For those of you who read my blog and like my page, you know quite a bit about what I think, but not a lot about the person who's doing the thinking. Today, I'd like you to introduce you to someone: me.
First off, I'm a guy. I thought you should know this. Second, I'm a college student. Not a Mitt Romney "oh, we had to sell some stock to go to school, woe is us" college student, but a "man, I don't know if I can eat chicken ramen again today, maybe I'll just have it for lunch and then go with beef ramen for dinner" college student. I had to take out student loans and get Pell Grants to pay for my education, otherwise I'd still be stuck at home playing Napoleon: Total War instead of majoring in sociocultural anthropology at a state university. Back to Romney, his comments about every American being able to get "as much education as they can afford" really irked me: of course he could say that as a trust-fund baby, but what about the rest of us who can barely continue after high school without working multiple jobs, applying for as much free (and not-so-free) money as we can find, and/or basically selling ourselves into slavery in exchange for student loans that may one day kill us? The kind of plan that Romney puts forward in his statement is one that would leave the wealthy with all access to higher education while relegating the masses to under-educated serfdom. We can discuss serfdom in another post, but just let that point stand alone for now.
Speaking of money, I just got off the phone with my bank an hour or two ago. Thanks to all the mandatory purchases that go along with college- textbooks, an iClicker, rent, etc.- I literally have about $50 to spare this whole semester, provided I stretch my financial aid and possibly work two jobs. Due to a little error of mine in paying for all this, I got hit with an overdraft fee of $38. This turned into a $30 NSF fee on my rent check, which the Paula Deen-esque desk lady at my on-campus apartment said was "just a fact uh laahhf". This got me thinking about the Romneys and their comments about education in America and the ways in which they try to appear as if somehow in some esoteric way they can identify with my struggles as a human being, a student, and a voter (all at the same time).
The more I thought about this, the more furious I became. I don't get furious very often, as any regular on my page can attest, but this was just one big compounding event of fury that really stuck out to me as a way to highlight the disparity between Mitt and me. I'm not talking about religious differences or anything of that nature. What I'm talking about is his ability to empathize with me and others who share similar problems.
In high school, we are shown the same chart; you know, the bar graph that shows relative lifetime earnings based on the level of education we attain. "An AA degree will earn you x," they say, "and a BA will earn you y" and so on. Well, I have two AAs and I'm not exactly making five figures here... Anyways, this chart is supposed to motivate us all to get a higher education and earn lots of money. If we were to assume that this chart is true, you'd think that a society that truly values education as a mechanism of social mobility would want education to be as accessible as possible. You would be right. The problem is that our society doesn't really think like that, at least the guys on top don't. Instead, we get people like Mitt who want education to be a luxury, not a right. Instead, we get guys like the GOP representatives in Congress that want to increase student loan interest rates and cut Pell Grants (which can only be used by the poor). Instead we get a sociopolitical environment that seems to prize ignorance over ingenuity and obedience over objectivity.
If we are to succeed as a nation, much less as a competitor in a global economy that is beginning to favor other nations over our own, this has to change. Fortunately, the easiest way to choose between these two polar alternatives is to vote this November. It really is that simple, at least in the short term.
If you have a similar experience to mine, please share it in the comments.
