Photo credit: Gero Geilenbruegge
“Hey, I’m Jack Evans. I used to be somebody, but now I’m here and I’m the DJ for the night,” joked former Councilmember Jack Evans at a book launch for Beth Solomon’s From Fired to Fabulous. “I won’t be spinning records later, but I’m very happy to be here and welcome all of you to Martins. I wanted to talk a little bit about how I know Beth and some of the ups and downs that we’ve all had. I first met Beth when she was outside my house, picketing my house. True story. We were planning to build a new convention center and she and her group didn’t want the convention center and I was supporting it on the council. And so they came to my house and picketed. My children were very young at the time, and I remember my daughter saying, dad, there’s a parade outside.”
“I didn’t think there would be a parade. And indeed it wasn’t. It was Beth. So time goes on, Convention Center got built. I got a call one day from her and she said, ‘I’d like to get together with you for lunch.’ And I was like, ‘Wow, this is the person for whom I was the devil incarnate and she’s calling me up for lunch. Apparently, she was in a class where the project was to call up the person you liked the least and take them out for lunch and see if you could establish a camaraderie. So I was the Guinea pig and we went out to lunch together.”
Marilyn Thompson and Jack Evans. Photo credit: Janet Donovan
“We spent a lot of time working on projects together, being supportive of each other as times went on. And what Beth has done is written a book that talks about people who have ups and downs, which is all of us. There are times when you’re on top of the world and there are times when you’re at the bottom of the mountain and nobody can speak better to that than I can. I’ve seen the tops and I’ve seen the bottoms. And her book is more about what do you do when it happens to you. What do you do when you get fired, so to speak. And how you cope with that and how you come back from it. And I think you have to read this because it’s excellent. Beth has been fired a lot.”
Staff at Martin’s celebrate with Beth
“So many of you in this room were there when you got fired or I got fired. And we’ve been through this together. And as Jack said, I’ve been fired a lot. I’ve been fired more than anyone I know. I used to be embarrassed by it. But then I realized there was a story in it. Every time it was financially terrifying and of course, humiliating. You feel like you’re an embarrassment to your family. I don’t know how many times my brother had to explain to the kids that Beth got fired again.”
Lynly Boor and Beth Solomon
“But as Jack knows, from just the ups and downs of politics, it was a catapult to better jobs, more opportunities, and building friendships of steel and a better life. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend that you get fired as much as I did, but you want to try it sometime just to prove how valuable it can be. My path of terminations, stumbles, and belly flops led me into this room here with you. So my dear friends, I hope you enjoy the book. I want everybody to have a copy. It’s up here and you can use it as a door stop or a fly swat. It’s not that thick.”
