General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Lots of misunderstanding around here about what Michael Moore is doing. [View all]Leighbythesea
(92 posts)Here it goes. I grew up in Michigan on the west side of the state (Republican). But the state was blue, union etc. My mother was progressive & educated.
I left for 20 years to enter the fashion industry. Did iI become coastal, elite, and out of touch? I would have told you NO,, I wasnt alwrays on a coast. Then l i moved back in August of 2016 (my mother has Alzheimer's).
My cousins HAD lost their facrory jobs starting in 2008 onward. There were malls and strip malls that looked hollowed out. There was new growth in medical. Good luck if you weren't in that field. People were angry and under-employed. Trump yard signs were everywhere. It was an awakening for me.
I started a masters. I couldnt get a job at the 2 fashion companies in my area. I lived 10 blocks from one. My dad had worked there (not in design or merchandising) and I knew VP level people. I am director level so there just never was that level available. As a matter of fact, companies have been eliminating middle levels consistently in fashion. (So that is my own specific challenge). And I recognize that part contributes uniquely.to my story.
Coming back to that area at this time was a risk. One I regret.
My husband couldnt find work but he is now FT, but at a lower pay scale. My theory is moving to north Dakota would have been about the same.
That I grew up there made zero difference. That my cousins didn't have the mobility to leave the state is probably common. Did I become down-trodden, disillusioned and bitter. YES. Am I still fact based and liberal. Yes.
But where's the "line" for an independent, or non-voter type? Where do they say, well I'm not strongly one party or another, and this sucks? I give up. Or, blow it up?
I see what Michael Moore sees, especially as Michigan as your back drop.
Side note. I have a house in another state near by. I'm doing contract work for a brand, for the last month. I found out Friday they are making me a job offer. Happy happy news. But I have a saying too--It's all bullshit til theres a contract in your hand.
It's a level lower than I was.. But its 2 YEARS LATER and the terrible "experiment", as I have come to call it, may be over.
But what happened? I left the state. I have 2 houses, lucky me! My husband won't move where I am because:
A- my mother still has Alzheimer's. (And already had polio her whole life)
B-We have custody of kids recently and the oldest has a disability. Don't want to move a kid given the last couple of years. Long story.
C-My only sister who could help with my mom was diagnosed with MS six months ago. She's 11 years younger than me, and has 4 kids. Also in my industry. Miraculously had found a job in southern Michigan at a pay cut. Shes got her own big chalkenges.
My life was ok. Then it blew up. Now I've struggled back. But with SO many advantages. This is how poor people become regionally trapped too I see. Family circumstances.
Michael Moore has always discussed the blue collar guy and still is.
And you can be bull-dozed out there. We all know it.
I am not mad in, or at, this thread. I just crossed over for a time to the "hard" side. One where I contemplated minimum wage and poverty became a real spectre.
YET
It was not my life condition. I didnt understand.
Until I did.