Sunday, March 11, 1984

My neighbor, who lives directly across the street, stopped by today. He is going to school to be trained in an already capacity-filled trade in this area. He has been on unemployment for almost two years, but while still on unemployment, enrolled in school to be able to receive the school grants and scholarships, in order for him and his family to survive. The unemployment office told him exactly the same thing that they told me last year: that if he was willing to quit school if a job was offered to him, he could still receive unemployment. They showed him how to fill out the forms and he was repeated told by the unemployment office that everything was in order. Now they have sent him a notice that because he was a student, he received $1,725.00 too much in unemployment benefits and has three years to repay it.

Another neighbor's Mom and Dad inherited $10,000.00 last year and gave my neighbor $2,500.00. My neighbor fixed everything that had gone wrong with his house in the last two years, put a much needed roof on the house and paid off all his bills. Repairs and bills took the entire amount. His wife's Dad had been disabled for some time, and although he finally got well, there isn't a job for him to return to. Her Mom is going to beauty school, but that doesn't provide any income, only extra expenses. They are in their fifties, destitute and about to lose their home.

Presidential Candidate Gary Hart says he wants jobs for Americans, and that if elected President, he will modernize America, starting in 1985. Who can hold out 'til '85? Certainly not my neighbors across the street, my other neighbor's wife's parents, my child, let alone the rest of us. Also how long is this modernization process going to take? Congress needed to act yesterday. I've been busy again today. I got Mom's stuff in the attic.