Monday, August 31, 2020

The Indispensable Untouchables


They're certainly there, but not there at all

that vast army of essential workers. For the

analogy of a tree falling in the forest with no one

to hear or see the event does it happen? 

applies to these unseen, unheard, silent people 

performing menial tasks no self-respecting 

educated class would stoop to in a society 

valuing intellectual prowess while devaluing 

fundamental services required as critical 

mainstays of society. The situation requiring 

self-abnegation of those who willingly offer 

themselves as bulwarks marks them as trees 

without which a forest fails to exist. Such vital

services without which an assured collapse would 

result yet held in low esteem as evidenced by the

pitiful pay scale ceded to the rank and file of school 

custodians, farm workers, office cleaners, hotel 

maids, personal service providers, forestry workers

early childhood educators, slaughterhouse employees 

from whom integrity, care and professional skills 

are demanded to enable society to function and yet 

with a dearth of conscience are offered a pittance

barely sufficient to enable this army to survive

they who represent the scaffolding of society.



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