Observing the changes

As a young man my first part time job was moving stock for a department store. Oddly I could actually afford a cheap apartment at 19, a motorbike, and a series of jalopies. My spitfire with used beer tap shifter was the most fun but always falling apart. Working about 30 hrs a week and going to a local Community College. In the late seventies. I also worked part time as a 'data aide' at the college which gave me a little something technical for a beginning resume.

Imagine being able to do that today on a retail job. Not a chance. Oh I had a roommate or two to help pay the bills now and then. When a sharp professor of computer science saw some ability I was able to get an entry level programming job. Computer Data Systems Inc was a contract shop that put jobs on my resume and taught me the ropes.  I worked with talented men and women of all races and backgrounds. No longer the most talented guy in the room like at school, I had to scramble to learn. I loved every minute. Later I worked with the prof who got me my start on a military computer communications job.  Spec'd as a four person two year job, we brought it in two weeks late with just the two of us during the majority of the work and occasional coworkers that would quit under the load.  I often fell asleep at the computer console late at night.

Next I moved to an 8A computer consulting firm doubling my entry salary to one pretty decent for a young man. Eighteen months later back to CDSI for a military contract in Puerto Rico.  Forty hours a week most of the time with occasional late night emergency. Suddenly I had time to bike, dive, and sail. With a Divemaster rating I spent a great deal of in the early eighties diving all over the Caribbean.  I enjoyed a relatively still healthy Caribbean sea - very little bleaching, mostly beautiful coral.

This is why I feel uniquely a witness to what is happening in our world. I've watched the incredible evolution of inequality. Or perhaps it's return. The changes fossil fuel energizing the world but also dumping CO2 into the air have wrought.  I'm not especially noble, just a good puzzle solver who was fortunate to turn that into a career.  As an OWG - happily retired I have a chance to give back a little perhaps. If just a couple people read what I've seen and are woke from the lullaby conservative media hypnotize people with - maybe I'll tip the scales for a little more positive karma to help save our grandkids.