You just had to do that, didn’t you, Fox Nation?!
Oh they got even more snarky since checked 10 minutes ago!
Here we go…
It’s true. Allowing gay people to marry can be described as a war, in which people die horrific deaths, homes and families are torn apart, and lives are destroyed. Damn you, Mr. President…. we just got out of a war and there you go starting another. PEOPLE ARE GOING TO DIE!
| — | A excerpt from my essay Clashing Ideologies: The Traditionalist and the Progressive, an examination of the historical differences between the left and the right. This can be located in its entirety with a handful of my other essays on politics, education, and history (still in the process of being edited for minor errors, but available anyway) on my writing blog. |
Earlier, I read the following headline:
“Romney Silent as Woman Says Obama Should Be Tried For Treason”
And my brain interpreted it as:
“Romney silent as woman,” says Obama. “Should be tried for treason”
I was really confused for a moment as I tried to figure out what the President was talking about. This is why I shouldn’t read the news when I’m this sleepy.
A lot of my education major friends from college are still hunting for that elusive permanent teaching job. When we talk, I recognize how fortunate I am and I do my best to remain positive as we speak, despite a job market outlook that is drearier than ever.
“All you can do is keep applying,” I say, and those words are meaningless, perhaps insulting coming from someone who has a permanent position, but I don’t know what else to say. I am one of the lucky ones. Who am I to comment at all?
When we began our majors in the education field, we were told many things that happened to be true at the time: the baby boomers are about to retire! Demand for teachers surpasses the supply! This is a hot field to get in. Little did we know that when those baby boomers were to retire that their positions would be cut right along with them - large in part due to a lack of funding brought on by the Republican war on public education.
Like I said, I was one of the lucky ones - but not at first.
When I graduated from college three years ago, I had never felt so optimistic, so free, so excited by the endless opportunities presented to the young, energetic, slightly crazy 22 year old that I was. Without hesitation, I began applying all over the United States (and even in quite a few other countries). I figured if it were May, I would easily have a job lined up by June, which meant plenty of time to prepare myself for the big move and have fun in the meantime.
Then June came. Then June went.
I was still optimistic. Oh, people don’t even hire until July, I told myself. Then July came. I kept applying. I drove to Chicago without telling a soul at a last minute’s notice for a series of interviews (something I couldn’t remotely afford - thank you Mastercard), only to lose out after it came down only to me and a nice fellow who had been teaching in the Dallas area for three years. I broadened my search to states outside my preference area. I began to email principals directly after applying, attaching my resume and glowing letters of recommendation. I spent money getting certified in the states in which I was applying in order to demonstrate how serious I was about each job.
I applied for over 300 jobs that summer. I still have all the automated response emails in my Gmail, as some sort of relic reminding me of what it was like to sit at a computer from 10 AM to 10 PM entering the same information over and over and over. Some of those initial prospects came with interviews in which I felt confident afterwards. Most I never even received an email saying the position had been filled.
By August, I had ran out of money despite serving tables full-time.
Soon, I applied to sub in a more upscale school district about 10 miles outside of Erie.
That year passed and I learned a lot. I learned that subbing was a great experience in classroom management, quickly adapting to situations, and learning techniques to remember students names quickly. I also learned that with subbing came a culture of irresponsibility among myself and the other subs in the district, as we frequently closed the bar after a long day in Miss B’s or Mr. K’s or Ms. G’s (spending money that I didn’t have because I was a sub and this angered the younger, more arrogant me). We’d show up for work the next day looking fresh without anyone every suspecting our previous night’s ventures. Work was steady. There was rarely a day that I wasn’t in the school. Despite being a sub, I became a fixture in the school. I knew the kids and the kids all knew me. Despite switching up classes every day (until the last six weeks of the year, where I filled in for a teacher who went out for medical reasons), I really started feeling like a teacher. It was quite an interesting year - and despite the immaturity of my nights, the substitute teaching truly had a lot of value, both in learning the trade and growing up.
The next spring came and the application process started again. I hated the idea of going through it all again, but I started early. I applied for another 300+ jobs beginning the process in April… and then June came and June went once again. I remember going out to the bar with a group of friends, getting drunk, that stupid kind of drunk fueled by stress and bitterness, and for the first time angrily saying to them, “What the hell more do I need?” And my one friend replied without hesitation: “Experience.” The rub, of course, being that no one wanted to give me any.
I was still angry. I didn’t understand how my resume could be any better - stellar grades, great references, head coaching a state-winning Special Olympics basketball team - what the hell else did I need? Just experience, that bastard experience. The word echoed in my head, a demon hanging over my shoulder at all times.
July came and went. I had accepted the fact that I would be substitute teaching and waiting tables for another year. I considered going back to school full-time. At least my loans would be deferred then. I considered teaching English in South Korea as a friend of mine was, despite this being financially implausible due to my debt. I considered packing up all my shit and splitting town to move in with my cousin in L.A. to do who-knows-what.
Then the call came. Then the second call came.
It was August, I was serving tables and nearly broke, and I finally had two job offers. The journey had been rough. There was a lot of anger over feeling so completely lacking in control over the situation, despite feeling that I had so much to offer as a teacher, that I had so many great ideas if someone would just give me a chance - but then, in some surreal way, it worked out. I even had options. I was in control again.
So, if you’re about to begin the painful process of looking for a teaching job, know that it will not be fun. Know that it might not happen this year. Or even next. But like I tell my friends, all you can do is just keep applying. Eventually, it will work out and you will look back on those stressful, angry years certainly not with longing, but with a strange sense of nostalgia and satisfaction.
First of all, what the hell does it even mean to be the Year of the Bible? It doesn’t make any sense. What’s next year going to be: the Year of Harry Potter? Eat Pray Love? Are we going to sit back in 40 years, telling our grandchildren stories: “Oh, it was the summer of 2012 - the Year of the Bible, you must remember - when your Uncle Jimmy…”
Whatever the case, the Pennsylvania State House of Representatives unanimously approved in January a resolution that made this so. You can read the resolution here, but here’s the jist:
Declaring 2012 as the “Year of the Bible” in Pennsylvania.
WHEREAS, The Bible, the word of God, has made a unique contribution in shaping the United States as a distinctive and blessed nation and people; and
WHEREAS, Deeply held religious convictions springing from the holy scriptures led to the early settlement of our country; and
WHEREAS, Biblical teachings inspired concepts of civil government that are contained in our Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States; and
WHEREAS, Many of our great national leaders, among them President Washington, President Jackson, President Lincoln, President Wilson and President Reagan, paid tribute to the influence of the Bible in our country’s development, as exemplified by the words of President Jackson that the Bible is ”the rock on which our Republic rests”; and
WHEREAS, The history of our country clearly illustrates the value of voluntarily applying the teachings of the scriptures in the lives of individuals, families and societies; and
WHEREAS, This nation now faces great challenges that will test it as it has never been tested before; and
WHEREAS, Renewing our knowledge of and faith in God through holy scripture can strengthen us as a nation and a people; therefore be it
RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives declare 2012 as the “Year of the Bible” in Pennsylvania in recognition of both the formative influence of the Bible on our Commonwealth and nation and our national need to study and apply the teachings of the holy scriptures.
In reading the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, it clearly states in Article I, Section 3 that “no human authority can, in any case whatever, control or interfere with the rights of conscience, and no preference shall ever be given by law to any religious establishments or modes of worship.”
But that’s not even what pisses me off so much about this. This resolution is laughable at best and meaningless at worst. It’s a resolution of nothingness.
I’m pissed off because this is what our state reps are worried about.
Corbett has gone to great lengths to destroy PA’s public education system, strip the State System of Higher Education of much of its funding, further PA’s reputation as a prison state, refuse to create any sort of sustainable jobs, continue to legislate the interests of the oil and gas industries, and has done everything in his power to rid Pennsylvania of what made it such a great state… and this is what the state reps are spending their time on? This is what has Rick Saccone so proud that he has it framed up on his wall? Making 2012 the Year of the Bible?
What the hell is wrong with you people?
It’s time to stop using “-gate” as the suffix for every possible scandal slightly related to politics. Seriously, folks. There is even a Wikipedia entry listing them. It stopped being clever or cute sometime around 1976. Besides the fact that adding the suffix rarely makes any sense (“Get it? Because they’re both scandals!”), it’s even less clever or cute when they vast majority of people using such terms can’t even explain what Watergate is.
| — | Robert Reich, As Santorum and Romney Battle for the Loony Right, the Rest of Us Should Not Gloat (via sickeninglyliberal) |
Well-educated people also possess an enlarged capacity for independent thought. The ability to think, to develop belief systems that heed the higher callings of justice and empathy, serve as bulwarks against corrupt institutions that enforce blind obedience and destroy lives.
With such public good clearly evident to anyone who cares to look, one wonders why Gov. Tom Corbett persists in viewing public education as a private entitlement rather than a public investment. In only two years the governor will have slashed more money from higher education than all previous Pennsylvania governors combined since the Morrill Act [of 1862] was ratified.
Although Gov. Corbett has not stated his agenda explicitly, one can surmise from his actions that he would greatly reduce public support for higher education and transfer the state’s educational obligations to private or for-profit online schools.
Such a move would be a disaster for Pennsylvania. In the first place, for-profit online schools - the kind Charles Zogby managed before he became Mr. Corbett’s budget director - have a dismal record of achievement. Despite the copious influx of venture capital and student financial aid, for-profit universities such as Capella, Phoenix and Walden have an aggregate graduation rate of only 22 percent - an astounding 43 percentage points below the Pennsylvania public college average.
| — | My former English professor and drinking friend brilliantly tears apart Governor Corbett’s proposed slashes to higher education in Pennsylvania’s latest budget. |
Tom Corbett, governor of Pennsylvania, announced today that he will once again be pushing forward his agenda aimed at hindering the lower and middle class citizens of his state.
It is class warfare.
I’m not being provocative. That’s not an extreme statement used by the left to ignite fear as dutiful and blindly loyal Republicans claim. Corbett’s alternative in his “refusal” to raise taxes is class warfare and it’s bullshit.
Because cutting state funding to higher education assistance - particularly when tuition and fees are on the rise due to Corbett’s proposed 20-30% cuts to PA’s colleges and universities - is a form of raising taxes and it’s on those who can least afford it: the lower and middle class. Decreasing deficit by cutting funding is taxation under a different name. It’s pretty simple.
The rich have no problem paying a few thousand extra bucks in tuition and fees. Guess who does? People who are going to college and living paycheck to paycheck. Young people who were like me, who paid for college 100% out of their own pocket. No parental assistance. Not a penny. Every single dollar mattered to me as I busted my ass year-round as a waiter for four years just to get by (and I still had to take out loans that I’ll be paying off for the next decade, I still had to rack up my credit card debt to $10,000). While other kids were off taking shots in Cancun over spring break or backpacking throughout Europe, I was serving Chilean Sea Bass all night after a grueling day of classes, during every single spring break, during every single summer - which was fine, it built plenty of character and whatnot and I had the best damn time that I could have had considering, but it wasn’t easy for any of us (and it doesn’t make me noble or better, it was just the reality and there were a lot of us - we were the majority at Edinboro University). You know who else this hurts? Lower and middle class families who, even though they may not have the financial stability, decide to make sacrifices to help their child out with their college payments. Even a $1,000 extra in tuition and fees is a significant blow to that family. Goodbye new car - better consolidate to one. Who else does this affect? People who have graduated from college and are living from paycheck to paycheck because the only job they can get, even with their 4-year degree that they paid way too much for, is a job serving at Olive Garden. Which barely pays the basic bills that provide a food and a roof, let alone the increased college loans.
Corbett calls the offering of college assistance “entitlement.”
Entitlement.
This is the year after he already cut $860 million in funding to public schools in Pennsylvania. This is a year after he already cut funding to the State System of Higher Education, Penn State University, University of Pittsburgh and Temple University by 20%. This is the year after he began his bullshit call for decreasing a deficit without raising taxes.
Entitlement.
Fuck you, Tom Corbett, you disgusting excuse for a human being. And fuck every single person who voted this fear-mongering, lower and middle class tax raising, corporation supporting, entitled asshole into office because they are too stupid or too lazy to think for themselves. This is not a simple difference in fiscal ideologies. This is political corruption at its worst. There are no excuses.
