Okay, so my temp agency contact gives me a call today (I did as recommended and laid a guilt trip on her yesterday) to talk about a possible assignment. The hours are a bit strange, 10pm to 6am, but that sounds alright - I haven't done graveyard too much before, but I tend toward nightowlish. The location would be great, too. The Austin Convention Center, which is easy walking distance from the house. At this point I start to get a little apprehensive, because I know that the CC is being used to house survivors (NOT REFUGEES!) of the Katrina flooding. Apparently, my duties would be to just be a 'presence' in one of the six rooms where people are being sheltered. I wouldn't be security - no weapon, no badge - just there to answer questions and make people feel safer. I probe for some further info about this. Would there be security? Yes, the APD will be there. How many people are going to be staying in this room? She doesn't know. What would I be able to do if they need something? She doesn't know. She keeps using the word 'presence' to describe what I'm doing.
Eventually, (and I'm reading between the lines here, so I could be totally mistaken) it sounds like I'm keeping these people from leaving. I'm enforcing curfews. I'm being asked to be a fucking guard at what amounts to a concentration camp.
I turned down the job. I need the money. Maybe if I was there, I'd be taking the place of some other guy who wouldn't be so nice about the whole thing (although my niceness has been known to disappear without much warning, so...) Maybe I could use this as an opportunity to sketch and document these folks, and get some art out of it, and help cheer up kids who have lost everything by showing someone is interested in them for reasons that have nothing to do with the fact that they've suffered this terrible loss. Shit, maybe I could write about the experience and pitch it to the Hat. But nothing was able to get me past the idea that I would be there in a repressive capacity, not to help. That's something that I just don't want to do.
Eventually, (and I'm reading between the lines here, so I could be totally mistaken) it sounds like I'm keeping these people from leaving. I'm enforcing curfews. I'm being asked to be a fucking guard at what amounts to a concentration camp.
I turned down the job. I need the money. Maybe if I was there, I'd be taking the place of some other guy who wouldn't be so nice about the whole thing (although my niceness has been known to disappear without much warning, so...) Maybe I could use this as an opportunity to sketch and document these folks, and get some art out of it, and help cheer up kids who have lost everything by showing someone is interested in them for reasons that have nothing to do with the fact that they've suffered this terrible loss. Shit, maybe I could write about the experience and pitch it to the Hat. But nothing was able to get me past the idea that I would be there in a repressive capacity, not to help. That's something that I just don't want to do.
posted by Austin at 4:59 PM
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Well, I sorta agree with your second thoughts on this - a missed opportunity on several levels. Don't let your immediate emotions interfere so much with opportunities. And there are altruistic reasons for trying to keep people in the shelters until they have definite opportunies in the real world. All that said, what's the follow up?
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