Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Life's tough, UC students, get used to it
San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 11/26/9 | Ruben Navarrette Jr.

Posted on 11/26/2009 11:12:49 AM PST by SmithL

When the make-love-not-war generation finally got around to having kids, they were so proud of their accomplishment that they fawned over the little darlings and protectively adorned their minivans with yellow caution signs that warned of precious cargo: "Baby on Board."

Now, after many years of being told they were special and entitled to endless conveniences and a life without turmoil, the children are grown up. And the University of California system, which has recently endured student protests and arrests over a fee hike, has to contend with the byproduct: Brats at the Gates.

The protests erupted after UC regents voted to increase tuition by 32 percent to help close a $535 million budget gap. University officials say the fee increase will raise $505 million and prevent more cuts into student services.

Hundreds of students have turned out at campuses throughout the state. Fourteen students were arrested at UCLA, where the regents were meeting. Forty-one were arrested at UC Berkeley. More than 50 students were arrested at UC Davis. And about 70 occupied a university building at UC Santa Cruz for three days, before finally evacuating when threatened with arrest. Officials say some of those students may still be arrested and charged with damaging university property.

...Moreover, those of us who complain that the Twitter generation is apathetic should be encouraged that students finally awoke and took to the streets - for any cause at all.

And so the protesters might actually have come out of this looking good - if they had never opened their mouths. But they did, and some of what came out was ludicrous. The rest was downright offensive, especially when students broke out in choruses of "We Shall Overcome."

(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Government; Politics/Elections; US: California
KEYWORDS: entitledyouts; goldenstate; uc

1 posted on 11/26/2009 11:12:54 AM PST by SmithL
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: SmithL
Congratulations, UC students. Your college is The One's number one campaign contributor, and your Queen Nancy told you she was gonna "Make it easier" for you to go to college.

Your "Make it easier", you dopes, is cheaper, gubmint-guaranteed college loans, which causes your schools to jack up your tuition rates even faster.

Not that you're smart enough to put two and two together, but:

You voted for this.

2 posted on 11/26/2009 11:19:14 AM PST by FlyVet
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SmithL

...and who did these students, and their families vote for in 2008...2006...2004...2002...

As Rush likes to say, elections have consequences. They have voted to bankrupt the state and now complain that there is no money.


3 posted on 11/26/2009 11:19:16 AM PST by BobL (Real Men don't use Tag Lines)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: BobL

These poor college kids. (sarcasm)

Yes a 30+% increase in their costs is huge. But, are we saying that going to college is a “right”, and that there is a “right” to go to college at a certain cost out of pocket?

They will have to tighten their belts and plan their budgets. But this is something that we all do in the real world every day. This is a good life lesson for these kids. Maybe some will have to work their way through college. Maybe some will have bigger loans to pay back. But they will still make the needed adjustments to make it work. And the smart ones will adapt and get through it without all these protest marches.


4 posted on 11/26/2009 11:28:58 AM PST by Dilbert San Diego
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: SmithL
The protests erupted after UC regents voted to increase tuition by 32 percent

I don't see why they shouldn't be allowed to protest. Thirty-two percent is a HUGE increase. Heck, I complained when my cleaners went up 50% on the wash & fold, from $1 a pound to $1.50 a pound.

5 posted on 11/26/2009 11:29:55 AM PST by my_pointy_head_is_sharp
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SmithL
These kids obviously can't take a punch. How are they supposed to compete one day - not just in the United States but also around the globe? Life is full of disappointments, challenges and setbacks

All America is taking a punch. It's part of the spreading the wealth due to the communists King Obama's taking America down. Millions lost jobs. Spending has fallen off to save for the up and coming depression. Retail tax went up here in Kalifornia. Regan income tax will be not renewed and current income tax increased 10%. On and on. We all are suffering so get used to it. Anyway what good is your education if there are no jobs for your pressure as@. I'm pis@ed.

6 posted on 11/26/2009 11:30:47 AM PST by Logical me (Oh, well!!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SmithL

Berkeley students have always been silly, spoiled brats. Well, at least since the Sixties.


7 posted on 11/26/2009 11:33:40 AM PST by kaehurowing
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SmithL
There is nearly an irresistible impulse toward mocking young people who are ever eager for more free stuff as some sort of birthright. But I don't think the author will be quite so sanguine about the whole thing when he/she realizes that these students are incurring six-figure educational loan debts to keep up and that there's only one place they'll be looking to for debt relief - the taxpayer. Would the Dems really run up the deficit still more if it garnered them guaranteed votes from the students they're bailing out? Hell yes they will, and blame the Republicans for it to boot.

I smile a little at the obligatory sneering at the Boomers. A freshman matriculating this year was born, on the average, in 1991. Her parents weren't shouting "peace and love" in the 60's. Most of them weren't born yet.

8 posted on 11/26/2009 11:33:50 AM PST by Billthedrill
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Dilbert San Diego

“But, are we saying that going to college is a “right”, and that there is a “right” to go to college at a certain cost out of pocket?”

Actually, I don’t completely agree. I think that the students do have a right to expect reasonably stable prices while they attend, and that failure to keep the prices stable is a failure of the government. That’s why I like to take them back to the voting booth when they complain, and explain that this is the government they voted for.


9 posted on 11/26/2009 11:43:39 AM PST by BobL (Real Men don't use Tag Lines)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: SmithL

It’s going to get worse for you UC students. When you have lost your freedom; you will be made to work for the government; lose your cell phone, your tv, your car, trips to the mall, trips to just about anywhere without permission; your abiity to make a good living and to suceed.

Oh you hope and changey voters; you are in for a very rough ride.


10 posted on 11/26/2009 11:45:08 AM PST by freekitty (Give me back my conservative vote; then find me a real conservative to vote for)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: FlyVet

“But university officials claim that students whose families make less than $70,000 a year will have their tuition covered.”

There is a big part of the problem. If this group were required to pay at least $1,000-$2,500 each, I’ll bet that the tuition increase required would have been considerably less. Maybe the kids who are getting the free ride could work a little bit to earn part of their tuition.


11 posted on 11/26/2009 12:18:34 PM PST by Avid Coug
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: SmithL
After I got back from Vietnam ... I financed the first 3 of my 5 degrees with the GI Bill and a full time job working the midnight shift stock shelves at a grocery store ... and I was married. My parents gave me exactly zip towards my college education. I have very little sympathy for these poor babies

On another note I was recently rejected for employment by a company because I went to a state university instead of a big name school. I guess the hiring manager didn't think my school was good enough for his pompous company. I guess they would rather have the person who could afford a fancy name school rather than someone who worked their way thru a state university.

12 posted on 11/26/2009 12:42:12 PM PST by clamper1797 (Would you hold my hand ... If I saw you in heaven ... to my angel in heaven)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: BobL
As Rush likes to say, elections have consequences. They have voted to bankrupt the state and now complain that there is no money.






 
THE ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPER
 
 This one is a little different:   Two Different Versions  --   Two Different Morals
 

OLD VERSION
 
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter..
The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away..
Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.
The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.
 
MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself!
 
 

MODERN VERSION
 
 The ant works hard in the withering heat and the rain all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.
Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while he is cold and starving.
CBS, MSNBC, NBC , PBS, CNN, CNBC, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.
America is stunned by the sharp contrast.
How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?
Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper and everybody cries when they sing, 'It's Not Easy Being Green.'
ACORN stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house where the news stations film the group singing, We Shall Overcome.
Then Rev. Jeremiah Wright has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper's sake, and to Damn America.
President Obama condemns the ant and blames President Bush, President Reagan, Christopher Columbus, and the Pope for the grasshopper's plight.
Nancy Pelosi & Harry Reid exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.
Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer.
The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Government Green Czar and given to the grasshopper.
The story ends as we see the grasshopper and his free-loading friends finishing up the last bits of the ants food while the government house he is in, which, as you recall, just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around them because the grasshopper doesn't maintain it.
The ant has disappeared in the snow, never to be seen again.
The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident, and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the ramshackle, once prosperous and once peaceful, neighborhood.
The entire Nation collapses bringing the rest of the free world with it.
 
MORAL OF THE STORY: Be careful how you vote in 2010.
 
 

I've sent this to you because I believe that you are an ant, not a grasshopper!
Make sure that you pass this on to other ants.
Don't bother sending it on to any grasshoppers because they wouldn't understand it, anyway.
 

13 posted on 11/27/2009 4:38:29 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Elsie

Thanks, I’m definitely the ant. I’ve stored up EVERY non-perishable item that I can think of, down to shoe laces. I’m also stocking up on more expensive stuff, since I know it’s only a matter of time before our currency is devalued, and things become much more expensive, and potentially unavailable (if we get into price controls again...which would not surprise me with this bunch).

So I consider myself in pretty good shape...for a while.


14 posted on 11/27/2009 5:51:37 AM PST by BobL (Real Men don't use Tag Lines)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson