I have been a big fan of Mr. Bosscher’s articles and appreciate his contributions to our campus paper. However, I hold two points of contention with his recent article “Bush Not Protestor’s Concern.”
The first that is I feel that American resentment for the French is a bit played out. So they don’t kick ass and drink beer as much as us, learning to tolerate cultural differences is part of interacting in the world today.
Secondly, I think Mr. Bosscher missed the most valuable lesson of these protests that should be a student’s focus when evaluating this event. The amount of social freedom and security the French enjoy is already far greater than what we’re granted in America, so it does seem silly that they’re this infuriated over the possibility of receiving consequences for their actions (or inaction in this case).
However, I think all American students can learn from their passion and commitment to change when they feel it’s necessary. I’m sure most of us, if not all, received an e-mail recently informing us about the upcoming changes to our Financial Aid benefits. Key features of The Higher Education Reconciliation Act include a raise in our interest rates, and the loss of our ability to consolidate our loans.
This runs along side the recently passed Senate 1932 Deficit Reduction Act which is cutting 12.6 billion dollars from Financial Aid next year. In short, we’re receiving less money and have to pay more for it.
It follows a consistent pattern of attacks on education from this administration. It almost hurts to mention that according to the National Priorities Project at Costofwar.com 12,141,506 American students could’ve received full four year scholarships to state schools for the amount we’ve spent in Iraq so far.
Figures like these keep adding up in America and the government is seeing we’re just going to keep taking it. I say we take a few cues from our French peers and get upset. Get angry. There’s certainly more than enough reason for us to do so. It’s 2006 and President Kennedy’s famous words of 1961 are no longer valid. We’ve given and given to our country. It’s about time we start asking what it’s ever going to do for us!
COREY BAUM UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT [email protected]
