Help Wanted!

I've been looking for signs around town that express interest in hiring people. They are super hard to find. But looking for the stupid red signs got me thinking, when I was a young child I believed that a "Help Wanted" sign was in fact a PSA to help fugitives.

I know, you think I'm a nut. But for some reason I had this strange idea that we were supposed to aid the most wanted, keep them clothed and fed and out of the police's way. I didn't think this was a smart thing to do, as far as I had discerned criminals weren't people you really should be associating with, but I also was wise enough as a child to understand that people had differing ideologies.

Maybe it has to do with my religious mother and her Catholicism in a not particularly large town where plenty of Catholics reside but aren't always welcome (second most unwelcome Christians next to the Mormons I might add). Maybe it's that my parents are non-political (mostly) and maybe it's because growing up I understood that people only understood what they had experienced and living in a homogeneous place gave people a lot of room for misunderstanding. But mostly I think it was because even as a kid I was awesome.

I always wondered why some people wanted to put criminals in jail and why others wanted to help me, so much so that they posted it on shop windows. You're thinking now, "Well hells bells Megan, in all you're wisdom you're not that bright and shiny." But wait there is more!

I got my first job when I was 16, the sign that led me into the store said "Employment Opportunities." I had figured out by this point that "Help Wanted" meant the same thing but I had yet to come face to face with a real bad ass criminal. My first job, and subsequent jobs for that matter, have brought me into close contact with these people, I've worked with people jailed for being part of a gang that beat a man to death, stealing $5000 work of goods from a Target, possession of narcotics, DUI, credit card fraud and just being all around stupid. I have only not gotten along with two of said criminals, the Target thief (and not because she is a thief but because she wants me to risk my job to help her [though that might be part of the being a thief thing]) and the guy with the fraud issues (he also had a nasty habit of taking money out of other people's wallets, including mine).

Everyone else has been a "woops! my bad criminal." They seemed to be on the right track at that point and I would have helped them in some reasonable way if they had needed it. I would not have gone on a date with their criminal friends no matter how awesome they potentially were. Some how this idea from my childhood has made me sympathize with these social rejects. Maybe it's my bright and shiny wisdom shining though or maybe I'm a saint. But I've always wondered what would happen if we actually did help the wanted.