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Nobody’s Walking In Anybody Else’s Shoes and It’s a Problem

How to really make America great again

Citizen Reader
E³ — Entertain Enlighten Empower

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View of a person’s lower legs in feet, encased in blue jeans and brown shoes, standing next to a pair of brown work boots and a camouflage patterned backpack against a gray-brown exterior wall.
Photo by Benjamin Faust on Unsplash

Some countries (including Brazil, Russia, and Israel) are well-known for mandating that their citizens serve a set time period in their military services.

We should require something similar in the United States. Only, instead of requiring people to serve or train in the military for a year, I’ve put together a list of jobs and experiences that every American citizen should have to do for one year (or six months; I can be flexible) so that they could “walk a mile in somebody else’s shoes.”

I think it would make us better people, and a better country.

  1. Work a service job

This one is non-negotiable, although a wide variety of different jobs could apply. I’m thinking things like counter worker at a fast food establishment, cashier at a grocery store, barista, or any position in a retail store. I’d also be open to this requirement including jobs in the hospitality industry, like hotel housekeeper or motel desk clerk.

I would hope that, if people had to work these jobs and think about their own safety when working behind a counter, there might be fewer incidents afterwards in which they might throw furniture at food service workers. Not to mention, if instead…

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