Jobless Recovery: Looking for Work in the Bush Economy

I am a teacher.

I am unemployed.

Whether I eventually work at Wal-Mart, State Farm Insurance, or a school, the first statement will always be true. Being a teacher is like being an American, being a Catholic, or being a Democrat: no matter what you do, it’s always inside you. It’s always a part of who you are.

Hopefully, the second statement is a temporary truth.

For nearly six months, I have been looking for work. I have sent out dozens and dozens of resumes, so many I’ve lost count. I know the number is over 200, though. I’ve interviewed with five employers.

I’m still unemployed.

Since the time I was 18, I’ve always had a job. Until this year, I’ve only been unemployed once. For a month after I graduated from college, I went to stay with friends in Pittsburgh and I couldn’t find a job. I came home to Indianapolis, and I went back to my old groundskeeping job, until I found something else.

I’m forty now. My partner, Erica, and I are raising a wonderful little boy who recently had his fifth birthday pary, complete with a Fantastic Four cake and posters I drew of each of the four (well, okay, I left out Sue Storm, but I just told everyone she had gone invisible).

At the beginning of this strange, personal odyssey into the dark realities of the Bush economy, I considered the idea of documenting the whole thing in film, to create a documentary of my personal experience trying to find a job in 2005. That’s when I discovered that my camcorder no longer worked. This was back in June, and, at the time I thought it was no big deal, because I wouldn’t be looking for work that long. I remember thinking it was odd to conceive of a project whose success depended on my professional “failure”: if I found a job, the film project was over, a bust. I also remember thinking the converse. What if the film project continued for months, for years? What if this film project, continued indefinitely?

Lacking a working camera, I’ve decided to document my quest for employment here. I realize this is not typical fare for the Daily KOS. However, as I look at the progressive blogosphere, I see lots of reporting, digging, and getting the scoop on the current administration. I see much less of how the Bush tax cuts, No Child Left Behind, or the new bankruptcy laws really affect ordinary Americans. Blogs and progressive speech are also disturbingly absent of proposals for addressing these problems other than pointing fingers towards 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. and saying “not that.”

So, I figure, hey. Since I’m unemployed, I have plenty of time to write. Maybe I’m supposed to be unemployed right now so I can do this. Maybe it’s part of the Higher Power’s plan.

God, that’s a lot of bullshit.

I’m unemployed and Bush is president. It sucks.