Time to Start

I've been getting angry lately. There could be a huge variety of reasons. I could simply be missing interacting with other humans. Law school seems to do that to people. It's easier to suck someone's soul out when the only people a law student sees on a regular basis are other law students. Law school makes students feel so busy, their non-law school friends feel like phantoms in the night.

Or it could be the season. Yeah! A single christmas! Yeah - another Christmas Eve by myself. Yeah,  another evening with my parents, fox-news loving uncle, and grandparents with dementia so bad, we end up having the same conversation every five minutes. Their conversation always makes me feeling like I'm walking that infinity loop - over, and over and over.

It could be that I'm beginning to realize that I am different than most people I meet.  There are so many nice people in the world, but I like Doctor Who and Firefly, and they like Sons of Anarchy and some show about the wives of basketball players. I only recently learned that the show the Jersey Shore, had absolutely nothing to do about the ocean.  They give me odd looks when I mention that I loved the dress with the map of Middle Earth on it. And they don't understand why I don't swear or drink more. I don't understand while people feel the need to get drunk every weekend.

But I really think it's this country we are living in. A country that is so greedy, that we don't even realize we are greedy.  We are willing to sell our souls, our children's future, our entire planet - our home, in the name of cheap.

Today's argument is the cost of tuition.

How many people in positions of power right now went to public universities? I don't know, I don't have the numbers, but I suspect a lot of them. The UC system was highly, highly respected at one point. To get in and to graduate from a UC really meant something. I honestly don't know if it still has that reputation today. The people in my parents generation, all the way up to my generation had it good. We had this quality education. We had it cheap. We might have had to pull a few minor loans, but most people managed to get by fairly decently.

And now, these people, the ones that got these benefits, are now the people in charge. These are the people making money. These are the people making decisions.  These are the people who are in our government, supposedly fighting for us, their constituents.

They should be fighting to make sure their children have the same benefits they had. They should be using their position, their money, to give back to their community, just like their parents did. Their parents paid for their education by paying taxes, but now they want their children to pay for their own education by taking out loans. These people got of scott free. They took. They took their education and their their knowledge from their parents, and they are using that education and knowledge to take that benefit from their children, from the next generation. They got their education on a loan, a loan to pay back when their children went to college. And you know what? They reneged on that loan. They are reneging with millions of dollars in the back, with millions in off-shore funds, hummers and beamers, and 2,000+ square foot house. They are backing out on their end of the bargain of a damn good cheap education, and keeping the benefits for themselves. Selfish bastards.

And what is being done? Nothing. The students are scared to death. They can't afford to lose a semester's tuition by striking. Most parents can't afford to lose the little money they are able to give them. And so nothing happens. People sit on their hands. Complain about the costs, the fees, and about how students have to have start of life with debt equivalent of a house already on their hands,  before they even start their life. And nothing happens.

Oh yes, there was the pepper spray incident. That went viral for a week and who mentions it now? Look what happened in Canada when there was a raise in tuition. The largest act of civil disobedience in history in canada. 400,000 - 500,000 people marched on Montreal one day. Could you imagine if this country could get that many people to fight for something? Could you imagine the impact if every single UCD student stopped going to class and fought for a change in our system? You can bet I'd take the day off work and march right along with them. But it's not going to happen. People are sitting on their butts, watching TV and not realizing what could happened if they fought.

Where is the anger of the 60's-70's? Where is the willingness to make sure our government works for us? Where is the government's fear of us? They should be doing what's is best for the country, not for their damn pockets!

We need someone. Not Obama, I like Obama, but he's not the one. He's scared of his reputation and has a need to work in the system. We need someone out side the system to make them listen to us. I feel like once you are elected, you learn the politics and forget the world.  A one-way mirrors surrounds every capital in the country. The people on the inside see only themselves. The people on the outside don't have any chance of being seen or heard. Someone needs to yell and scream and tear down those mirrors. Someone needs to get people excited and angry. Some one needs to argue for a non-violent (yes, I mean that) protests, to make us not afraid of pepper spray or a few hits or blows, because we are fighting for the people. We need a Martin Luther King. I want to follow someone like that. I want to be in their wake and help make the changes we need. I want a real leader.