Draw on the State Funds

1st September 2024

Dear Governor Newsom,

In light of the current draw on the state funds from unemployment benefits it comes to me that more should be done to get the worker to the job. I can tell you that over the years I have gotten more and more certified and yet suffered more job instability.

In high school I was trained as a printing tech, and I got my guard card. After college I got two more certifications in security and this year I got my license to carry a firearm. None of these have provided me with either lucrative or stable employment.

At my last job I met a man who had been through an emergency training as an auto mechanic, and yet he was working as a security guard. Unable to pay his rent with one job he worked as a delivery driver on the side but couldn’t find employment swinging a wrench.

Employment counseling has never helped me. I once asked the Employment Development Department for help and was just laughed at. I was offered no advice or direction on the subject. One job counselor advised me to chase my dreams but could offer me no real world advice. The next job counselor I spoke to just kept saying “take it” over and over again no matter how bad or suspicious the job I was interviewing for.

Every now and then I look into more vocational training, but education has always failed me. When I was a young man they said “get a degree” and by the time I got one they were near useless. My last job was degree or military experience preferred, and it paid less than working at a fast food restaurant.

Optimally, the unemployed should become more employable by gaining some kind of training. Maybe we should have a program where the unemployed can start vocational training and spend time on the job. If that fellow had is emergency auto tech program and spent a day every week changing oil at a mechanic he could have found a job working on cars.

It is in the best interest of the state and the worker for better days to be ahead with more stable work and higher pay. When I worked with the homeless our goal was to get them off the street for life and the state should want me never to be unemployed again.

If I wanted to look into vocational training I‘d have to do research to find out what training would be useful, find a program that would train me, then look for a job after the training with no experience. The state could do all that for the unemployed and as soon as they file a claim offer them vocational training as an option.

The state could offer an incentive of additional weeks of benefits to complete vocational training. Job placement and referral services would strengthen this program and having new skills would make it easier to find a job.

Just a thought,


Richard Leland Neal

Assistant Cover Letter

20th April 2023

Hi (Art Person),

It looks to me like you’re looking for something of an assistant. Rather a few of them I guess. I’m just looking to pay my bills. (A family) passing left me with some bad legal business and it’s costly. I have a night job and need a day job.

So, about me, well, I’m a man of Irish continence and having that very Irish ability to talk for hours without making people want to leave I will never bore you. People have said that my head is a vast store of off facts. Still, I’m normally the fellow your dog is always happy to see. We share a love of film and museums and I would be happy to accompany you to every film I haven’t seen. When I used to cook for (family) I always made a point of making balanced meals while trying new things. People say I’m patient, knowledgeable, and artistic.

In any case, you’ve never met a man like me. In my working life a good number of people have commented on how much they enjoyed running into me. If you give me an interview I can promise that you’ll want to hire me but I can say you’ll remember the experience.

Best,



Richard Leland Neal

Coal in 2016

4th September 2024

Dear Madam Vice President,

A point that should be made in regards to the 2016 election is that Trump told the mining community that they will have jobs and Clinton told the world that coal mining companies needed to close. It gave a large part of the voting public the idea that Trump meant jobs and Clinton meant unemployment.

Trump lied but Clinton’s point was just as wrong. Companies need to evolve to live in the future not die. A company that made typewriters can make other things. Royal was a big typewriter company back in the day, and it was founded in 1904 but it still makes things today even as it was founded to make typewriters.

The point is that we need a plan for Coal Country America. We need a plan for hope in the small towns who view Donald Trump as the man who will save their way of life. The economic engine of the coal mine is at its end and we need to find a new engine to fuel small town America.

Much as the coal furnaces that once powered our turbines have given way to solar panels so must the mines give way to a new form of power. What that may be I couldn’t say. I would encourage a green future, but I don’t know what would work in this situation.

What I do know is that innovation often brings humanity into the cities and away from the small towns which breeds poverty and homelessness. The loss of the steam engine in trains left many a small rail stop as a ghost town.

The important thing is that small town America needs to know that you’re on their side. The people need to know that you are here to make the transition away from coal as painless and beneficial as possible.

God Bless America,


Richard Leland Neal

 

The Captain Eats Alone

17th June 2024

Hey McBeth,

In regards to a video you posted where you mentioned the tradition of a Captain not eating with their crew, I happen to have read about this in a book called “Bully for Brontosaurus” by Stephen Jay Gould. There was an essay about the famous voyage of Charles Darwin aboard the HMS Beagle.

It would happen that back in the day of sailing ships the Captain was considered to be of higher class than his men. Do remember that the Captain was likely the only person on ship who could read and write in Darwin’s time and so was the only person who could keep logs. He had to be educated and education took money back then. Thus, the Captain was wealthy or a nobleman.

The United States government did not make reading and writing a requirement of education until after the First World War. It was deemed necessary for soldiers to be able to read complicated instructions for the weapons they would use. I’m not sure if England followed suit, but it was likely that until the Second World War most crew members were unable to keep logs. This could be why there was a tradition of the “Captain’s Log” as opposed to the ship’s log which I believe is more universal.

The essay in “Bully for Brontosaurus” stated that Darwin was aboard the Beagle as companion to the Captain. Isolation from the crew often caused mental problems for the men who commanded ships. He was there to keep the Captain from committing suicide as was common at the time.

In the layout of a three mast ship, like Hook’s ship from Peter Pan, you can note the Captain’s cabin aft of the third mast. This room was the highest built on the ship and had large windows affording the Captain light to read and write as he needed this for log keeping. It also cemented his status of being above the crew.

It should also be noted that the Captain would have had better food than the crew, and eating it in front of them would have bothered them and been bad for morale. The Captain would have been more vulnerable when eating, and so eating alone would have made it harder for the crew to attack him or poison his meal.

In other words, it was a good idea to keep the Captain from his crew for security reasons, but it was a measure of status back in the day. It would be less practical for an army unit to do this on the march which could be why this is not tradition in the army.

However, I will note that in the film “Letters from Iwo Jima” there was a line stating that Japans regulations required that an officer be served three dishes at every meal. This would indicate that the practice of an officer not eating with his men was common in some militaries. Then again, that was just a movie.


Best,



Richard Leland Neal

Two Horror Properties

18th August 2024

Dear Director,

In reading your ad for a horror film I can say I have two properties that may be of interest to you. To be fair, it’s hard for me to keep psychological elements out of my writing. My degree is in psychology.

The first script is “Walker in the Trees” which breaks down to a siege film, one location, but it does have a number of college age characters. In the first act we establish that the characters are going out to a cabin to party but there is a “grass man” in the woods. One character, who is just giving them a ride, is looking for the people who killed his sister. By the end of the first act he is left bleeding by the side of the road.

In the second act we see the killers have the party people captive and are about to start killing when the thing in the trees starts to pick them off. They can’t call for help because they would go to jail and they can leave because it’s out there.

Third act, we learn that the man looking for his sister’s killer is telepathic. We have hallucinations, ghosts, and a bigfoot like creature that can communicate with him. I’ve had people tell me that the script was very cool but hard to understand.

The second script is one that would need work as I wrote it for live production when suffering from sleep deprivation. I wrote “Levi” back in a college writing class and it’s hard to describe but it starts as a murder mystery and then evolves into a Sci Fi horror with science made monsters.

Most of the action takes place off camera but we would bring on camera everything that the budget will permit. It’s a grounded dark superhuman story that people will talk about.

I do have another script called “House Broken” but that is a dark comedy with singing, dancing and superheroes. This would all be one location and could be done under your budget, but I don’t think it’s a film you’d be looking for.

Finally, I have been kicking around a concept called “Empty, Hollow, Thud” which is inspired by a Psychological experiment I read about. This would simply involve placing a character in locations that change every time the three words are heard. Empty would place them in an empty lonely space. Hollow would place them in a confined space. Thud would give them some injury.

Each situation would get more perilous as the film went on, but this is just a concept and the idea would be to film this in locations we can find. It’s more of an art project kind of thing.

Best of luck in finding what you’re looking for,


Richard Leland Neal

Removing Homeless Encampments

19th August 2024

Dear Governor Newsom,

In relation to the policy of aggressively removing homeless encampments I feel that my insight on the subject may be of help. The homeless need to be somewhere but finding the right place is key and getting them to move there is a goal that has proven harder than expected.

In an ideal world we would bring the homeless back into society as full members. We want them to enjoy their rights, vote, pay taxes, and contribute to the economy. In that vein, building tiny homes and homeless shelters will do little but cement the idea that this is a permanent problem and not one we can move past as a society.

In the great depression homeless encampments were tolerated because there was little option. Again, the ideal solution would be to resolve the homeless situation and see the encampments shrink of their own accord. This is unrealistic but this does not change the fact that we need to work with not against the homeless.

Where the problem lies is that homeless shelters are places of high theft, little freedom or privacy, and to move to one the homeless are asked to toss away all that they own or a good amount of what little they have. Living in a dorm may look better than living in a tent, but they have a tent and can come and go as they please.

Why not designate tent encampment sites where food, sanitation, and civil services are rendered? Let them keep their tent or motor home, but place these things in an old parking lot or the like and provide them with bathroom and laundry services. This would likely be less of a burden on the taxpayer.

They need to be somewhere and so we should give them a place to live where they can live as they please out of the way of the industrial and commercial engines that will pay for their water and power.

Much as I understand that there will be no easy solutions to this problem I recognize that we need to give these people the stability to vote and pay taxes. We want them to participate in our society rather than live on the fringe.

Give it a thought,



Richard Leland Neal