To Pay, Or Not To Pay…That Is, The Intern…

Unlike many my age, I actually scored a job this summer that allows me to work in my desired field. I'm interning at a rather large radio station in my home state, and I'm thrilled that I'll be getting hands-on experience in the field I want to use to change the world.

But believe it or not, the opportunity to learn hands-on is in jeopardy for many like me. See, my internship, like many, is unpaid. I work for them for free, and in exchange they give me valuable experience that I will be able to use in the very near future to land a job in the highly competitive radio market.

See, Obama's labor department has red-flagged the avid internship market as "hazardous to the job market."

A recent New York Times article has the story. "'If you're a for-profit employer or you want to pursue an internship with a for-profit employer, there aren't going to be many circumstances where you can have an internship and not be paid and still be in compliance with the law,' said Nancy J. Leppink, the acting director of the department's wage and hour division."

All internships, Leppink says, must meet six criteria put forth by the federal government—among them, the mandate that the company offering the internship "derives no immediate advantage" from the intern's work. Looking over the list, most likely the organization offering the internship would do so to its own detriment, rather than their benefit.

The New York Times article comes accompanied with several horror stories of students who spent their entire internships making coffee or in the shipping room. But, they say, there are plenty of interns who have had healthy, educational experiences, even while their work benefited their supervisors.

The truth is, internships are meant to be a symbiotic relationship. An employer gains the benefit of free labor, and the intern gains invaluable education and experience he would get nowhere else. Yes, the first few weeks the intern may simply be making coffee, sweeping floors, or taking out the trash, but it's just a matter of proving whether or not you're reliable and responsible enough to remember your boss's favorite coffee or that there's three trashcans in the office and not two. It's all a far cry from the exploitation claimed by the administration.

Further, if organizations are forced to pay for former unpaid internships, those internships will dry up faster than a fat kid eats chocolate cake. It's the same principle as minimum wage. Employers only have so much money to budget for their employees, and it's unlikely they'll be willing to pay a wet-behind-the-ears college student for three months of work, especially if they come in with no experience whatsoever.

Without internships, how on earth am I, and countless other students hoping to find work in an increasingly ugly job market, supposed to get my foot in the door without internships? How am I supposed to gain experience? But once again, the federal government, in trying to fix one problem, is creating a much worse one.

…but it gets funnier…

Barack Obama's campaign organization accepted unpaid interns throughout the 2008 election. And his Campaign for America organization continues to accept unpaid interns to this day.

Thanks to the hotair.com article for bringing this to my attention.

TV: Art Imitates Life or Life Imitates Art?

Since going to college, I've picked up my share of TV shows on Hulu, sometimes to the detriment of my academics. Growing up, the only television we watched were old shows like Hogan's Heroes, I Love Lucy, The Andy Griffith Show—stuff like that. For years I had read about the horrors of modern television entertainment—the bloodspattering gore, profuse language, and graphic sexual content. Now, I was experiencing television firsthand.

When I did decide to take up any form of modern entertainment, I vowed I would do so with a critical eye. I guess that's how I justified indulging in it to myself. And while I agree that all of the things I was warned about do exist in modern television, that's not what stood out to me.

Rather, it was a total lack of normalcy in family life.

For example, in the show Glee, one character has two gay dads. Another's mom is dead. Another's dad is dead. Another's parents fight constantly. The main character, Will Schuester, divorces his wife after he finds out that she has been lying to him. Granted, their relationship was less than perfect before he discovered this, but the deception was the last straw.

In the show V, the main character is divorced. Another lives with his girlfriend.

In The Office, the only normal married couple is Pam and Jim Halpert, and it's clear that Pam wears the pants in that family.

At first, I was horrified. "Where are all of the 'normal' families?!" I demanded.

But then I started thinking. Normal by whose standards? I thought about my friends' families. Most of them were "normal" in the sense that they had a mom and a dad. But were we normal?

Around half of all marriages end in divorce. One-third of American families are single-parent families. Both of these numbers are on the rise. Apparently, "normal" isn't so normal any more.

Which makes me wonder. Commentators frequently blame television for many of the problems in America, from violence to sexuality. But in the case of marriage, could it be that television is simply depicting reality as it is? Or did the broken families of television make it the norm?

It's a lot like asking which came first: the chicken or the egg? I'm more inclined to think that the loss of "normalcy" is a downward spiral. Disintegrating marriage contributes to disintegrating marriages on television, which contributes to disintegrating marriages in real life…

Any thoughts?

Manly Man of the Day-Keith Green

Born in 1953, Keith picked up the ukulele at age three, and the piano at age seven. At the age of 11, Keith and his father signed a deal with Decca Records as a singer/songwriter/pianist. He enjoyed critical acclaim, and Decca executives hoped to market him as a teen idol.

Alas, it was not to be. Donny Osmond grabbed the spotlight meant for Keith, and the young pianist was slowly forgotten by the population. Keith spent the next years of his life trying to be discovered. He ran away from home several times, and slowly became caught up in the world of drugs, mysticism, and free love.

Keith met and married his wife Melody, a fellow musician, at age 19, and the young couple continued on their quest for Keith's stardom.

But something was missing. Keith, like his wife Melody, had a Jewish background. Like many in his generation, the young couple was searching for spiritual truth, something to fill the empty hole they felt in their lives.

Keith finally found it in Jesus Christ. Keith and Melody had been attending a bible study at a friend's house in Southern California, and over time, God used the bible study to slowly lead Keith to Him.

Once Keith dedicated his life to Jesus, he became completely sold out for God. The Greens opened their home to anyone looking to get off of drugs or off the street. Keith stopped playing piano, seeking God's will for his life.

After a short while, the answer came. God wanted Keith to use his music to lead others to Him. Keith became, in a sense, a John the Baptist of his generation. He toured around the country, sharing his original songs and his somewhat controversial message.

With frizzy fro and beard dancing as he pounded on the keys, Keith was as unconventional as they come. He was constantly getting himself in trouble with the "Christian establishment" for speaking the truth. Keith opened his concerts to all and gave away his CD's for free, not wanting anything to stand in the way of the lost hearing his message.

In 1979, Keith moved Last Days Ministries, his organization, to rural Texas. He continued to tour and publish Last Days Newsletter, and worked with missions organizations around the world. In 1982, Keith, along with two of his children, died in a plane crash.

What makes Keith a manly man?

First, Keith was fully committed to God. He refused to make a move unless he knew that God had instructed him to do so. He understood that God had a unique calling on his life, and he sought to follow it no matter the cost and no matter what he felt God was calling him to do.

Though Keith enjoyed fame as a Christian artist, he did so reluctantly. He didn't want anything to get in the way of God's work, and he understood that he was just a man, a tool that God was using. Keith's humility, when he could have been a superstar, is another character trait that makes him a man.

Keith also never stopped pursuing godly living. He continued to wrestle his old nature throughout his life. He never ceased striving to become more and more like Jesus, even when he became a spiritual leader.

"I repent of ever having recorded one single song and ever having performed one concert if my music, and more importantly -- my life -- has not provoked you into Godly jealousy, or to sell out more completely to Jesus!"

Keith's full story can be found on www.keithgreen.com or in Melody Green's book "No Compromise."

Now That We're Men...

"You must not cling to your boyhood any longer--it's time you were a man."
Athena to Telemachus, The Odyssey

"When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things."
1 Corinthians 13:11

The time has come.

Over the summer, I'll be considering what it means to put aside childish things and become a man. I'll be taking a look at good and bad role models, the words of wise men and women, and what the bible has to say about becoming a man.

Tune in regularly to join me on my adventure! (I promise to post about other things too, like politics and other fun stuff!)