associated with poor income, and little future aspirations. This week, our store has put forth personal goals, with definitive repercussions for not hitting our MaxAssurance goals for the week. Which leads to me the reason behind writing this narrative. This push on MaxAssurance leads me to believe that OfficeMax is looking to coin an equivalent to McDonald’s phrase,

“Would you like a Max with that?”

Now, do not take this as why I will not get a MaxAssurance, but as a reasoning as to why I, and others, are not hitting that target posted for everyone to see in the break room. I plan on making this as non-subjective as possible, with few personal anecdotes. However, as I am the author in this particular narrative, there will be a few moments where it may become a bit subjective and personal. Also, keep in mind that I, alone wrote this based on my personal observations and knowledge. I did not poll the other employees, nor did I poll the customers that did, or did not, go for the additional coverage we offer. I will do my best to go over generalities of the coverage itself, as well as item specifics, and the goal structuring itself. Bear with me, as I may become a bit wordy throughout this piece. There will be a lot of personal voice in this, as many professors have told me I do quite a bit in my writings. Now then, on to the subject at hand, MaxAssurance.

Point 1: customers and the Max

The first, and most important, point I believe I should make is that of the consumer, and their issues with both the ideology and interest behind of the program. The average consumer does not know what happens to their products before they get them, and most do not really care. All they know is that they want to buy a new product in new condition. What they do know is the information supplied to them, whether it be by media, personal anecdotes, or actual experiences they have had. If any of our consumers happen to read Consumer Reports, they know that they strongly recommend against such things as MaxAssurance, and other add-on plans. Today’s products already come with a more than sufficient warranty, and by the time the post-manufacture warranty is expired, most consumers are ready to upgrade, or do without the original product.

For instance, our 3 year furniture plan. If someone has a desk or chair for two and a half years, and a caster breaks, they are more likely to buy a new chair than go through the MaxAssurance process. With technology, by the time the MaxAssurance kicks in on computers, their computer is more than likely quite outdated, and they will not see the benefit of getting that one fixed, or are more likely to buy a new computer all together. The average consumer also lives by the “if it doesn’t break in the first 30 days, it probably won’t ever” ideology.

Due to our short-attention-span having American culture, by the time that 30 days is up, the initial impact of the purchase price has diminished enough to where it’s not a huge deal. Customer’s personal previous experience with MaxAssurance also has an effect on whether or not they will do it again. I have personally spoken with customers who were rather irked about how the process is handled, and that there is nothing that we, in the store, can do about it. They see it as a transaction between them and the store. They paid us, so they want us to fix the problem. And quite frankly, we do not do anything in store. I have been told by 2 separate customers that because of our lack of action in store, that they will never shop here again. But, being in retail for nearly 8 years now, I know that is more than likely a fallacy. Regardless, that speaks louder than the customer that never comes in, and has no issues with the program. And, if they have to send a product back in, that is still a hassle for them. They do not know when they will get it back, or if they will fix it any better than it was before. Time is money, and if that item they sent out is part of what makes their business run, that’s bad news for them. This leads me to the next point about consumers. The current economic state, both as a generality, and specifically for our city.

In general, the United States, and world, economy is in bad shape. Due mostly to credit issues, and the world’s reliance on American consumers to buy stuff. Several countries are hit rather hard by the United State’s poor economic policies (or lack there of ), and the way they have dealt with spending and lending. What does that have to do with selling MaxAssurances? Well, pretty much everything. The cost of food, clothing, transportation, communication, and general merchandise is going up, and the average US wage has moved less than 1% if inflaction is factored in. Unemployment is going up, reaching record highs since the original Great Depression. Keep in mind, that being unemployed is not the lack of a job, but not having a job, and in the job market. These stats do not include those who decided to go back to school for training, or those who are simply not actively looking for a job. Enter the word: recession. A recession, generalized, is a lack of spending, and an increase in saving over the course of a 3 or more year period. When a recession is declared, that means that trend has already occurred. We are in a recession, simply put. The United States public is spending less, borrowing less,

and keeping more of their money. With this information at hand, we should not expect to see an increase in MaxAssurance sales compared to last year... or the last 2 years even. Especially locally. A large base of Wichitan’s spending comes from middle class, blue collar manufacture based jobs. Most of those come out of the airline businesses like Cessna, Boeing, Spirit, etc. Those said businesses are laying off currently, and probably haven’t hired many new employees. More than likely, there has been a freeze on salary caps for hourly employees, so they won’t be earning any more than they did last year if they are maxed out in their pay category. They are keeping their money, due to unknown job security, and not too many other job opportunities that pay what they were making. To these folks, a nine dollar MaxAssurance is a quarter tank of gas, or a meal and half at McDonalds. They simply are not in the market for such things. They want what they came for, and nothing else.

Point 2: Item specic issues

Now that we understand why the consumer is not buying, it is important to see roadblocks for the items that are covered by said coverage. There are several flaws with the coverage, as it is kind of a blanket style coverage, and there are no differences between types of items covered. Almost all coverage is for physical defects and problems. That is fine and dandy with furniture, but technology is a completely different item. A new hard drive will not make their data come back. With data storage devices, in particular, we see this flaw hits hardest. What good does another hard drive do if the information you have put on it over the last two years is gone? If a magnet hits your jump drive and wipes your information, you can still use the drive to store new information, but everything that was on it, is now gone. The biggest problem with portable storage is loosing it, or it being stolen. MaxAssurance does nothing for those folks. Very rarely does an SD card not store information out of the package, and it is highly unlikely that it will stop holding data over a year’s time. So, more than likely, if it works fine out of the package,

it will continue to do so.

Laptops and computers fall into the same ring of fire. Very rarely, does a computer’s hardware cause problems. Usually the problem with computers is malicious software, viruses, or adware that slows it’s performance. And, we offer absolutely nothing to those folks. As a matter of fact, we offer no tech support whatsoever. If someone buys our ridiculously expensive RAM upgrades, we do not offer any kind of assistance with installation. If a customer buys one of our internal optical drives or hard drives, we offer nothing to them as well. And most of the manufacture’s warranty will not cover damage done in improper installation of hardware, and most often, it will void their warranty. Geek Squad and FireDog offer real fixes to their customer’s technology based issues. They have real people, that you could touch if you wanted to, and that is a large sigh of relief to those consumers buying large ticket electronics. It does not speak too highly of a store when they buy an item here, like RAM, and we can only offer other stores or locations that can install the products they purchased here. Why buy here and take it to another store, when that store sells the same thing with support services? Not to mention, with the speed of technological advancement, by the time the MaxAssurance kicks in, their machine is rather outdated, and not worth replacing or fixing.

Furniture probably makes the most sense to get a plan on. However, the only offered plan is for a three year period. Personally, if something breaks in about three years, I am not thinking about the additional coverage I purchased almost 4 years ago. As a matter of fact, I most likely will not remember that I did such. I would most likely buy a replacement item, or find a way to make it work as it is. With chairs, the casters and rollers are the first to go. Most consumers would vouch to just buy new ones. It is a bit easier than sending an entire chair back, or buying a whole new chair. Furniture has a higher initial buy in, and with the current economic stance where it is, spending an extra 20 or so dollars may not be in their best interest, even if it means that 3 years down the road, they may not have to buy another desk. The vast majority of the United States is in a present-tense frame of mind. They only care about making it through, right now. With employment future in the dark unknown, it will be a difficult sell.

Desktop and laptop accessories are also covered by MaxAssurance. Again, the issue with selling these is that it is an extra expense, that is mostly unnecessary. Logitech and Microsoft already have more than sufficient warranties on their peripherals. MaxAssurance only covers moving parts, and things of that nature. An optical or laser mouse has very few moving parts that could go bad. And a lot of mice are built pretty well, as are most keyboards. By far, the biggest problem with keyboards is food, and other, debris getting underneath the keys. It is probably easier to blow out the keyboard or deal with a sticky ‘3’ key than going through the MaxAssurance process, possibly being with out a keyboard for a while - rendering your 1,500 dollar computer into a very expensive paper weight.

Point 3: MaxAssurance Goal Issues

I have stated some issues, most of which are rather obvious, about our consumers, and the items covered by our MaxAssurances, but nothing much about the program itself. There are going to be flaws in any program, but maybe I will shed some light on something that may have been overlooked, or give a starting point for coaching opportunities. The majority of comments found here will be both generalities about the program, and some about the individual goals that have recently been set. First, the generalities.

The largest concern I have about the goal setting of MaxAssurances being sold is this: On what basis are the goals being set to? Are the goals reflecting the statements I have made about the economy, or our local employment issues? Are they based on the usual retail rule of ten percent more than last year? Are the stores in the Michigan area, with their 20 percent unemployment rate state-wide, having to meet the same requirements we are? Are these goals being set for a district, region, or company wide? When our employment rate goes down, do our average ticket and Max goals follow that line?

The second ideology I would like to understand, why the push on MaxAssurance in the first place? What exactly does the company (OfficeMax) get from selling these plans? I know it is done by an outside source, but have never been told what stake OfficeMax has in that company. What kind of profit is there with these plans after the spiff (employee perk) has been taken out of it? What percentage goes to our profit margin? There is no possible way that it is all profit, since it is not something that we take care of in-store. We must be paying something to those who are insuring the products. Also, wouldn’t there be more profit if someone were to buy another printer or chair? Why should we not push ImPress instead, with their high gross margin? More customers are loyal to their printer than they are their furniture supplier. Does it not make more sense to push something more profitable? A coil binding job costs us about five cents, to the customer’s cost of $2.99. Our design service is cost free to us. If we could push that, we do not even have to produce anything physical, and it is a dollar a minute to the customer. I am not saying this as an ImPress associate, but because, to me, it makes more financial sense.

Point 3: Individual MaxAssurance Goal Issues

With the inception of the new white board in the breakroom, and the conception of the individual, weekly goals has lead me to write this. Not so much the board and the goals, but the publicity of the progress we make through the week, and that there will be harsh repercussions for not meeting said goals. As I looked at the board today, some individuals are 12 short of their goal of 13, and work one more day this week. Even the person who decided upon this goal charting is not meeting their goal for the week. As a matter of fact, no one, aside from the person who is not at the store, has met their goal for the week. This leads me to believe that the system is defunct. However, I am not in charge, and probably never will be. (This is a whole other rhetoric for another time.) Although, I am not a leader in the store, I may very well be the only one who actually puts any thought into the one-on-one that we have been made notice of. Onto my thoughts on the individual MaxAssurance goals.

Again, I will start off by questioning the source of the goals. Are they based on an average traffic? Some kind of customer per hour basis maybe? Along with that, how is the amount of opportunities we will see get figured into that goal? If I have a goal of 12, and only see 9 opportunities for the week, I will still be spoken with for not meeting that goal. Will we have somebody go through our register record, tallying up our opportunities, and seeing our percentage for the week? Or will we just go off of the goal verses what we sold for the week?

If we are scheduled for a 3 hour closing shift on the floor, we may not have any opportunities at all, but are still expected to have that time averaged into our goal for the week. It seems as though not enough of the whole dynamic of the store is being taken into consideration for the goals. But, again, I have not been informed as to how these goals are being set.

What is our motivation? Is it the Spiff? Is it the very tiny percentage that we see show up on our checks from a several thousand dollar furniture sale? If so, if the customer returns it, it is taken out of our next check. Is that punishment then? Looking at the Spiff as a positive reinforcement tool, it would seem to fit as punishment. Or, is our motivation the numbers and percentages that are read to us everyday? I do not want to seem too negative, but I do not know of one hourly employee that jumps when he hears percentages and numbers read to them off of a spreadsheet. Not many hourly employees have a large stake in the company to where

such things are going to move them to sell MaxAssurances. Or, is our motivation to keep our jobs? Is the Max goal so important to take income away from yet another US employee? Or, is the motivation the peer pressure created by the dry-erase board? In public schools, it is illegal to post a student's grade with their name on it. It has to do with condentiality, hazing, and self-esteem. In colleges, grades are posted on-line, but by their student ID number, not their name. Is the public display of our individual performance supposed to make us try and defend our pride, or prove that we are better than another employee? Should we take up poking fun at those not hitting their goal? If so, would not this store turn into a name calling festival, since nobody is making their target? Are we then all failures at our job? And why is it that this is the only gauge we have for performance? 

I, for one, have never been for rewarding people for doing what is required. Never to congratulate someone for showing up on time, or turning in their homework when they are supposed to. But, to put the selling of a novelty add-on as a requirement of the employees could be a bit much.

The long awaited conclusion

Now, I did not whip this up to use big words, and show you that I can use word processing software. I wanted to make something definitive, in writing that could be referenced. When I found out that we would have to be able to represent ourselves when spoken with in our one-on-one, this was the first thing that came to mind. I figured it would be best, if I wrote it out, in a planned manner. I wanted to give myself enough time to organize my thoughts, to make sure I made the points I felt I needed to make, and maybe make the coaching a bit easier. If you know the issues I have with the MaxAssurance program, it should be cake for someone to show me answers to some of the queries posted in this narrative. As long as there are logical, and reasonable answers, there is no reason why we cannot make the goals. I would even go so far as to assume that many of the other employees here would have some of the same questions, but either not care enough, or have the capacity to create it all in a written form as I have done for them/us.

I will be leaving this available for everyone to read, sign, discuss, add points to, etc. As I am only one person, and one point of view, it is only fit to allow more feedback than mine.

And to those reading this:

Please add input to this. It is saved on the DTP computer, and was created in Adobe Illustrator. Each page is a separate file, and most pages have room at the bottom. If you need a copy, I can e-mail the PDFs to your personal e-mail, or for nine cents a page, you can have a hard copy for your own. All I ask is that there is no mud-slinging or negativity expressed without some kind of real argument, or backup. The statistics I used are very much real, and if you would like, I can make a works cited-style page if you need them. Also, if you ever need someone to collaborate with, feel free to contact me. I have a certain something for rhetoric and diction, it’s just one of many idiosyncrasies there are to my being.

Many thanks,

- Alan Hull

I stand corrected

This is in reference to the last blog posted "Evil People.."

I am in need to change some of the story, as requested by my ex.

First, I divulge what she saw most important for me to change: She never dated Sonny. They are just acquaintances. Now... on to the rest of my "enlightenment" on the situation.

She did, however date Gavin. Gavin is a close relative to Sonny. Gavin was, and is again, a convict. Before they met, he paid his time for burglary. And, after Cassie's house was burgled by him and his relative Little John (sound familiar?), she pressed charges, and he was found guilty for the stealing of some 800 dollars from her home. Little John is still free because there was no way to prove he was in on the deal.

To take a step back... My son Dante was being watched by Gavin and Sonny... by themselves. And, on one occasion (I just now have been informed) they duct taped his hands and legs together "in play." Sonny has been taken to trial for some kind of crime, not for sure what, he was found guilty, and bailed out by his family. He never checked in with the bonds person, so his family is stuck with that now, and he still roams free. So, my son was being watched by an ex-convict and a fugitive of the law. Always happy to hear that. Cassie finds this perfectly acceptable, but leaving him alone with Jessica, who has no criminal record, has worked in a day care, and doesn't drink or smoke; is unacceptable. Allow me to move on.

Sonny is running from the law, and his "job" is "hustling." He has cut all his ties with his family, and has no real residence to speak of. So, Cassie being the super-nice person she is... allows him to stay in her apartment from time to time. She give him a place to sleep, shower, wash his clothes, etc. And on a few occasions, lends him her car. But do not fret, he always tells her when he's carrying knives, and he leaves his drugs outside - he's very respectful. She has not given him a house key though, that would be crazy on her part. She just trusts him to lock the doors when he leaves, and to not take anything from her, etc.

Now, onto the incident itself: Sonny had been staying at her apartment. She comes home from picking up Dante, and he's there, nothing out of the ordinary, right? Well, he left the front door unlocked, and her screen door was open. In the open door was Little John. She is unhappy about the door situation. Next, she notices her laptop is not in the apartment. So she asks Sonny where her laptop is - Dante goes upstairs to look for it like a good boy. She stops pacing and talking about the laptop and looks at Sonny. This is the moment where he punches her in the left eye, knocking her back about 2 feet. She collapses in the corner of her couches, screaming. He stands above her, wailing away as she screams. We assume he also kicks her due to the bruised ribs and upper thigh. All the while, he's saying he didn't take the laptop. All Cassie can do is feel her face swell up and the pool of blood form in front of her. For whatever reason, he stops. Dante is screaming and balling at the sight of his mom. Cassie reaches for the phone to dial 911. Sonny says, "you're not calling the cops are you?" Dumb question, I know, but considering the source, I'm surprised he can spit out multi-syllabic words.

Nothing else happens, Sonny and Little John take their leave. Come to find out, they go to the complex right behind hers and stay at their friend Erica's apartment. Coincidentally, that's where the laptop showed up at - slightly damaged.

From here, the usual takes place, police show up, ambulance shows up, ride to the hospital (Cassie chose the police car ride, since there's no charge like an ambulance would have) and Dante goes to my parent's house.

Additional info I find interesting:

Cassie would understand the situation if they were dating and she got on his last nerve.

Cassie says Sonny says he would only beat someone up (male or female) if he is "disrespected." This lead me to believe he has beaten more people up based on his highly educated ideology on respect.

Cassie was worried that she would bleed on her new 1200 dollar couch, and the price of the ambulance ride. Very materialistic? Too much value on the dollar - which is an abstract concept to begin with. Aristotle believed collecting money to collect money is the most unnatural thing a person can do.

She's working with a Bounty hunter (who lives 20 minutes away) to catch Sonny by "trapping" him at her apartment. Last time he was sighted, his phone was off. Police were not called though.

Cassie is soo concerned about Jessica to the point she doesn't want to even acknowledge she's real. But, I'm sure I will get hell over criticizing her choice in partners and who she associates with. So much so that she doesn't even want Jessica to be in the car when I pick up Dante for my weekends. She can't be in the car with me to get my son, but, my son can be left alone with an excon and a fugitive... both of which ended up doing horrible things to her and him. It's pretty messed up to steal a kid's GameCube!

So, my good blog readers, what am I to do?

Evil people are still people

Now, many of those who know me, know I may sometimes refer to my ex Cassie as an evil person, or some sort of incantation similar to such a description. Now, while we have had our differences in the past and present does not mean she is not a person. I believe than any living body should be treated with some kind of dignity, as they are conscious beings with things like feelings, emotions, etc. Also, humans have things like memories and psychological connections. You know, the things that can torment your life long after it's happened, even if you didn't think it was a big deal at first. Today, I found out that not everyone has this same ideology.

Before the proverbial "bomb" is dropped on the build up that just occurred, I must digress a bit into the earliest parts of the day:

I woke up at about 4:15am with a pounding headache. Normally I can sleep off headaches, but this one actually woke me up. So, I drudge over to the bathroom, look for the Advil there, then go to the kitchen to look for the Advil there - where I find it. I take 2, drudge back to the bedroom, and find a spot where my head hurts the least and try to fall back asleep. All with the idea of work quickly approaching - I must be there by 7am. I fall asleep about 45 minutes later. Alarm goes off at 6, headache still there, and now I feel very nauseous. Today, I call in sick.

Fast forward to about 11am. Jess wakes me up to inform me that my mum has sent us an email stating that Cassie, my ex, was in a fight last night, and had to be taken to the hospital. Also, that Dante witnessed the whole deal. Well, I am now awake. I call my mom, then decide I should go to Hutch to be with my son.

On the way to Hutch, we stop at Guitar Center, because the jerk that helped Jess the first time picked the wrong sticks - and I feel the need to hit some drums, as it is very good therapy. And we stop at Target to buy some clothes for Dante. I call Cassie to get his pant size and get a tad more story, and later my mom gives me even more of the story. I will get to the story in just a moment. Jess and I get to Hutch safe and sound, and pick Dante up from school. From there, nothing happens out of the ordinary. Now... onto the actual story.

At approximately 11:30pm one of Cassie's guy friends, she dated him for a bit from what I've been told, Sonny and Sonny's friend Little John (I couldn't make this up) show up at her place. Apparently, Little John attempted to break into her place just the other night, and Cassie was angry about that, since she's already been robbed once before. So, she opens the door to give him a good verbal thrashing, and starts yelling at him about trying to break into her place. So, he starts punching her in the face. Dante, my son, is in the living room where his mother is getting pummeled by a guy he knows. The fellow he came with just watches. The beating comes to an end (I don't know how or why). Cassie is taken to the hospital for medical treatment, and Dante goes to my parent's house. Understandably, he is upset and scared. He said, "I can't believe my mom is hurt so bad." He is 7 years old. Now, I am not a psychologist, but I do know that this will have an everlasting effect on him. Whether it is hidden as a trust issue later in life, or maybe a sudden burst of something later in his life, I do not know.

Cassie has a fractured eye socket, half of her face is severely swollen, her arm is badly bruised, and is bruised on her back, where she was kicked. This is all physical, and will heal. I worry most about the forever lasting psychological damage this has done to the 2 of them.

This situation leads me to the beginning. What part of that person allows him to do something like that? Now, I have never been in any kind of physical fight at all. So, I am completely flabbergasted by this situation. It's one thing to hit someone, but to do that much damage to someone in front of their child is absolutely ludicrous. I do not, for the life of me, understand how a person can do this to another person(s). I know that being yelled at by Cassie is unpleasant, believe me... I know, but never - ever was I inclined to harm her in any way. I don't care what the situation is, there is no reason for this to happen.

Being the father, I want to protect my son. This is a booboo I am afraid I don't know how to fix. How do you fix something that may not fully surface for years to come as a lack of trust, or a fear of Cassie's future potential boyfriends? The only thing I can do is be the best person and set an example for him, but I am only one person. If you read the news (or watch) you see horrible stories similar this happening all over. It's horrid to think of all the acts being witnessed by young children. What are we doing, as a society, to work on this? The war on terror should start at home. Psychological internal terrorism. I'm calling a new war on it. I guarantee Dante seeing his mom beaten will have a longer impression than when I saw the towers fall.

Who is writing this crap?!

Who am I? Where does one start when you have no idea who I am? The usual a/s/l? Does it even matter? Well, it might make my electronically transfer of thoughts and things more profound. Or it may very well make you pass up my dribble. I will go ahead and divulge who I am, mostly because the majority of people who read this will already know me. And it is fun to let people know what they already know.

I am Alan Hull, student, father, boyfriend, and all around brain. I have been a father since August 14th, 2001, and a Kansan since birth, February 20th, 1983. I am far more proud of the father thing. Although, fathering a child when you are a teen ager leads to some potentially bad things. 1 of which is the crazy-baby-momma syndrome. Most of that, I will leave for another blog. Another one of those things is child support. And lastly mentioned in this blog will be attorneys. My son is Dante Quidachay. He wants to be a race car driver when he's all grown up. I am guessing because I, his father, took him to the import drag races, and have shown him videos of myself racing my old Civic down the lanes. I was without contact of my son for about a 6 month or so period due to some apparent misunderstandings between his mom and myself. that being my girlfriend, Jessica, is real. Now things are back on track, and I get to see him every weekend.

Enough of being a parent, onto my next self-indulged dribble!

I'm a student of pretty much everything but useful stuff. I have been taking Japanese. There is a very small population of Japanese in Kansas, and an even smaller amount of those actually speak Japanese. I suppose I chalk that up to my inherent white-male disposition to liking Japanese things (stereotypically women, but I prefer the spicier Mexican lady I have now). I love Japanese culture. The eastern philosophy, pop culture, automotive culture, the cartoons, and the crazy-ass game shows. So, I took up the language.

I spent a semester as a music education major, also. I have a new found respect, and distaste for music majors now. You are expected to practice your instrument 3 hours a day, everyday. I, as a self sufficient person who pays child support and rent, could not find the time to do that. So, I was mediocre at that major.

I spent a semester as an elementary education major. I found that to be extremely easy. Well, isn't that good, you ask yourself. No. Not to me it is not. I have to pay back the government for all this education, so I need for it to be worth my money. If I am not getting collegiate level classes, I should not have to pay that kind of money. So, I am not going to continue that path either.

So now, I am stuck with 84 college credits (89 at the end of this semester) and no decided path to put them into. I am thinking of becoming a licensed substance abuse counselor. I already have enough credits for an Associates in Psychology, and it would only take a couple semesters to complete the rest of the program. Also, social work is a possibility. However, I also love technology, so I'm also thinking about programming. But, I fear that working at the computer would make me hate playing computer games. And I like playing those. Ideally, I would major in philosophy. Unfortunately, that leaves me with very little employment opportunities. So, I am a student with no plan.

Now then... why does this dude continue to refer to Kansas? Well, mostly because I feel so out of place here. Ever since I've been able to try to figure out who I am, I have not liked where I was. It started in my early teens, and ever since then, I've only felt comfortable in places I've visited. I hope you all look forward to a future blog about Nickerson Rural High School. It's coming soon, I can feel it. Even though I have an utter distain for this place, I still live here. Mostly because I cannot afford to go anywhere else and keep in contact with my son. I would love to live in a place like my cousins Missy and David. Between mountains and an ocean, inside a culturally diverse community with very good public transportation. Also, the food is rather nice in the DC area. So maybe, you'll be reading a blog about me moving to Washington state or Oregon, or someplace less expensive on the East Coast, or even in Boulder, CO or something. Only time will tell, and it's getting late.

Enjoy my thoughts, and have a wonderful day/evening/morning!

Being broke leads to being broke-r

I am a poor college student. Don't get me wrong, I work... a lot, but between buying things like food, fuel, and housing, there isn't much left. So things that don't directly effect my well being and living may be put aside. Things like insurance. Automotive insurance, health insurance, renters insurance... the works.  The first of that list has put me in a bad place... twice now.

I have not been in an accident, I have not been pulled over for speeding, and I have not disobeyed the laws - hardly at all. I have, however, had a burnt out headlight. I was pulled over for it, and had no insurance. Now comes the ticket with court date. I go to court, get fined (391 dollars), finger printed, and released back into the wild.

Jump forward a few months. I am driving home through Yoder (blink and you miss it - horse carriages and all) and I am pulled over by the Sherif patrol. I was not speeding, had no burnt out lights, and was not under the influence of anything besides the clean laundry in the back seats. They ran my plates, saw I was the registered owner, and then pulled me over. I have no proof of insurance. Also, I found out my license has been suspended. So, I am arrested. I go to the jail (20 minute ride in cuffs in the back seat of a car listening to country music) get "checked in" and by that time, my parents had arrived with the bonds-lady to get me out. I now have a new ticket and court date.

I now know that in the state of Kansas, they do not have to tell you your license has been suspended. Apparently you find out when you are pulled over and taken to jail. So, if any of you fellow Kansans are reading this... you're welcome.

So, I am driven home by my wonderful girlfriend, Jessica. We make it back home safe, but rather late. It's 3am and I have a messed up neck from playing with my son during the weekend. So, I email work, telling them my situation, and that I will not make it to work.

I wake up, a little later than usual, and work has sent me an email asking me to contact them. I call them up, only to find out missing 2 days of work in my first 8 weeks is a terminable offense. Great.

In 48 hours, I have managed to get arrested, lose my license, and my job.

Welcome to my first blog.