Census makes sense

When you are filling out your 2010 Census form, you are not only making a statement about what resourses your community needs going forward, you are also acquiring accurate data that reflects changes in your community that are crucial in apportioning seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and deciding how more than $450 billion dollars per year gets allocated for projects like new hospitals and schools.

The U.S. Census’ 2010 jobs benefit everybody. Currently, students, veterans and criminal felons are all able to take the administered 30-minute, basic-skills, multiple-choice test. The 2010 Census jobs are recruiting temporary, part-time census takers for the 2010 Census. Although they are short-term jobs, they provide good pay, flexible hours, paid training and reimbursement for authorized work-related expenses, such as mileage incurred while conducting census work.

And, if the Oregon Census 2010 counts right, we will likely gain another seat in the House of Representatives this year, as we only missed it by 140,000 people in 2000.

The Census does not limit you from getting hired if you have a criminal record. If you are a felon taking a multiple-choice test against someone with a bachelor’s degree in economics, you are not disqualified because if you score higher than the other candidate, you still have an equal chance, if not a better chance, than getting a job with the Census. In other words, this does not necessarily disqualify you from obtaining a job with the Census.

This is a huge benefit as most of us are used to being required to mark the little box on all applications or exams we take as to which race or nationality we are. Even if someone says it is “not required,” you almost feel like it will disqualify you even more if you don’t bubble in the appropriate letter with a No. 2 pencil.

Residents themselves have used census data to support community initiatives involving environmental legislation, quality-of-life issues and consumer advocacy. According to the U.S. Census 2010 Web site, low-income families have clearly been targeted in this study because “the Organic Consumers Association used census data to lobby the Environmental Protection Agency to halt testing dangerous chemicals on low-income children in Florida.”

Although many people still have doubts about the U.S. Census, a comment in The Oregonian was made regarding the government using results from the 1940 Census “to round up Japanese-Americans after the attack of Pearl Harbor. They sent them to internment, prison camps up and down the West Coast.”

Oregonians should not forget that especially in times like these, employed people in any community means better business in the community. Moreover, the more people can work together, the more they can make sure their communities and organizations are properly represented in the $450 billion distributed annually in federal, state, local and tribal funds.