Mr. President, Does This Make Sense?

Mr. President, does this make sense?

Today, I called TXU. (You may not know that TXU is our electric company.) I called to transfer electric from one apartment to another to facilitate a move. I thought that it would be a simple thing to do. Just a phone call. Perhaps 10 to 15 minutes tops. One hour later, I got off the phone. You could say that I was a little mystified…yes…perhaps even a little confused…upset. You see, I spent an hour trying to make a simple change in the electric service. I called the 800 number on my electric bill. I struggled for one hour to understand someone who obviously did not understand the English language. She struggled to read from a script answers to questions I was not asking. She had to start over twice. She had to delete and re-enter the account. She asked me to identify what language I would like my bill in, I had to explain how the address should appear on the line, and when I asked her a question, she had to start reading the script again to find where she was.  After 50 minutes, we seemed to have accomplished my intended purpose for the call, so I asked if she would tell me where I had called. She said ‘TXU!’ I asked her what city she was in. She gave me a name I had never heard of. I asked where that was. In very broken English, she said Manilla.

Manilla?? Now, Mr President, can you tell me how it makes sense that I have family members and friends without jobs, while she is teleworking for TXU. How does it make sense that we have countless people in our church and community, who have been laid off, but she is working for TXU? I am not prejudice and I certainly have nothing against her…but does this make sense? Is it really cheaper to pay her wages, and then to pay our jobless population unemployment and government benefits beside?

I was just wondering. The words to this song just came to mind.

 

My country ‘tis of thee

Working across the sea

What have we done?

While lines of jobless wait

Reaching from state to state

We try to stimulate

Our economy!