Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend a CLUE LA luncheon.
CLUE LA stands for Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice. During this lunch, there were many
presentations about how we needed to help the poor. I am all for that! Here is
where my struggle began: I was raised in a
middle-class family that valued education. The accepted norm in our house was
that you went to college when you finished high school. I was also taught that
you went to college to be able to find a job, so
that you would be able to support your family. At the lunch yesterday, they talked about how the minimum wage is not enough
for family to live on. I agree with this, but here is where I felt I differed
from other people attending this lunch. I believe that minimum wage jobs are meant
to be temporary or for teenagers. I felt the focus should have been on why we
are not spending more money on our children to educate them so that they have a
better future than we did. Why was the focus not on trying to help these people
become legal, so that they had to be paid more
and didn’t have to settle for job that don’t pay well? I do not believe that a person should be paid
15 dollars an hour for flipping a burger. I do not feel that the amount of work
being done is equal to that amount of pay. My problem is that I am currently living in
the inner-city, and I see these Mamas trying to
provide for their families. They have to work these jobs in order to be able to make ends meet: they are
on their own and they do not have education. Many of them do not speak enough
English to be able to further their education. I wish that these people were
able to make more money. I wish that English classes were more accessible to
them. I had views about immigration before I came to LA. I wanted everyone to
be able to become legal and now I can see that some people are not able to even
begin that process. So before you make a decision about immigration, meet the women in my neighborhood. Thanks for
listening.
Laura
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