I had an idea. What if every business in America, large and small, created one new job? Imagine what that could mean to our country. Think about how many new jobs that might produce. I named the idea: One Job for America. And then my husband, Rich Silverstein, and I decided to try to make this real.
I'm not an economist or a politician or an academic or even a blogger (until now). So stepping forward like this and taking a chance is new for me. But I believe strongly in this idea and I honestly believe it will work. Because most of us feel frustrated and sad about the job situation in this country and we wish we could help. We wish we could do something about it because so far not much has been effective. The problem seems insurmountable. Seemingly, the best minds in the country have been able to do very little.
So here's a chance for all of us to step up and, in the very best sense of the word, take responsibility. Maybe a better way to say it is that One Job for America encourages us to be responsible citizens and it gives us hope that we can participate in making this a better world. We can come together, as members of a national community, and try to solve this problem one job at a time. That sounds manageable. It sounds possible, doesn't it? I realize it's a little Capraesque. I think we could use some of that kind of optimism right now.
I hope people won't politicize this idea or think of every possible reason that it might not work. All you have to do is log on to the website, OneJobForAmerica.org, and pledge to create one new job. And then, at a later date, come back and tell us what position you created and who you hired. It's a leap of faith, I know. But if you do this and tell someone else about it and they do it too and so on who knows what we can accomplish. Oh, for larger companies we hope that you'll think about doing this on a larger scale. The spirit is to generate new jobs. We want companies to start hiring again. And we want people to be hopeful again.
This is a simple idea on its face and yet I truly believe it has the possibility of being profound. So log on to the website. Make a pledge. Tell a friend. Together we will bring back jobs in America one by one.
