'You're Fired!': Thrift store tells employee who just wanted to live - EVRYBDY News: August 21, 2025

Today is Thursday, August 21, 2025 and you are reading EVRYBDY News—news for everybody, about everybody.

This is what everybody (should be) talking about:

Jenny Wright

Imagine working an hourly job, barely scraping by, when a sudden bolt of pain grips your chest. You wonder, “Is this the big one?” The ache is joined by shortness of breath, so you tell your boss you need a hospital. Instead, they call you a taxi and order you to take a drug test.

Refusing to die for a paycheck, you go to the ER on your own. Hours later, you’re in surgery for heart failure. Five days in the hospital. Five days fighting for your life. And when you get out? You find out you’re fired, for having the audacity to survive.

That’s exactly what happened to Daloris Gonzales, a former cashier for the community-based nonprofit Arc Thrift Stores.

Daloris’ heart was giving out mid-shift. She begged for help only to be with corporate indifference. Instead of compassion, Arc demanded compliance. Instead of sending her to the hospital, they sent her for a drug test. Paperwork over pulse.

Here's what makes this worse: Arc Thrift Stores is a Colorado nonprofit that exists to help people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Their whole identity is built around caring for vulnerable people. When Daloris became vulnerable, Arc showed their true colors. They'll care for strangers in the name of PR, but help their own dying employee? That's where they draw the line.

Now Daloris is suing. The case doesn’t just expose one employer’s cruelty, it cuts through the facade of a nonprofit that cloaks itself in the language of care while treating its workers as disposable. God forbid a woman chooses to live when company policy says otherwise.

Jenny Wright

Here we go again. Another study from elite institutions, this time the University of Florida and University College London, wringing its hands over the fact that “daily pleasure reading” is on the decline. And who do they single out as the most “concerning” cases? Black Americans, rural residents and people with lower incomes or education. In other words: the same communities that academics and policymakers love to paint as broken, deficient or in need of saving.

Let’s call this out for what it is: racist and classist nonsense masquerading as research.

A “40% drop in daily pleasure reading” sounds like a crisis—if you assume that pleasuring reading, specifically the kind of reading these researchers valorize (novels, “literature”, maybe the New Yorker), is the only legitimate form of intellectual engagement. People are reading constantly, just not in the narrow way this study defines it.

The “concern” over declining reading habits reeks of moral panic masquerading as science. When Jill Sonke of UF warns that it’s “deeply concerning” that fewer people are reading, what she really means is fewer people are consuming culture in the ways that academics and policymakers believe are proper. The subtext is clear: if you’re Black, rural or poor and you’re not logging hours with a paperback, you’re failing yourself, your children and society. That’s not public health research—that’s cultural policing.

The proposed solutions reveal the study’s disconnect from reality for millions of Americans. Read with your kids. Join a book club. Go to your local library. Set aside “tech-free time.” Easy advice if you’re a tenured professor with salary and benefits. If you’re a person working two jobs, stuck on unreliable public transportation or raising a family without enough support, carving out leisure reading time is a luxury, not a moral failing. To wag fingers at people already stretched thin is both insulting and oblivious to the structural inequities at play.

Here’s what these solutions ignore: the same communities being criticized have had their access to traditional reading spaces systemically gutted. Libraries in low-income neighborhoods are chronically underfunded, with fewer books, fewer programs and reduced hours. In Philadelphia, more than half of branches have been forced to cut weekend and evening hours because of budget shortfalls. In Detroit, a city where 35% of residents live below the poverty line, libraries have struggled for years to stay open five days a week. Rural libraries often rely on volunteers and donations to survive. So when researchers shake their heads about declining “pleasure reading”, they’re ignoring the obvious: if people’s libraries are shuttered, understaffed or stripped bare, where exactly are they supposed to access the books they’re being scolded for not reading?

Black Americans are reading—whether its through dedicated online, legacy publications such as Baltimore Afro or modern written works that should be viewed as literature such as manga that have created an entire subculture for black enthusiasts. Rural communities stay connected through local papers, hunting guides and church bulletins. Working-class people scroll through Slack messages, group texts and community Facebook groups. Millions of Americans are consuming long-form journalism, essays and commentary online, often in formats far more interactive and immediate than a paperback novel.

Literacy today isn’t confined to the printed page. People engage critically with subtitles, digital archives, graphic novels, narrative video games and yes, audiobooks. These are all a part of multimedia literacy—each requiring comprehension, analysis and cultural fluency. In fact, 52% of U.S. adults have listened to an audiobook. So to frame this as a collapse in “reading” is to willfully erase the diverse ways people consume stories and information.

People aren’t reading less because they’ve lost interest or critical literacy skills. They’re reading less because they’re working more, because the digital landscape has changed how we share and tell stories and because systemic inequities keep certain communities exhausted and under-resourced.

If researchers actually cared about equity, they’d study why Americans have so little leisure time, why public schools are underfunded, why libraries keep closing and why policymakers gut arts programs every budget season. They’d ask how economic instability drains the joy of of daily living and they’d stop pretending that book clubs are the answer to structural collapse.

The problem isn’t that Black, rural and working-class folks aren’t reading enough novels. The problem is that elite researchers keep attempting to pathologize marginalized groups while refusing to examine the systems they themselves uphold.

To frame the decline of traditional reading as a cultural failure specific to Black, rural and working-class communities reinforces the same racist and classist assumptions academia has peddled for centuries: that poor people don’t value education, that Black people are culturally deficient, that rural people are backward.

Until academia learns that storytelling takes many forms and that structural inequities—not individual habits—are the real crises, these studies will continue to harm rather than amplify truth.

Jenny Wright

Sometimes the most beautiful stories begin with a simple question: "What if we could?" For Vanessa and Robert Williams of Camilla, Georgia, that question sparked something extraordinary, a beach adventure that would light up the lives of more than 30 children, many of whom had never left their town, no less than felt sand between their toes.

The couple didn't just dream of giving back to their community; they made it happen. With hearts full of determination and arms wide open to accept help, they transformed what seemed impossible into an unforgettable reality.

The couple knew these kids deserved to experience the joy of a real vacation and their vision inspired an entire community to take action.

The magic happened when volunteers and donors heard about the Williams' vision. The community rallied. Funds flowed in. Resources appeared. Transportation was arranged. What started as one couple's dream became everyone's mission.

Panama City Beach became the stage for pure joy as 30 children discovered the wonder of ocean waves for the first time. Laughter echoed across the sand as little feet danced in and out of the surfand wide eyes took in the endless horizon. The day continued at Dave and Busters, where games and giggles painted the perfect ending to a perfect adventure.

For Robert and Vanessa, watching those moments unfold was described as unforgettable. The couple expressed deep gratitude for the community support that made their vision possible.

This isn't the end of their story of giving. The Williams are already looking ahead, planning more opportunities to bring joy and new experiences to the children of Camilla. Because when community hearts beat together, there's no limit to the dreams that can come true.

Thank you for reading! Want more of EVRYBDY News? Follow us on Bluesky, Threads, Instagram and Facebook.