Unworthy Says The Machine

by: Joe Strong

Published by uPublish.info

Unworthy says the Machine

By: Joe Strong

Employment these days is a challenge for many us, attainable for many but very difficult for the
marked looking for work. Many Americans feel, they do not deserve equal employment rights after
their debt to society had been satisfied because skepticism and unsuitability will always precede the
applicant.
Machines/computers are programmed to separate, black box confessors, notwithstanding their
abilities to contribute and sustain themselves.
All crimes, adjudicated nevertheless carry a lifelong label that states;
"You are unworthy to all establishments, supported with new laws mandating background and credit
checks for anyone applying for work". The second and lesser culpable, the credit history will have a
new suspect file apart from those with clean records. Those who believe themselves clear of liability,
think again, you're only the lesser infraction away as the marked ones, and your black boxes will be
separated as the ex-felons.
The Ex-Con or Ex-Felon is non-negotiable, counterfeits, upheld by the background check. Their
debt to society is superfluous regarding payment served in time to the Government or State that
indicted them.
The masses will self rightly find disfavor with the ex-cons because skepticism precedes reason;
getting beyond this stigma is difficult and often tiresome to argue.
Today, intermediaries, (application scanners and Computers discern the boxes marked under
Criminal History for segregation), the suspect applications are compiled categorically under an
undesirable or unfit file. The e-mail sent to the applicant by the Corporation states, "We are still
reviewing your application and will respond to your eligibility". That form letter is personalized by a
thank you for your request, mechanically generated and shelved without human over-sight.
Today, the real flesh and blood person has been replaced by computers, deciphered within a
corporate template, programmed to weed criminal and credit records in their perspective and
appropriate file destinations. All mechanized without the attention or glean from a human not least
the potential employer.
The ex-felons attempting online employment usually never make it to a phone interview because
they know from past experience. They give up attempting to fill out more applications, it will be in
vain.
Their frustration and inactivity makes fertile ground to commit a crime. We are continually filling the
prison systems, not with violent offenders, but instead, with people that have drug crimes and
addiction problems.
Rarely, will personal interviews manifest or prevail.
It's obvious why the recidivism rate among ex-cons is 70%. This failure results not from rehabilitation
as much as opportunity scarcity.
These online surveys or Employment Applications thwart potential job seekers. Experience expects
rejections, futility replaces optimism, and embarrassment and low self-esteem reduce future job
solicitations, expecting denial reinforced by each attempt, until hope is abandoned.

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Before the information age, the employer had opportunities to experience the ex-Felon personally
and evaluate him without knowing his history. The employer questioned and looked into the
Parolee, his manners and presentment to weighing the personality before him or her.
Our Society is now desensitized, reduced to program evaluation, where sterile screening discards
candidates as rejects.
How often we feel the absence of humanity?
Unfortunately; information has taken precedence over the flesh and we have acquiesced to defend
our God given human rights.
These three words epitomize an end in itself; "Time is money". A proclamation as substantive
equals.
Earlier, "time" was valued differently among Americans. The nineteen fifties and earlier, time granted
family togetherness and money afforded the means to the end.
Ex-felons that paid for their crime and have learned from their mistakes yet remain captives as their
history precedes them and often defines them.
Those who never had trouble with the law will say they deserve to be treated differently. This
discrimination is understandable because I have heard it enough through time, still, I do not agree.
In time that fractured part of our society will grow larger still, then what? Presently our land of the
Free, houses more prisoners than any other Country in the world.
In the mid Nineteen Eighties our Prison system had less than a half a million incarcerated. Today,
The US Prison System has breached two million Americans behind bars.
Crimes for drugs is now holding the greatest quantity of prisoners and unlike the lifers who were
middle aged in the sixties and earlier, is now young men in their twenties and thirties doing life.
A little history: "Transporting drugs across State lines".
The Federal Government took Jurisdiction from the States to prosecute offenders because of
Interstate Violations dealing with Tax Evasion. Our individual States were quite capable to prosecute
but the Federal Government wanted a piece of the pie also.
I never understood when illegal drugs imported to our Country or harvested within our borders
that...... "They should fall under the Control Substance Act"?
All controlled substances are regulated by The Government. In the sixties, identified with a Bar Code
all drugs were registered and classified, replacing the old once written, cataloged and registered.
Still, the illegal uncontrolled drugs are still prosecuted under that title. Cocaine from Columbia has
no Bar Code nor exist in our Registrar, so why is it prosecuted as such?
These Federal drug laws governing our system today was legitimized by the Department of
Agriculture. In the earlier part of the twentieth Century, Subsidies were given to farmers by the
Department of Agriculture to limit the size of the crop they could grow. Those farmers, who did not
obey the law planted produce beyond the quota set.
The farmers were paid to control the yield, (Paid not to grow/ Un-Taxed- produce) Tax Evasion, by
moving contraband, the unregulated control substance, in violation of Interstate trafficking.
The farmer was also paid to produce set quantity. (Produce- paid to produce -Taxable). This violated
the Controlled Substance Act with over production to defraud IRS crossing State lines and not
paying taxes on the contraband items contracted to not be grown; this took Jurisdiction away from
the State's. Those federally indicted are done so for revenue violations under, US Code.
The quantity of felon's incarcerated, awaiting sentencing and serving in half way houses for post
release requirement has quadrupled in the last twenty years. Although true, that more criminals will
be off the streets, make no mistakes this is but a temporal fix, likewise, the quantity of returning
offenders to the streets with fewer possibilities to get employment makes for a smoldering ash in the
Arizona desert during summer time. We the people have an obligation to matriculate and rehabilitate
our Countrymen because they are not going away, they will be back living among us and it is in our
best and mutual interest by helping them not to violate laws again and it is in our best interest.

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If we choose not to address these issues then, the ex-cons might as well wear the prison number,
because their names have no significance. A few ex-cons will be re-defined by professional resume
writers with a more palatable persona built on quantity of content rather than the quality of their
character. They will have a new fabricated persona hiding the selective omissions, driven to fraud to
favor the odds and finally to arrive at the processing plant of human integration through unnatural
selection.
One Nation Under God

By: Joe Strong

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