Fear Itself
First it was far off– the cousin of my cousin’s husband in upstate New York lost his job. Then the governor of our state hinted around about making employees pay more of their health care costs and even started talking about layoffs. Then a friend from grad school started posting cryptic Facebook status messages, right before he got laid off. Then a capable, energetic woman who is a force of nature in the PTA posted her own status message about joining the ranks of the unemployed. One of the major employers in Baltimore is the Johns Hopkins University, which took a big hit on its endowment and is doing freezes, cuts and other dire maneuvers. Another friend’s company asked employees whether they should stop contributing to employee IRA accounts or do yet another round of layoffs. The stories are getting more frequent and more frightening.
Becca and Elizabeth have both recently posted links to truly heartbreaking stories collected by Moms Rising from families affected thus far by this horrible economic crisis. They’re incredibly difficult to read, just to warn you now, but many of you have been hearing worse ones. Anjali posted recently about a family on her street that lost their house to foreclosure.
None of us know what to do or say about any of it, but no one knows how to avoid it either. No one knows what it means or where it’s going, or what it will mean. I listened to some of the President’s speech last night, and I want to believe, but I just don’t know if I can– and we have not even been nearly as affected as so many other American families have. How can we ask them to hold on and keep believing that help is on the way?
I don’t know what else to say, but I don’t know how not to talk about it all.
- Posted in: all about me ♦ conversations
I got an email today from the superintendent of schools & the president of the Board of Education from our town, saying that given the state of the economy and the likely stagnancy of state funding, the district is considering such drastic measures as getting rid of either middle school or high school sports, ending full-day kindergarten (which our district offers, but is not required by the state), cutting textbook purchases (!), etc. It’s a pretty awful time, why should you not talk about it?
Textbook purchases are often one of the first hit– there are a lot of kids in Baltimore who don’t have any books they are allowed to take home, because the schools don’t have enough books for them all. Sports would be a tough one to actually have to execute, though.
I think I’m having trouble talking about it because I have no concrete thoughts, just a free-floating fear, and the superstitious Catholic in me thinks that to talk about it more would be to summon it upon our heads.
I have nothing much to add except that i think the best talking is usually when one has no concrete answer-type thoughts – I think when we think we know stuff we are in trouble as well as dull. It is good to put the uncertainty out there and discuss.