I try to keep out of politics, I honestly do. I figure, "Let those dumbasses, the whole lot of them, deal with the shit they're plunging their respective countries into." I don't care if you're conservative, liberal, green, black, purple, white, or whatever, I'm pretty tolerant.
But this is getting out of hand. Economies are crashing, people are being plunged into economic disparity and chaos, except for the "1%."
You're probably thinking, "Oh here we go, another Occupier." Yes, yes I am. And let me tell you why I support Occupy Wall Street.
1. I plan on being in the teaching profession, educating and influencing young minds and pushing them to go to a great profession, to succeed in life, AND professional athletes are making more than me. Now I get it, athletes are talented and it's their job to play a sport, I understand that better than most people being an athlete on a Varsity College team. But the digits A-Rod and the Jets linebacker are making is beyond the scope of what people, who by the way are the ones who educated them and got them to college where many athletes' careers bloomed, are making less money in two or three years than what some professional athletes make in one year.
2. I'm still in college. And mommy and daddy are only paying for 4 years. After that, I'm on my own for Graduate School, which would increase my chances of getting a job. But I don't have money, because like a lot of people, I'm in the lower middle class, and I will have to get a loan that will drive me into debt and will have to spend the rest of my life paying off. Why? Because mommy and daddy don't have the money to pay for my education that will last for more than 4 years. I'm not blaming my parents, I'm grateful for the 4 years and for dealing with my shit, and to be honest, I have it better than some of my friends. But that's the point, if I'm going to be plunged into debt that will take years to pay off just for Graduate School, how are my friends and every other college student that needs loans going to pay off school.
We are the generation that owes our education to the banks.
3. As pointed out in numero due, I'm still in college. Duh, I brought that up already, so what? Well, I'm supposed to graduate college with a degree, get a job, and begin my servitude to society for raising me into the responsible human being that I am. But the job market is crashing, teachers are getting laid off and the economy is going to hell in a hand-basket, to be cliche. So, what? I'm supposed to be this great member of society that educates young minds on a salary that is meager compared to a professional athlete, yeah I get summers off and a winter break, and I will probably work 182 days out of the year. BUT that's if I even get the job. Not only that, but I will be dealing with all the shit stuck-up parents who are overly involved in their children's lives and want me to baby them. I will be dealing with students who are even worse off than me in the economic rat race, and I will be, at some point, be paying out of pocket for their lunches, supplies, maybe even for a pair of shoes. And, hopefully, if they get their grades up and join a sport, they will go on to be great athletes making more money than the person who got them there.
4. Never mind the disadvantages faced by teachers, what about everyone else? The job market sucks for everyone. The education system is failing miserably and that's a huge problem. We're leaving the important decisions to groups of people who are earning earmarks and getting away with a lot of things, everything but probably murder. Which by the way, we have been doing for more than a century now. They're making money off the wars in which brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, nieces, and nephews are fighting and dying in. These are someone's children, and they're being slaughtered because we want to maintain a faux warfare economy that really isn't a warfare economy, just because all these politicians and corporations are making money from these wars.
5. Education. Yes. Education. I know, I'm a future teacher. Yeah, I know that I should be all for education. But it's more than that. Education is how people advance through society. It gives people the chance to get a degree and try their hand at an occupation, possibly moving up and making more money than they probably could have dreamed of. And then there's one of the biggest, most important fact about education. Education is what makes the government fear us, and they should fear us. "We the people..." not "We the corporations and millionaires..." But the people! Yes, in the 18th and 19th Century, our definition of a person was a lot different than it is now. But we're better than that! This is the 21st Century, people have the chance for a better education, for healthcare, for the chance to succeed within society but it starts with education.
Education was always different in the United States. It originally revolved around usefulness and utilitarian ideals of getting a nation going and whatnot. Not about trivial matters, like mathematics, science, history, art, music, and so on. This was in the 19th Century, when we had a nation to build. Then in the 20th Century, the Cold War forced us to push math and sciences. But now these subjects are falling short behind other nations; history is being pushed further back with art and music. What does this have to do with Occupy? Education is needed for everyone, even the Occupiers, because we are far from perfect. But I can tell you one thing, we don't care about perfection. We care that Capitalism and Democracy have become synonymous, when they are fundamentally different in an extreme way. We care that teachers no longer have jobs and so do many other people in many other fields. We care that your future is just as screwed as our's, even if you are an ultra conservative person that thinks everything's great. We care that this once great country is considering imposing a bill on the American people that will take away our fundamental rights provided to us by the Bill of Rights in the Constitution. We care that people's children are dying for wars that did not have to involve us. And we care where this once great land mass of people with different ideals and cultures, that was at the forefront of technology, that was known for its freedom from persecution, is going because this is our country, and we want to take it back from the few.
The direct use of force is such a poor solution to any problem, it is generally employed only by small children and large nations. ~David Friedman
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