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Ashley, I am very proud of you. You have chosen a wonderful profession and will have the opportunity to do great things.

We live in a society that sees success only in dollar signs many times. As a retired teacher I understand your frustration but also know the many rewards ahead. There will be times when you question your chosen field, but stay strong and optimistic. I wish you the best of luck.

Ashley, others are saying negative things to you because you've chosen a job that is difficult, heartwrenching, thankless and low-paying. It will test your strength and reveal your character. But as you commit yourself to helping others, it will also bless your life and bring you joy in ways you can't begin to imagine now. What a gift it is to serve. God bless you.

Peace, CM

Only the right wing nutjobs would demean your job. Keep up the good work!

Deacon,

That has got to be one of the meanest, prejudiced statements I have ever heard. You have lost what little credibility you may have had.

Ashley,

I hope you DO make a difference. If you didn't feel that way, I'd seriously question your career choice.

I think that the negative connotations with social workers often come from the system they work within. Often, social workers are city, county, or state employees and the incentives and rewards for hard work and making a difference just aren't there. People who want to make a difference often actually have to rail against a system that is so full or bueracracy that it may feel impossible to achieve anything.

I have had mostly good experiences with social workers. Most have been attentive and willing to help (although sometimes frustrated by not being able to help as much as they would like)

You're the very type of person that is needed to turn the tide. Good luck and God Bless.

Ashley, I am a retired MSW. I served in the federal system for 30 years and I wouldn't trade a day of it. Our profession is complex and multifaceted which enables us to make positive contributions on many levels at the same time.

Our profession has come a long way; we have a deep and profound knowledge base with a variety of technical clinical and administratie skills. The community, state and country are better for our presence.

We need to be a little more visible and vocal about what our expertise is and what we do. Do good work, let people see your shining light and the rest will take care of itself.

As a retired old dog, I'm glad to hear your spirit and dedication--the community awaits you.

From someone who knows your program,
joejoe

As a right wing nutjob, I applaud Ashley and her chosen profession. Many are called to perform services for communities not for dollar signs. Some make it a career, some such as myself have done it on the side. Kudos Ashley and best of luck.

Some need to refrain from angry politically charged namecalling, especially when it has NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with the LTE and NO ONE demeaned Ashley's job on this post. Thanks for agreeing WAJ.

WAJ & Dan,
I guess the old "Bit dog barks first" saying still holds true. Glad you put a little veneer on your real soul for this LTE. When you start lashing out, using terms like welfare, big brother, big government etc, I will remind you of your statements here. If only for eyewash, I'm still glad you publicly came out in favor of the great work done by our social safety net workers.

Ashley,
Although they are "approving" of your work here, it is an inch deep and a mile wide. Glad you wrote the letter, and I appreciate you!

Nice spin Deac, you forgot to explain how right wing nut jobs demean a person who decides to be a social worker. Your anger continues to seeeeeth.

Oh by the way, please explain how you know the inner feelings of people whom you have never met Deac and diss it off as a little veneer on one's real soul? You must know my soul better than me correct?

People often tell Yvonne what her inner thoughts are, I guess it works for me too.

I guess my serving in Big Brothers / Big Sisters for nine years and being a positive role model for a boy with no dad is just an inch deep and a mile wide. Your angry unfounded remarks serve for nothing better than entertainment.

Demon Deacon is right: right wing nutjobs like me need to decide whether they actually want smaller government or whether they will be easily swayed by appeals such as the one in the letter. Bush's "compassionate conservatism" tries to have it both ways and just ends up jacking up federal spending faster than Clinton. If conservatives are going to run for cover when people ask cheap questions like, "What will it take for this country to stop looking down on people who do selfless hard work?", then what's the point of being a conservative? If enabling "selfless hard work" means paying more for a welfare state, then I say let the work be truly selfless. Get rid of the veneer of compassion, conservatives! Embrace the dark side! Demean at every opportunity bureaucrats who call their govt jobs "selfless hard work"! Look down at all times on the cogs of a failed welfare machine. (After all, even Clinton saw through some of the crap.) Don't be morally guilted by left-wing church ladies who tell you to come to the big government Jesus.

a quasi quote from the Master ( and i paraphrase ) " be careful not to do your good works (charity) just to be seen by others or else you won't have a reward from your heavenly Father. when you do your good works (charity), don't brag about them and tell others what you have done, because that is what hypocrites do, they are just looking to get recognition from there fellow man, but guess what...this favor you receive from your fellow man is all the reward you will receive. so, when you do your good works (charity)it isn't necessary or desirable to let everyone else know what you have done. rather, go about doing your good works (charities) in secret ( as a doulos ) and THEN your Father in heaven who sees what you have done,will reward you. " imo this is a lesson in humility.

to the lte....wishing you well in your undertaking !!

Young lady be prepared to be belittled, harrassed, verbally assualted,taken advantage of, ignored, mistreated in ways unknow to common people, pushed to your limit, unappreciated and anyother degredation that one can imagine, and that is from the rightwingnuts and leftwingnutzoids that are your supervisiors.
Your clients will appreciate you more than your superiors and you will be hamstrung from the first day from actually doing you job because you will be so busy filling out paperwork to get the money to fill out the paperwork to get the money that you will actually have little time for those who need you most.
Some of the clients that you will work with do not want help for they have been victimized for generations before. Some will accept help only to get what they want and then "diss" you to your superiors. There will be a few, and a might few to which you will made a difference in their lives. For those be thankful, and remember each and everone of them and it won't be hard to do because there will be so few. But it is those few who will make your job worth while and make you go back every day and put up with all the rest of the crap that can be dished out to you by suprvisors and other clients.
It may sound on the negative side in the beginning but the truth is often hard to come by in this day and time. Best of everything to you young lady and remember, you can't save the world, but you might just rescue just one and that within itself makes it all worth while.

One other word of advise. Get either your MSW or a Masters in Psychology and/or counselling. Without it you stay at the bottom of the barrel.
It also gives you an alternative when SW get's next too you and you decide to move on.

Ashley... You and I have a bit in common when it comes to "misunderstood careers"... I work in IT, and I've heard, for over 23+ years (10 years as a "child prodigy" and 15 years as a member of the business world!), the same "demeaning" opinions and questions the entire time as you are experiencing now... I'm am of a different philosophy, so it's never been an issue for me as it has been for a lot of co-workers and friends of mine, but I will tell you that the BEST advice for you is to ALWAYS use your knownledge and training in every day life... Your peers have given your passion a VERY BAD NAME over the years, and you can either just accept it or REFUSE to accept it.

Look... from what you've said it sounds like this is NOT a job OR a career for you; it's something that you love to do AND you actually get paid for it! You are in the minority in this case... My advice to you is this...

When you hear "Oh, I am so sorry!", it's because 99% of the time a social worker will respond "Yeah, thanks... but it's a government job and I can retire in 20 years with a FULL pension!"

When you are informed "You will never make any money doing that." 99% of the time they'll hear "Yeah, but at least I can just sit at my desk for 8 hours and do nothing all day!"

You already know that your true feelings have NOTHING to do with money, laziness or perks... It's HELPING people. The worst thing you can do is ENCOURAGE ignorance; it takes a caring person to CORRECT ignorance.