Senators in the Budget Wars, Do the Right Thing!
I have just completed my Master’s degree in Humanities, and am set to join the workforce of a productive society, one that has promised me success if I just worked hard enough to educate myself and then contribute my talents in service to the community. I dream of being an educator, a professor, dedicated to teaching others the ways of living a good life, a healthy, productive, prosperous, and joyful, good life. I dream of passing on to others what made life this way for me, except, my odds to do this are currently not so great. The principal of the Denver charter school where I would love to secure a professional position, told me that with the currently presented budget cuts, the school has to cut $800 dollars PER STUDENT for the next school year. In a nation that has just extended tax benefits for the wealthy, is a TRAVESTY.
The Humanities are valuable, indispensable, in my opinion, as they raise questions of meaning and value. Education is important, we have all been told. It is great to become a captain of industry, a millionaire, a doctor, a lawyer, a scientist, an engineer, the president of the United States, a football player and a movies star; but what good is all this if one is not happy nor healthy? And what if these possibilities are no longer within reach, too expensive to attain, and shipped to Asia? And what joy is there in a world built strictly upon logic, analysis, and linear thinking, if the landscape is austere and stripped of any beauty, kindness, and color? Frills, some of you might say, but what have been the rewards of a utilitarian, materialistic society, idolizing the individual and grand amassments of wealth?
What we have before us is a polarized society: not only left versus right, conservative against liberal, but rich at the expense of the poor, the industrious over the indigenous, and concrete and cattle over pasture and rain forest, Big Macs versus good old-fashioned (and HEALTHY) “home-cookin,” (which for tens of thousands of years included vegetables that all children were actually familiar with and could recognize). We are leaving a planet raped of her resources, polluted and de-regulated to our children.
America’s financial woes cannot be rectified at the expense of our weakest citizens, yet this is now what is on the table. The less fortunate (and less deserving?) often survive on sugar and fat, which, I am not arguing, are a delicious combination of flavors, but can we really afford frozen pizza and sprite when we bring our future healthcare costs into the equation? It is a reality for most families that mother and father both must work, some of them must work two jobs, merely to survive; to eat Mac and Cheese in front of the TV, and do it all the next day. But, if we are only educated enough, this may not be our fate. Really?
We are considering axing away at what has been an institution to “level the playing field” and make the “American Dream” accessible to all. Because it is better to tax everyone equally? And less than it takes to meet our expenditure obligations? Am I the only one, or does this not compute. I do not think it takes a Master’s degree to figure out that we would be going down the wrong path to slash programs that help families, continue to fight wars which serve to bankrupt our nation while creating more enemies, and continue to give tax breaks to millionaires who just might create a few jobs with their superior innovation and capitalistic inclinations. We must let go of our offenses and shore up our defenses, balance our priorities, and search our souls for what it really means to lead a good life. Sitting back is just not a good option. Write your representatives and ask them to do the right thing. For the love of humanity!
Nina-Lois Turtledove is deeply interested in philosophy, psychology, peace studies, nutrition, tradition, and progress. When she's not slinging meatloaf and gingerbread at a highly acclaimed Denver restaurant, she is helping found an online music school. She is writing a manual designed to improving people's lives through yoga, cooking, and gardening (among other things). This is an online collection of her journal.