Category: Commentary/Editorial || By Jason Togyer

(UPDATED: Edited Aug. 28 to expand section about unemployment ... several paragraphs were missing from the draft that was posted Aug. 26.)

The late Phil Musick called them "things I think I think." The late Bruce Keidan called them "loose items from a tight-leaf notebook." They're thoughts that don't fit anywhere else.

I call them "cluttered items from an empty mind." Because if a cluttered desk is the sign of a cluttered mind, what does an empty desk signify?

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Unemployment Orifice: My grandmother used to talk about the "Good Old Days" of the Great Depression, when families who had to go on what was then called "relief" were humiliated --- you had to line up in person at a relief office, where your neighbors would decide whether or not you deserved a dribble of food and clothing.

If you had lost your job for any reason, you were made to feel inferior and useless. Some days, I think we're headed back to the golden years of the 1930s.

For instance, Gov. Tom Corbett and some others contend that unemployment is only high because unemployment benefits are too good, and people don't want to work. (That's actually a theory that does go back to the Great Depression, at least.) A visitor to the Tube City Almanac booth at International Village suggested much the same thing.

I don't know about that, but I've talked to several people who say that signing up for unemployment benefits in Pennsylvania is humiliating, difficult and discouraging, and it can take up to two months just to find out if you're eligible. Whether this is caused by incompetence, inadequate staffing due to state budget cuts, or a calculated effort to discourage filers, I'm not sure.

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Maybe everything you need to know about the Pennsylvania Unemployment Compensation office can be learned from its website. The first two links in the center of the page are for "employer services" and for "reporting fraud."

What message does this send? To me, it says that in Pennsylvania, Unemployment Compensation doesn't exist, first and foremost, to help unemployed workers find employment or "compensation" --- it's there to serve the companies that laid off those workers! And if you're asking for unemployment compensation, the state is going to start out by assuming you're a fraud.

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Another fun fact: There are no longer walk-in physical unemployment offices in Pennsylvania. Oh, there's an office in Duquesne that's a "claim center," but there's also a big sign on the building that says "NO ADMITTANCE." They should just have a sign that says, "Get lost, deadbeats!"

You are not allowed to talk to an actual human. Instead, all claims must be filed online, by phone or by mail. They discourage paper filings, but if you don't have a reliable Internet connection, you're up the creek. Try calling the state's toll-free number, and you're likely going to be on hold for 60 minutes or more.

If there's a problem in your initial filing, one correspondent informs me, the Department of Labor and Industry doesn't tell you. Instead, the onus is on you to call and find out why your claim isn't being processed. Plan on wasting another hour or two on hold.

It seems to me that if you're unemployed, Pennsylvania's goal isn't helping you --- it's making you go away. I suppose this is Tea Party-style small government in action. Color me unimpressed.

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Are you having problems with the unemployment office? A tip to tubecitytiger at gmail dot com would be appreciated. You can remain anonymous.

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It Takes a Village: Speaking of International Village, I've heard several comments from folks who argue that changes need to be made to the 52-year-old (and counting!) institution. Maybe some changes are necessary, but a few of the suggestions I've heard seem to misunderstand the whole character of the event.

Several people have asked --- on Facebook and in person --- why the Village isn't held for an entire week, or why it doesn't take place over a weekend. The Village is organized by volunteers and the food booths are run largely by church groups, some of whom spend all year preparing.

A week-long event might attract more visitors, but would require that much more effort from the volunteers. At some point, you hit the law of diminishing returns --- you start to burn out the volunteers and don't get enough visitors to justify the extended schedule.

As for stretching it over a weekend --- that presents two problems. First, you're competing with a lot of other summertime weekend activities. One of the reasons that International Village is so successful is that it's one of the few festivals during the Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday it's held.

(Hey, Kennywood holds school picnics and heritage days during weekdays, and no one complains about that.)

Second, those church groups that run the booths don't want to run the booths on Saturday nights and Sundays, for reasons that should be obvious. (Where will people be? In the pews or at Renziehausen Park?)

Having observed International Village up-close and personal for three years, I'm simply amazed. Each year, a group of mostly unpaid people pulls off an event for 20,000 or 30,000 people that's safe, fun and family friendly, and which raises lots of money for charitable groups.

Some tinkering is useful --- setting up a Facebook page this year was a great idea --- but any changes need to be considered in context of what makes International Village unique, and not "just another festival." Stretching it out, or wrapping it over a weekend, would be things that might turn it into "just another festival," I'm afraid.

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Tickets, Please: There have been complaints raised by some people, including City Controller Ray Malinchak, that the admission fees for the Village are not carefully audited.

The implications are that lots of Village visitors are sneaking in without paying admission, and that volunteers collecting the $2 charge are pocketing the money. The International Village committee and several city officials, including Councilman Darryl Segina, find those implications insulting --- and I tend to agree with them.

Still, I'm not sure why each gate at the Village can't be issued a roll of tickets, like the kinds used for door prizes and raffles, or the kind used at movie theaters.

Those tickets come on rolls and have serial numbers. Each time a visitor pays $2, a ticket is pulled from the roll. The visitor gets one half, and the other half is dropped into a collection bin. At the end of the night, if 200 tickets have been pulled from a roll, there should be $400 collected at that gate. (Heck, you could also use the tickets to give away a door prize or souvenir each hour.)

A little bit of price checking reveals that a roll of 2,000 tickets costs less than $10. It seems like a quick way to keep track of admission. What am I missing?

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A Trashy Subject: City Councilwoman Loretta Diggs has noted that she's one of the few people on her street who recycles. Many times, Diggs says, she's the only one who's placed a bin for curbside recycling.

The failure of city residents to recycle has been cited as one of the possible reasons for the city's increased trash collections. (Er, I'm not sure I buy that.)

Anyway, I don't live within the city, but I know some of my neighbors hate recycling. They take pride in the fact that they throw bottles and cans into the trash, like they're "sticking it" to someone. In fact, they're only sticking it to themselves --- each ton of garbage you recycle is a ton of garbage your borough, township or city isn't paying to landfill. And the revenues go back to your municipality, which helps keep your taxes low.

Our borough used to recycle only glass and aluminum. Recently, we started recycling everything --- including newspapers, office paper, steel and five different kinds of plastic. It's actually fun to look at a plastic container --- a pill bottle, a take-out box --- and realize it's recyclable.

And it's drastically cut down on our purchase of trash bags --- some weeks we have only one small bag of garbage. A box of trash bags now lasts us most of a year.

Why don't people recycle? It can't be laziness, because believe me, I'm very lazy. It's actually easier to toss recyclables into those bins than it was to stuff all of that trash into Hefty bags and drag it to the curb.

If it's just ignorance, then smarten up, already. Recycling can be fun. Or am I just a weirdo? (Answer: Yes.)

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To submit a commentary for consideration, please write to P.O. Box 94, McKeesport 15134, or email jtogyer -at - gmail -dot- com. Include contact information and your real name. A pen name may be substituted with approval of the editor.

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