Almost 20 miles from the Occupy L.A. encampment and 265 miles from the Las Vegas Republican presidential debate, the state employment office in Norwalk, Calif., was a sad, quiet reminder of what the presidential campaign should be about—unemployment that is dooming the prospects of this generation and its children.
The employment office was my first stop on a day that would end at home watching the debate. The idea that any of these candidates would occupy the White House is appalling, as is the growing possibility that President Barack Obama may lose to one of them.
But that's getting ahead of the story. I drove to Norwalk on debate day because the city of more than 105,000 people and the communities around it are examples of how the recession is damaging America's middle class. Unemployment is 12 percent in this area, and jobs are melting away.
At the side of the room, computer workstations were filled with men and women quietly searching databases for jobs. In another area, others waited for interviews with counselors. As I looked at them, my nerve failed. Journalistic practice dictated that I ask some of them for their stories and get some good quotes. Maybe I'm getting too old for this business, but I couldn't bring myself to intrude on them. I have been interviewing the unemployed all through the recession and have heard their stories of discouragement and despair. I just didn't feel up to doing it again.
Instead, I drove through neighborhoods beaten down by the economy to downtown Los Angeles where Occupy L.A. has become a tent city on the grass around City Hall. It's been there for about three weeks. Amid the tents was a sukkah, a temporary hut that Jews build for the holiday of Sukkot. Sukkot celebrates the harvest season and recalls the Jews' 40-year journey from Egypt as described in the Bible. The sukkah reminds Jews of the huts that sheltered their ancestors during the journey. The symbolism is nice: The Jews escaped slavery in Egypt; the Occupy movement wants to end economic slavery in the United States.
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