Liberty University Usurps Students' Liberty

Falwell's Liberty University is a misnomer. Today, I read that the University demanded that the Student Democratic Club disband, and they threatened its 30 members with expulsion if they did not. They did not, however, place the same restrictions on the Student Republican Club.

University Administration evidentially decided that the Democratic Candidates are in direct opposition to the University's goals. They did not like the fact that its members actively supported Obama in the last presidential race.

Last I checked, universities' goals involved preparing their students for the "real world", and teaching them critical thinking skills. I guess at Liberty, the only type of thinking they want to foster is right-wing conservatism. Dare to have an opposing view on anything, and I guess you just don't belong there. They don't want your type in their hallowed halls.

Is Liberty trying to produce critical thinkers, or sheep? Are they trying to teach their students to challenge their belief systems, or merely to parrot what they're told?

I must confess: I went to a small, conservative, private Baptist University located in Virginia. Although the Student Democratic Club was much smaller than the Student Republican Club, it received the same University funding, resources, and support. During significant National elections, the two clubs sponsored debates in order to challenge the other side's views, and hopefully, sway a few attendees to change sides. It helped induce all students to vote according to the candidate and the issue, rather than following strict party lines.

Liberty University is also a small, conservative, private university located in Virginia. As a private school, it has a right to promote any viewpoint it so chooses. But it is doing its student body a great disservice by stifling the voice with which it doesn't necessarily agree, rather than encouraging students to listen to that voice, to assess what it has to say, and to filter it through their own view of the world. College is supposed to help you learn to see the weaknesses in others' arguments. They are also doing a disservice to their own mission. Their graduates will have missed the opportunity to experience the other side. They may be able to quote the company line, but they will have difficulty explaining why they do.

I'm glad I live in a country where the First Amendment gives me a right to speak my mind. I'm glad my country's educational system values critical thinking and examining all sides of an issue. I'm glad I live in a country that has educational choice and freedom, allowing me to go where I want to study what interests me. And I hope that all potential college students, of all political affiliations, who value choice will think twice about attending Liberty. Finally, I hope those free-thinking students at Liberty, currently being threatened with expulsion, start thinking about transferring to another school.

(Original Article: Washington Post)

Why I'm Applying for Food Stamps

I’m thinking of signing up for food stamps. I have been eligible to do so for almost a decade now, but I’ve resisted. But I’m thinking my time has come. Why now? Why not? Everyone else is doing it, regardless of their “true needs”. I figure it’s about time I joined the line of people with their hands out, begging the government for help. Why not jump on the bandwagon?

For most of my life, I worked serving the community. I have a bachelor’s degree in English and Secondary Education, and a Masters in Counseling and Human Development. I spent almost 20 years working for non-profits, earning the “little bucks”, helping others who were truly in need. My salary stuck me right in that “lower middle class” economically, and my low wage levels qualified me for a whole range of financial assistance programs. But I never applied. I could eek by on my modest income, as long as I forwent the small luxuries in life—things like cable TV, high-speed internet, meat on a nightly basis, and new, luxury cars. I lived in a modest house in a working class neighborhood and clipped coupons. I judiciously saved until I had enough for a modest down-payment on a “fixer-upper” and paid my mortgage each month, even if it meant eating Macaroni and Cheese for a week straight. Then, due to no fault of my own, I was involved in a car accident that required almost 2 years of rehab and left me physically disabled. Everyone around me told me to go on Social Security. I had earned it. But I resisted. Leave the government money for those that really need it. I’m neither poor nor illiterate. I can do it on my own.

Fast forward to the new Millennium. Who are sticking their hands out for government help? Those same entities that have been feeding off of the “little guy” for eons. The corporations who have been rewarding their executive misbehavior with multi-million dollar golden parachutes fir years, while raising the prices end-consumers pay for their goods. The automakers, who have been paying workers replaced by machines to sit around and do nothing for years, while raping the American people with thousands in bogus fees when they attempt to purchase a new car. The banks, who have been paying me less and less over the years for the use of my money, the money they have been squandering. And now, they are demanding more?

I have been bailing out the executives for years, watching as they use my money to buy $10,000 shower curtains, luxury McMansions, and gas-guzzling, oversized cars. I have bailed out the American manufacturers, time and again, by paying more and more for life’s staples (food, gas, etc.) every time I enter a store. I have bailed out retailers with my tax dollars, paying for the public assistance their line-workers need by funding housing assistance vouchers, Medicaid, WIC, and AFDC. Why can’t the mega-retailers pay their workers a living wag with a decent benefit package instead of expecting me to subsidize their costs of doing business?

My 10+ year old car needs about $2000 worth of repairs to keep it in running condition. Are the automakers going to bail me out and help me with the costs of these repairs? Or are they going to charge me $2500 for $2000 worth of repairs, all while sticking their hands out, asking for my tax dollars to help them get through these tough, economic times. Will the banks bail me out, and pay those ridiculous overdraft fees, should I not have enough money in my account for my inflated repair bill? More likely, they’ll attempt to process the under funded check twice, so they can rape me with twice the fees, all while asking for my dollars to help them out.

Maybe if the corporations, auto manufacturers, and banks had been as careful with my money as I had, they wouldn’t be sticking their hands out right now. Instead, they keep acting frivolously, while expecting me to eat canned beans so that they can continue having their nightly filet mignon. They want me to help pay for their McMansions, while I throw another tar patch on my leaking roof. They want me to pay to repair my own, aging goods, so that my tax dollars can pay for them to replace, rather than repair.

So now, I’m thinking of joining that line of people with their hands stuck out. I’m tired of eating stale bread so the “big guys” can continue to have their cake. I’m tired of being sick because I cannot afford the doctors and medicine that might make me well. I’m done with leaving the financial assistance for the “have nots”, only to have the rich butt into the line to grab the dollars from the poor. I’m tired of helping out those who are better off than I.

If I try to grab a piece of the pie to fill that hole in my empty stomach, will they make me regurgitate it back up, so that they may have it for their well-fed bodies? How skinny am I expected to get helping those that are already obese?

So don’t be surprised when you see me, and thousands of my hard-working cohorts join your assistance line. We’ve been dutifully paying our taxes for years, trusting our government to use our resources for the greater good. Instead, we’ve seen Robin Hood reversed—take it from the working poor to give back to those who have been taking from us for years. Now, we’re joining your line in an attempt to get some of it back.