On Tuesday I took on the role of advocate for the Eastern Service Workers Association dental benefit. The member was a woman originally from Cape Verde, an island nation off the Atlantic coast of Africa. She had not seen a dentist in the four years she had resided in the United States, and in her country of origin had only been seen a few times. Suffice it to say there were a lot of decay and gum issues. The member, --let us call her Luta (which means 'struggle' in Portuguese), works as a housekeeper in a nursing home. They offer no dental insurance benefit. I doubt they even offered Luta a salary that is adequate to meet family expenses. And yet she does the work most Americans born in the U.S. would not do. She cleans the floor beneath the feet of American seniors, whose own children look down on the work.
If a city is not growing in its population, it is slowly dying. Since Massachusetts is an entry point for many immigrants our cities are in the growing category. Folks from around the world (Africa, Asia, United Kingdom, Canada, South America, the Caribbean, you name it), come willing to do hard work so that their children may get educated and receive work for the highly skilled. And Boston and other Massachusetts' cities are growing. Except they are not. Since the newly arrived immigrants do not find work that pays a living wage, no matter how important it is, --like mopping nursing home floors with disinfectant, --many are relocating to southern climes where the cost of living is considerably less. Some observers of this population shift say it is likely Massachusetts will lose a seat in the House of Representatives after the 2010 census is taken.
I call this the race to the bottom. Since nursing homes and other businesses that depend on the immigrant workforce believe they can cut costs by offering inadequate salaries and benefits, this same workforce is breaking camp and heading south. Massachusetts is shrinking and once again her cities will be put on the endangered species list. But at least executives can boast a huge quarter. As they plant the seeds of destruction.
Last night the President of the United States made a stirring speech to joint session of Congress and the nation. It reminded me of George W. Bush making a similar kind of address after the attacks on 9/11/2001. There had been reports from around the country that folks who even resembled those of West Asian descent were being dragged from their autos and beaten to death by angry mobs. President Bush said to the joint session of Congress and the nation, "that is not the best of America, that is the worst of America." And the incidents stopped. President Obama said last night that reforming the nation's uncoordinated healthcare system was "a moral issue that tested its character." We shall see what happens. But if people like Luta are forced to pay for health insurance with premiums so high she will not be able to afford the co pays, then healthcare would have been made not one bit more accessible; and if she is fined for not opting into a plan than she will have been made a criminal for doing the important work that no one else wants to do; and the only thing national healthcare reform will have achieved is to bring us one step closer to the bottom.
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