A Message From Joe

The next time you're sitting at an intersection, waiting for the traffic light to turn, look around. From the signs hanging off the storefronts and the jack hammering in the street to the electrical lines running across the road and the UPS driver unloading a delivery, blue collar America is everywhere. Blue-collar workers built this country. And we continue to build and rebuild it every day. We fix it, move it, and make it operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We are the glue that holds the community together, the ones you call when your car breaks, your roads are full of potholes, your faucet is leaking and your grass needs trimming. We are America's backbone.

And yet, most of us are told that the only way to succeed is to go to college. In the process tens of thousands of America's youth are wracking up those massive college loans, and nearly half of the students who start college will drop out before graduating. Our country is facing major workforce shortages. We don't have enough linemen, ironworkers, or welders. The Baby Boomers are retiring at an alarming rate and we aren't training our youth to take over their jobs. That's because we've convinced the next generation of workers that they must go to college. We need to rethink our system and show our students some of the other options.

In case you're wondering, I'm blue collar and proud of it. I've run a landscaping business outside Boston for 28 years. I didn't go to college because simply put I would have been terrible at it. Instead I'm doing something I love and something I can feel good about. The time has come to stop turning our backs on the blue-collar jobs that have built our great nation. It's time to pay attention to each student's desires and skills. Let's put some pride back into blue collar America.

Welcome to my site, BlueCollarandProudOfIt.com!

Joe LaMacchia