Our staff is reading and discussing Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich, a book about the lives of people who work as restaurant servers and dishwashers, cleaners, nursing home aides, hotel housekeepers, retail clerks, and so forth. These are the kinds of jobs Open Doors’ residents have. Ehrenreich presents a picture of very hard work, very low pay, inadequate food, and tremendous challenges getting housing.
These things are very important, but perhaps the most stinging element in Ehrenreich’s portrayal is the disrespect people experience as low-paid workers.
As a child I was taught that all people are equal and that all work has an inherent dignity, whether it is the work of a school principal or a school janitor, a farmer or a president of a bank.
The heart of our mission at Open Doors is affirming and bearing witness to the human value and dignity of the men, women, and children we serve. They may be poor, they may be working in jobs that don’t pay well, but they have a profound claim to our respect.
Without this respect, our impact on our residents would have a demeaning quality that would be corrosive to their well-being. What kind of help would that be?
We are deeply committed to affirming the human value and dignity of the men, women, and children we serve.
To all our donors and volunteers we say thank you for being our partners in this profoundly important effort.
