From: Chris Rasch (crasch@openknowledge.org)
Date: Thu Apr 26 2001 - 23:11:55 MDT
Hi James,
If you're willing, would talk a little bit about how you came to your
political beliefs? How have they changed over time? For
example, were you raised in a politically active family? What books have been
most influential for you?
What beliefs, if any, have you modified as a result of participating on this
list?
For example, in my case, I was quite hostile towards unions in college.
After graduating, I worked as a CNA (Certified Nursing Assistant) in a nursing
home for a brief time while I decided what I wanted to do next. The nursing
home was chronically understaffed, and turnover was probably 100%/year.
Working as a nursing assistant in a nursing home is hard, dirty, physical
labor. You run from room to room, lifting 100 - 250 lb patients to and from
the commode, dressing them, cleaning up if they have an accident, wheeling them
to/from the dining room. No matter how fast you work, you can rarely stop,
because just as you finish with one patient, the call light for two more
patients goes off. At times the patients suffered from poor care because of
the lack of staff. However, most of the patients were not mentally competent,
so they couldn't complain. The patient's families were there for only brief
periods of time (if at all), so they were largely unaware of the problems.
In my opinion, the biggest problems were a) too little pay b) too few CNA's.
If an individual CNA complained, then they could simply be fired. The more I
worked there, the more attractive unions seemed.
Chris
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