Jobs, II

On Friday they did a round of layoffs where I work. It was awful. All day I kept thinking about what's going to happen to these people. One guy is paying for grad school right now. Another guy was the sole breadwinner for his family - he was the source of health insurance. What if one of his kids is sick? What if his wife's got a preexisting condition? What happens to these people?

By some cruel irony most of what I did at work yesterday afternoon involved going through old news clippings about Cleveland's manufacturing heyday. Pictures of a brand new gleaming Republic Steel building. Cheery articles about industries that were booming. And that kind of thing.

Bottom line is: if you're doing well, please consider making a donation -- or a bigger donation than usual -- to your favorite Cleveland cultural institution. Even the big ones - the ones that you think can't just go under because they've been around forever.

They might be doing worse than you think.