FOCUS: Shiftless complain and grumble, and jealousy grows 

By Ashley Herndon

OCEANSIDE, Calif.  |  Here’s a short story, but one that has been around for decades.

Herndon

Back in 1984 in my sales and management training days, I had two back-to-back  week-long training seminars in Tulsa, Okla. I elected to stay over the weekend since with all the travel, I would have only had one day at home back in Tallahassee. 

The Sheraton, where I was staying and holding the seminars, was only a couple of years old, still looking brand spanking new. As hotels do, they alternated the weekend manager on duty among the department heads.

The guy on duty that weekend was normally manager of all food operations, (and an accomplished chef in his own right. He had been there since the hotel opened. He left a good position in Southern California to head up this outstanding new facility. He made sure that there was great food and five-star service. (He was a native of Hungary who worked his way up from no job to this, an executive position.)

He and I were well-acquainted, as I often held a lot of meetings and seminars there. As a personal treat, that Saturday night he served me a special dinner. And it was fabulous! I congratulated him on the quality of service, which was better than most “grand” hotels in the nation in that day. 

While we were visiting and sharing work/war stories, he advised that his hardest task was finding people who “wanted to work” in the services he oversaw. He said it was so bad he was bringing in workers, natives of Hispanic countries south of the border,  from southern California, where he had contacts, because the local “natives” would not take the starting jobs.  Or, if they did, they simply would not work as well or as hard as the “immigrant” from California.

Imagine that these “proud to be an American” people (unemployed or underemployed) were not willing to work  at good paying jobs with an international firm…locally, that offered the opportunity to grow. Hmmmm.

Jack Bernard in the GwinnettForum Dec. 3, 2024, spoke to this and said it all. “Immigrants are employed in the jobs native-born Americans do not want. However, the GOP has been very successful in incorrectly portraying them as criminals and economic drains. In reality, immigrants have a much lower crime rate and higher employment rates.”

His comment shows that matters have not changed much in these 40 years. 

So, be careful what you wish for and vote for, like so many just did, who voted against people who want to work, keeping them out of the nation that immigrants built. What a grand idea. 

Let the shiftless complain and grumble while believing lies, and watch jealousy against those willing to work grow. 

It’s fact versus fantasy. Geeez!

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