Creating jobs is just too much work

Okay, this one really bothered GroveAtopia.   I usually don't like to get too mired in political issues, but I just couldn't let this one go.  It ran in the Sentinel last week and I'm still thinking about it.

It appears that the City of Cottage Grove has decided that getting federal stimulus money — you know, the money aimed at creating jobs — is too much work and we just can't be bothered.   Getting this money — all $202,000 of it — has too many strings attached and requires too much paper work.  We are too busy and just can't spare the time!

GroveAtopia feels it necessary to remind our public servants that the purpose of this money is to create jobs.  Lane County's unemployment rate is currently sitting at 12%.  That's pretty high.  And it's probably going to get higher.

At this point probably everyone in town knows someone or knows someone who knows someone who has been laid off or cut back.  GroveAtopia thinks Cottage Grove's unemployment rate now sits about 2 degrees of separation. That's pretty close.

So doesn't that make it all the more incumbent on our public servants to create jobs for us when they have the chance?   After all, they already have jobs.  Many of us do not.     

But apparently they don't want to work to create work for those of us who want work.  Unless it's not too much work.  And doesn't take too much time.

And at the moment, GroveAtopia can think of no more needed public service than job creation. No matter how much work it takes.  And no matter how much time.