Here is how I spent two hours of my Friday last week:
This all started last week when I and DA went to a legislative conference for an organization that I shall leave nameless. We went to a panel entitled, “IOU (I Owe Univeristy): Higher Education Funding in the current Economic Climate”. This panel was going to discuss the problems with student debt as well as provide solutions to the problem. This panel was specifically targeting a specific ethnic group while at the same time providing information about racial and ethnic backgrounds represented in higher education (but please take that with a grain of salt because they did not disaggregate the data for Asian American-Pacific islander and Latino students). They mentioned California a couple of times. They mentioned current day facts without at all talking about why this is happening or what policies were instituted years ago to make sure that there is an educational gap for low income and students of color. For example, you cannot state that schools with predominantly African American and Latino students in California lack the investment in college attendance because of lack of resources when there have been policies like prop. 13 that have made sure those low income students will never get the same funding and educational resources to continue their education. I was starting to get dis invested from the presentation.
At this point in the session, I figured it was just going to be a presentation on data that people already knew instead of actually hitting on the issues of why these disparities in education have happened and how we can overcome them. Halfway through this panel, I was thinking about how this was probably a waste of time for me to come to…….until HE came up to present.
Up next was this one dude who worked for an organization that does policy research. During his opening speech, he said something that not only made me FURIOUS, but also made me realize why I was so bothered by the panelist. Here is what he said, “I am glad that **** brought us panelist together. Even though we all work for different organizations or government agencies, I am glad to call all these people my friend. Three of the four of us actually used to work for the same company called Salle Mae before moving to where we are now”……..SALLIE MAE!! Yes, that’s right, Sallie Mae. The same private loan lender that is one of the main reason why students are in debt in the first place! Aside from also mentioning facts by previous presenters, he suggested students need to start taking initiative in finding resources to fund their education such as private grants and donors.
The last panelist was supposed to talk about how students can deal with the debt, but 20% of her whole presentation was about student loan debt, and rest of the time was ALL ABOUT HER. She talked about her new book coming out, how she has ran for office, how she has ran campaigns to educate students, how her life was growing up in California, how it was going to Howard University 20 years ago. I hate it when people use a public forum about a serious issue for self promotion. She then talks about the work she did with Sallie Mae. She said that she used to have Sallie Mae programmed in her phone and she would always tell her family members to program Sallie Mae’s phone number into their cell phones because it was “another source of financial aid”. She went to talk about how to deal with student debt and how students have to stop wasting money the moment they get it. She said students need to stop spending money on fancy clothes and cell phones and start thinking about our education and students need to actually make an effort to learn about the money out there. I just do not understand how someone can talk about the problems of student debt in the same presentation where she is asking everyone to program Sallie Mae into their phones. She is perpetuating the problem while at the same time taking away any responsibility from private lenders and putting the blame on students .She ended her speech by saying this, “I am going to leave you with valuable advice that will help you in the future, ’Yesterday is a canceled check, tomorrow is a promissory note, and today is cash, spend wisely’”. What in the world does that supposed to mean?!? If I even wanted her advice, I would have wanted a call to action or at least a website so I can learn more about student debt, but instead she just gave a quote! Currently, there is the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act that will go through the Senate. This is probably one of the biggest legislation that will help students in a very long time. For the panel to not mention this legislation is a missed opportunity. We need to make sure that policies like this one pass so that our education systems steer away from privatization.
Ok, so aside from me being very aggravated, I realized how we need a shift in the way we see policy, especially at conference that are supposed to help students of color and low income students. We need to start focusing on how to keep Universities, school systems, and private lenders accountable to the need of students instead of focusing on legislation that alleviates some of the problems that are created by these institutions. Throughout that whole presentation, not once did they talk about any current or future policies that can help students. Using a space that brings together so many people to just simply address a problem is not the best way to use that time. We should not be dependent on private lenders and private donations to deal with the huge budget cuts our schools are facing and the increasing student fees that are affecting students across the country. We should be focusing on equality and equity of an education. Telling students they are financially irresponsible and lack the resources to go to college is wrong. There are so many social barriers that must be broken in order to make sure that everyone has the same opportunities to go to college.
Students are not to be blamed for the economic downfall of higher education. I am glad that students continue to make their voices heard; whether it was the thousands of UC students who walked out last week, the hundreds of Arizona students who rallied last year or other demonstrations across the country, students are making their voice heard.
Call your representative, write a letter, write an Op-ed, tell your friends, tell your family, do whatever you can to make your voice heard to make sure that students are not used as the scapegoats while the real cause of the problems we are having continue to profit.
Signing my monthly student loan payment check,
-DM
This post is not to talk about my views on this Health care debate. If you want to know where I stand on this whole issue, check out this video:
I know people have different views on this whole health care debate. What gets me is the people who link this issue with other social issues. I saw the VA townhall that Senator Mark Wanrer was holding on television today. People had stickers that read "Guns save Lives". People in the crowd demanded Warner to make sure that no funding from the health care bill go to helping or conducting adoptions, stop helping communist agendas pass through our United States Congress, and the most tangential of them all, the comments they made on President Obama.
I woman said, "In all my life, I have seen 11 people hold the oval office, and for the first time, I feel like the person holding that office currently is not a patriot. How can we have somebody who does not believe in American values shaping our Health Care system". When I first heard this, I was FURIOUS at the fact that this woman used the Health Care townhall as a way to channel her personal ignorance on our President. When she finished, the majority of the crowd cheered, which also bothered me.
The problem is not about speaking her mind about the President, it was about the implications in her statement and the reasoning of her judgment. When a white conservative woman is questioning our President's commitment to this country, I can not help but connected back to race and the way people feel about a person of color having the highest elected position in this country. Questioning his patriotism goes beyond question his nationality and commitment to this country. The most ludicrous argument that people use is saying that they want their country back. WTF?!? Your country back? Where did it go? Who took it away? Are you claiming Obama took your country away? If that is the case, is this country not his also? What will it take for you to get your country back?
Questioning his patriotism goes beyond this health care reform. During the campaign, people were throwing everything at him to attempt to smear him and make the mass population taint him as something other than a true American. People attempted to say that he was not born on American land, he was tied to terrorist, picture him as a Muslim terrorist, question his religion and ties to religious leaders, questioning his "blackness", smear him as an ultra liberal just because he was a person of color, and many more myths and lies that paraded around multiple news sources.
No other President in the United States has dealt with these accusations. One reason is because for the first time in American history, the leader of this country does not represent the privileged population in this country. Because of this, people feel it is free game to accuse him of malicious networks and ill intentions towards this country just so people can affirm their discomfort. The fact a small majority want him to fail and will do EVERYTHING they can to see it happen disturbs me. Are they trying to prove that he is not a capable leader? What does that mean for me as a person of color? Will people think I took their country away if I ever get to where Obama is? Will I fail before I ever get a chance?
People are using the Health Care debate to attack a human being. To link Obama to Hitler, communism, and any other historically outside force that has threatened the essence of this country is wrong. People are using Town Halls and media outlets to taint his image and exude a leader who will take this country into the shit hole.
To be completely honest, I also do not see Obama as a savior of the United States. His political views are very different than mine and I think he is too centralist and should use this politically opportunity to tackle issues that may not even be able to be brought to the table. But I do not question him as a human being just because we do not agree politically.
So my message to all the townhallers and noisemakers on this health care debate: Just because you feel you are morally right does NOT mean you are going to win. Making the loudest noise will not mean people will pay attention to you more. Bring some ideas to the table instead of tactics that will get us no where as a country. Don't like his policies? Vote someone into office who's policies you do like.....but be prepared for a fight.
How do I see health care playing out in the next couple of months? I do not know, but I would want the discussion to be around HEALTH CARE and not about Obama.
A true Patriot,
-DM
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