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March 4th Rally: Action for Public Education

"We Have Decided Not To Die"

That was a what a banner read at one of the education rallies in this country last week. It was just b-roll, background footage not pointed out by the objective reporters on Democracy Now! where I saw the footage. But the sight of it brought amazing clarity to me to what's been going on.

I'm going to go ahead and out myself. I'm unemployed. I have been since early September of last year after WSU closed my & 9 other Learning Centers. I just thought it was because the whole country seemed to be going down the tubes and money was cut everywhere. I even started to believe that the distance education outreach and computer instruction my little outlying office provided might be superfluous. I'm beginning to believe otherwise.

Education has never really been a priority in this country, not for the masses. Well, I have heard of a time when it was inexpensive and easy to get into a State college, but not in my adult lifetime. That was in the 40's as I recall the nice lady telling me.

But the message is clear, as I sit here, cut from the only tech job that was available in the area. I must move away now. I could have built something here. I also sit, with others, unable to get an education to pull myself up by my own birkenstocks because of the bad credit and insurmountable debt from living in a system set against me - and from attaining my Associates, which is worth little more than a HS diploma in the job-search.

The facts are, teachers & staff are being cut. Students are being turned away. Distance education, something working-class folks (especially those with kids) need to be able to get a degree, is being shut down. These things speak loudly to me, all the louder that no one is saying anything.

Now for my conjecture: education stands in the way of young people feeling like they have no other choice in life but to join the military. Of course, that's not the only reason for keeping us dumb and slaves of wage. Yet - the banner I saw those students holding spoke volumes to me, since we are told that our armed forces are so thin that contractors must train any recruits that we still have.

I sit jobless, unable to bring my sharp mind to the community. I am unable to do what I love to do, to help people understand the thing that is quickly putting us behind the rest of the world. I am unable to give people the ability to access the only information they can come-by in lieu of higher education. And a war rages on, millions spent per hour, blood shed by the bucket... I.Q.'s dropping... hope fading.

Is this the world you want?

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