Posted on 01/30/2007 10:33:58 AM PST by .cnI redruM
I don't know why Higher Education has attracted so many vampires and leeches. I'm not even talking about [url=http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~rjensen/index.html] Dr. Robert Jenson,[/url] the [url=http://www.thefire.org/index.php/case/667.html] Illustrious Ward Churchill,[/url] or even the genuinely hostile [url=http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/011035.php] Sami Al Arian.[/url] The professors seem like pikers in comparison to the greedy, bloodsucking politicians.
Senator Teddy Kennedy has a long-established reputation for sucking it down. I could stop the article here, and people would misunderstand. We'll drive off the bridge of his personal habits on some other blog post.
What Senator Blobnoxious has inflicted upon us today is another opportunity for us to be charitable with our hard-earned salaries. It will be his charity; our Dough-Re-Mee. It's amazing how often modern liberalism works that way.
It seems Ted Kennedy doesn't like the idea of young, idealistic people who work in public service, having to pay back their student loans. He thinks it would be nicer if the government just paid off the delinquent debts of anyone who managed to shoe-horn their way into a GS position, or virtually any other nook or cranny of the burgeoning public sector.
I'll admit my bias upfront here. I work in public service; I've worked in military service. I've also worked in the private sector, wallowing in the Saturnine grandiloquence of my very own apathy and greed. And furthermore, I’ve paid back every dime of my student loans; sans the charity of Big, Fat Ted.
And like the [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Grumpy_Old_Man#A_Grumpy_Old_Man] Grumpy Old Man of SNL fame;[/url] I liked it!!! OK, maybe not, perhaps I even griped a little. But the bottom line is this. The person who borrows is responsible for repaying. Opportunity is available; it’s neither free nor guaranteed.
According to Malcolm A. Kline of CampusReportOnline, that just isn’t good enough for Good Old Teddy.
“We will also grant loan forgiveness to any college student who enters a public service profession,” Senator Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., [url=http://www.campusreportonline.net/main/articles.php?id=1454] promises in his proposal.[/url]
“Your obligation is completed in full if you work in public service within ten years of graduation,” He pandered further.
His audience consisted of the sort of person whom you’d associate defects like voting for Ted Kennedy. Paul Perry—a bright, personable political science major from American University. “Last year, to pay for my education, I had to work in a restaurant for three whole days every week,” Perry told the capacity crowd.
I remember working in the malls and the restaurants and the retail emporiums to pay rent on a crappy fire trap of an apartment. I remember borrowing more than I ever thought I’d be worth to get the sheepskin I wanted. These experiences are tough and demanding. They teach what academia doesn’t; humility.
If a young person really wants to serve, they need to learn first to be humble. Grace and selfless sacrifice are the virtues necessary to a legitimately altruistic public servant. Those virtues are taught through a certain leavening process that involves a small dose of humiliation, coupled with financial angst. It tempers us and rids us of our misconceptions.
Ted Kennedy’s proposal makes it all a cradle to grave joy ride. It extends the ride through soft America. This is great for the rider, until the bus reaches its destination. Then they get the 1040 Form in the mail, and it’s their turn to pay someone else’s exorbitant fare.
"Public service" indeed! Wasn't it a Kennedy (I forget which) who originated the use of the term "public service" for politicians?
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