by Irene Daniel
My first job ever was created by The Great Society (TGS). That's right, my very first job was created by the government. Every time I hear Republicans say that government doesn't create jobs, I just want to cringe; especially those whose salaries are paid by our tax dollars, like Senators and Congressional Representatives. Governments all over the world create jobs every day in order to service the public demand for things like schools, libraries, parks, cops, streets, electricity -- stuff like that. Government is not the answer to every problem, but it can be a support system and an enabler of the dreams of its citizens. It can do things that private industry cannot, and visa versa.
But back to me and my job history. I was 13 years old and it was the summer between Jr. High and High School. I worked as a clerical assistant to the executive secretary of the local hospital administrator. I learned how to type and make copies (on a mimeograph machine, no less), as well as running errands and proofreading copy. When the summer was over, I worked after school in my high school superintendent's office doing pretty much the same kind of work. I gained valuable skills, good work habits and good references that would make me more marketable and competitive later on in life. My teen-age jobs all originated in TGS via Sargent Shriver's Job Corps; which manifested in my neighborhood as the Neighborhood Youth Corps.
My brothers both had teenage employment opportunities afforded them by TGS. My older brother, Gilbert, worked as a TA for HeadStart when it first began; and David worked after school assisting the janitor in our high school, another Youth Corps job. Far from just providing spending money, our earnings enabled us to be self-supporting at a young age, paying for our own school needs and clothes. This left more money for my mother to pay household bills and buy food.
I also worked in private industry, as did my brothers, in our youth. I worked at a trophy shop (you wouldn't believe how cheap those trophies are that your kids bring home), at a Baskin-Robbins (I gained 20 pounds, no lie), and eventually ended up at the Maricopa County General Hospital (now the Maricopa Medical Center), where I worked for a few years as ward clerk; another government job. Since we were always understaffed and underfunded, I worked really hard at being, sort of the Radar O'Reilly of the nursing unit. I learned that keeping records straight helps save lives. I also worked in several of the private hospitals in the Valley of the Sun, as I worked my way through college.
My professional path includes several instances where education and work combine and collaborate. For example, my final semester in college I worked as a Legislative Intern in the Arizona State Senate, for which I received a small stipend and college credit. At that time, only the committees were staffed with analysts. The Senators only had administrative assistants, but no other staff members dedicated to their individual offices. Here again, the work was demanding and eye-opening, as well as providing a stepping stone to further achievement; say UCLA Law School.
Even though I was warned over and over again not to try to work and go to law school too, I just couldn't afford it. Living on the west side here in the City of Angles is not cheap, unless you want to live far away from Westwood in a crappy neighborhood. So, I worked at the law school as the Public Interest Coordinator, another job created by the government of the State of California.
After my 1st year of law school, I earned a Public Interest Law Foundation (PILF) grant to work for the National Health Law Program (NHELP), which is funded by Legal Services Corporation; another Sargent Shriver brainstorm. Yet another opportunity created by TGS, to which my success is owed can be traced to TGS. NHELP provided legal services to the indigent in matters affecting their health. We successfully sued the State of California by forcing Medi-Cal to pay for preventative care, including root canals; rather than wait for the patient's teeth to begin to fall out and then pay for extractions and dentures. We saved the state money, and saved our client's teeth. How many ripple effects from TGS are evident in this one example, from one story, from one program -- one branch of the tree that was TGS?
In my 3rd year at UCLAW, I had the tremendous honor and privilege to work in the chambers of the Honorable Arthur L. Alarcon, Associate Justice of United States Appellate Court for the Ninth Circuit, as a Judicial Extern. Here again is another government job created by the United States for the support of its courts. This was truly the hardest job I ever loved. I earned the privilege to be there by climbing just about every branch of that Great Society tree -- from volunteering at HeadStart, to the Job Corps, to the educational opportunities I shared last week, to NHELP, to the chambers of a federal judge. And this professional story is just beginning.
After graduation, I worked at the LA County District Attorney's Office for a couple of years. Yes -- another government job. The experience and life-long friendships that I gained here are simply beyond fathom. The courtroom skills gained here were very useful to me in my later work as a Managing Attorney for the Los Angeles Center for Law & Justice (LACLJ), and Directing Attorney for the San Pedro Community Legal Services; both funded by that TGS gift that keeps on giving -- Legal Services Corporation.
I have also worked in the private sector as an attorney for small firms, as well as my own private practice, which I maintained as a solo practice for over a decade. I am very acquainted with both the public and private practice of law, and I appreciate the challenges of owning and operating a small business from day to day. I understand the difficulty in finding good staff and cultivating a positive working environment. I know what it is like to create a business that can support, not only me, but the staffing and infrastructure that enables success and profit.
Because I know what it is like to live hand to mouth, I paid my legal assistant a very competitive wage because I didn't want her worrying about how she was going to pay her light bill. I wanted her to worry about me, and how can we get the right kind of business in here to pay our office light bill. I knew that in order to make money, I had to spend money. I had to invest in my employees, just as TGS had invested in me, in my humanity. I didn't like being poor, but I never believed that making money by exploiting others looked like success to me either.
My experience has shown me that I needn't sacrifice my humanity in order to succeed. In fact, quite to the contrary, my experience in, through and beyond TGS, has demonstrated to me over and over again that investing in the humanity of another living soul, is an investment in the future well-being of the entire community.
And I offer as an example of what I mean, Mendoza v. Rast Produce Co., Inc. (2006) 142 Cal.App.4th 1395. This is a case in which I successfully appealed a Superior Court decision on behalf of my clients, the Mendoza Family Farms in Tulare County, CA. In this case I represented farmers, which having come from a community of cotton farmers, among other things, felt so comfortable to me. But more importantly, I was able to marshal all of the skills I'd learned and talents I'd honed throughout my life, and as I'd climbed that tree of TGS, and apply them to this one case. It was truly a David and Goliath atmosphere. My opposing counsel had been practicing law longer than I had been alive at that point; and was visibly unhappy following our oral arguments at the courthouse in Fresno.
However, the greatest victory about Mendoza is that it gives plaintiffs' attorneys an opportunity to challenge certain judgments not in their favor, procedurally and substantively. I could give you the long legal explanation, but suffice it to say that it is a good thing. And it was brought to you by: The Great Society, which was brought to you by Lyndon Johnson and Sargent Shriver.
Can you count the ripple effects of TGS, just from this one story? I'll bet if you look closely around your community, talk to your neighbors, friends and co-workers, you will find countless ways that TGS is present somehow. You will discover that among you there are alums of HeadStart, there are those who got Pell grants, or benefitted from affirmative action. In fact, the greatest beneficiaries of affirmative action are not non-whites at all, but white women. And we all know somebody who's on Medicare, don't we?
TGS also had a parting gift for my mother. From diagnoses to deathbed was about 6 weeks for my mom. Her Medicare plan afforded her the month of hospice care that she needed in her final days. TGS permitted my mother to die with dignity in her own home where she had raised 3 children, who became tax-payers, job creators and volunteers; contributions to a great nation, from TGS.
How many gifts from TGS show up in your life every day? Most of them, you probably can't even see. But that doesn't mean they're not there, still giving and re-giving every day.
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