Economic Hardships

In our current economic downward “dip” I have seen where it has affected Chicago in small ways...for instance after an overnight snowfall this week – the sidewalks and bridges that in the past years would have been shoveled and salted, were snow packed and icy...

for me it was a nuisance, a slight bother, with my only adjustment having to be stepping a little more carefully.

But what if due to the long-running picture of U.S. economics, which started hitting the manufacturing community very hard years ago, it caused you to lose your 20+-years-of-commitment to a manufacturing company job, bringing you and your family much financial hardship, then you land an "eventually-will-make-really-good-money" job working for the railroad – with just one caveat –– for the first several years of working for them - your life is not your own – you are on call 24/7, with a rotating schedule – which means you never plan a family outing in advance, or count on seeing your only child play varsity soccer during his senior year of high school....missing out on so much of the life that you work hard to be able to enjoy?

With all of that just being part of the sacrifice you endure because you were raised by right-off-the-boat parents who never took for granted what America offered them...parents that instilled in you a God-fearing work ethic that is beyond reproach.

What if you are all that and you get laid off again....at a time when your family hasn’t yet recovered from the loss of your manufacturing job?

I am not sure.

But one thing I do know...

family unity will show