A MODERN DAY SAINT

by

Dortell Williams
(approx. 415 words - non-fiction)

In a way you could liken this to the bibical saint Job: An upright man of integrity and discipline - even when no one is looking. That's how I would characterize Mr. Robert Franklin (not his real name), A middle-aged unemployed California roofer. Like Job in the good book, Mr. Franklin resides in a world where honesty and fidelity are becoming played out, meaningless relics of the past. A world where presidents lie to fellow citizens, and the world at large. Politicians sell us verbal malarkey by the truckload and law enforcement officials go down for such despicable crimes as pedophilia and rape.

The story of Mr. Franklin is a simple one. Like 70 percent of Americans who live from pay check to pay check, Mr. Franklin was working hard to make ends meet in a pro-corporate climate and ultra-capitalistic society that increasingly rewards its employees less, yet turns up ever present financial demands at an increasingly staggering rate. Despite his best efforts to swim upstream, like so many others, Mr. Franklin found himself suddenly unemployed. He was in such a destitute state that he resorted to combing through trash cans to get by. Yet, in spite of his personal dearth and vanting, he returned $21,000 in savings bonds he found that had been apparently been discards by mistake. Mr. Franklin was rewarded a meager $100.00 upon his return from whom some regarded as an ungrateful owner.

In today's self-centered me society, it was, indeed, unique for a man hurried in such a desperate predicament to return this valuable find while his very mid-section grumbled in hunger pains. What was not unique was the fact that a healthy, able and willing Black man was out of work. Sadly many others like Mr. Franklin mirror his indigence with up to double the unemployment rate of mainstream America. (9.4 percent according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics).

Still, Mr. Franklin came out alright. After Fox 11 News aired his story, offers of support came pouring in. Financial assistance was given as well as job offers, which translate for many of us as a main source of pride and self-worth. It's a pity that in the richest and most productive nation in the world there is so little to give. Mr. Franklin unique experience made for an uplifting story however the fact that a remaining 9-plus percent of Blacks are out of work - double that of the national average - tells another story that is very disturbing.

Sources:

Mr. Charles Morris, the unemployed roofer (confidential)

Mia Lee, "Homeless Man Finds Big", KCAL-9 July 26, 2006

Christine Devine, Good Deed Deserve Rewards, Fox 11 News, July 26, 2006

Chuck Herny, "George Stan, LAPD Officer Arrested for Child Molestation", NBC 4 News, July 8, 2005

Bill Blanchford, "Gabriel Gonzales, Former Compton Sheriff Convicted of Rape", Fox 11 News, August 3, 2006

Phillip Palmer, "Micheal James Fisher, Al Hambra Officer Arrested for Molestation of a Minor", ABC

Eyewitness News, August 15 2006