The Debt for Diploma System

Chapter 31 of Adams caught my attention of the student debt problem and taught me some things I didn’t really know about, and some things that I can personally vouch for.

The GI Bill is something I have heard of but didn’t really know what it was, so let me make this short.  This bill was created to help returning veterans ‘readjust’ to the civilian lifestyle by providing money for education.  In 1948 veterans received an annual amount of $500.  You’re probably thinking, “So what, that’s enough money for rent.”  I thought the same thing until I read that back then that was enough money to cover almost a full year’s tuition at Harvard!  Another step forward for students was the Higher Education Act which extended benefits to those who are not veterans.  LBJ’s plan in this was to allow every high school student to go to college, no matter what their background by providing funding such as Pell Grants.

One section in this chapter gave some ‘cost-reduction strategies;’ one of them being community colleges. For two and a half years I attended a community college and MADE money going to school.  Tuition was very low, about $40 a credit.  So if you are a full time student taking 4 or more courses a semester, you’re looking at spending about $500 a semester on tuition.  Add in about $150-$200 for books and your still under $1,000 a semester!

Luckily I was eligible to receive financial aid through FASFA, so I received the Pell Grant every year.  If I remember right it was around $3,000 to $4,000.  Every semester I banked almost $1,000, just by going to school! Include a part time job on campus and after a while I had a nice cushion of a savings account.  I decided to get my associates just in case I needed something to fall back on if I didn’t finish school, but in the end found myself looking at universities.  Once I transferred here to UT, I found out that grants were nowhere near enough to cover tuition, and let’s not forget books.  So like many of the other students here, student loans are a must to cover costs.  Just like the stories told in the chapter, I too, and most of you will have similar stories to tell of how long it takes to pay off the loans.

Racism & American Indians

Chapter 10 of Adams talks about 'the real problem with Indian mascots,' and how they are used all over, but many do not see the problem with this.  Coming from a school district who's mascot was the 'Braves,'  has got me thinking that I may have been a passive racist all of those years.  Reading the beginning of the chapter described my high school almost perfectly.

If you walked down our school halls on a regular day you could see our school colors and pictures of tomawak and Indian head dresses.  I remember our actuall mascot wore a large head dress with large feathers and beads.  I am not well educated on Native American history, but I'm pretty sure that the 'braves' or warriors, were not the ones wearing head dresses that a chief, or leader of the tribe would wear.  The name of our mascott was 'LaCoNaJo,'  the first two letters of the four towns that made up our school district.  I have no idea how someone thought of this name or why it stuck, but i guess someone suggested it and they 'thought it sounded like a native name.'  These two things alone show our ignorance of this culture.

On a Friday night the bleachers would be full of people showing their school spirit.  I was in the band and remember one song inparticular called 'On the Warpath.'  This was the song that would pump up the football players and everyone in the bleachers when we were down in the last couple minutes of the game.  The cheerleaders and  whole audience would be going with the beat of the music doing the 'tomahawk chop' with their arms.  As if that wasn't bad enough, this is even harder to admit.  We celebrated our school spirit all the time; even if it was during the National Anthem.  As you all know, the end line of the national anthem is, "and the home of the brave."  Well at every football game it was no surprise to hear the audiance, cheerleaders, and the football players shout out 'BRAVES!' rather than brave on the last word of the anthem. 

I don't mean to bash my school, and part of me still feels like this is just a mascot and a sense of belonging for a small community, but another part of me knows this is wrong and something should be done to change it.  But in a small town like that, who would be willing to change a tradition that is well over 50 years old?


On a side note, I want to share this article with y'all. 
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2012/02/14/20120214arizona-bill-takes-aim-airbrushed-women-ads.html   (Don't worry, it's just a short news article)
I heard about it on the radio and decided to look it up online.  This was one of the first google results so if you want more information on this you'll probably have to dig a little deeper.  I think this is an amazing thing that Katie Hobbs is doing and would like to know y'alls opinions, so comment about it. :) Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Another Zinn Rant

Although Zinn's readings are interesting, I can't help but question what I've learned about history up to this point.  To me his book is like 'the truth' of history; he is not afraid to give it to us straight or worry about judgement.  I found Chapter 7 (the reading on the Native American tribes and Jackson) to be just as interesting as Columbus; mostly because there was information in here that I never knew about.
In the beginning years of Washington's presidency, his secretary of War, Henry Knox, agreed that Indians were the 'prior occupants and posses the right of soil.'   And Jefferson as well said that Indians who lived within state boundaries were not to be messed with, and that any white settlers in their area would be removed.  However, this did not stop the white settlers.  They moved west past the mountains and within 9 years, outnumbered the Indians 1 to 8. 

In past history classes, of course I have read about Indian removal and their sufferings, but that's never really how I ever thought about it.  I would slightly like to blame television for part of this.  When I was younger, there was nothing I loved more than sitting around and watching westerns with my family on the weekends. (Strange, I know.)  While not all of the movies and shows were alike, I always got the sense that the Indians were the 'bad guys' for attacking the white settlers.  I always thought things like 'Why are they attacking?  All these people are doing is trying to pass through their land.'  Today I would love to have a nice house up in the hills with plenty of land around as my source of income.  No city noise, no nosey neighbors, just land all around.  And I know this is how the settlers felt.  However, they didn't realize that the land wasn't theirs.  The government had no right to set up 'Indian territories' forcing them to live here and not there while these new immigrants took over their natural land.

But over the years I am slowly learning the real truth.  Something Zinn opened my eyes to was the real Andrew Jackson and his Indian raids.  Jackson had a 'round about way' of getting what he wanted, but in the end we all know how it worked out.  It still amazes me that what I learned in grade school and what I am learning today about American history are two completely different things.

Zinn's Columbus

Alright, first off let me say WOW.
Who is this Columbus guy?  Definitely not the same one I learned about in books back in grade school.  I always thought 'Columbus was a hero! He found our land.  He sailed the blue in 1492.' 
Man were those school books totally bias.  Then again I don't know if it is appropriate to tell children that a man we celebrate every year is actually a theif, kidnapper, and a murderer.

Already I can say I am looking foward to reading the rest of Zinn's book.  Even just the first few pages for me were eye opening.  To me, Columbus became a power hungry man.  After returning back to Spain from his first voyage, he promised the king and queen something they had extreme difficulty finding; gold.  So Columbus decides to have a 'slave raid'.  The spainards rounded up over 1500 natives, women and children included.  Instread of returning to spain empty handed, he shows up with with 500 NATIVES!  People ripped right out of the only life they knew.  And of those 500, 200 died on the voyage back.

What does this remind me of?  WWII, Hitler, Nazi Germany.  Both of their actions may have been for different reasons, but both cases were genocide.  For Columbus, the natives were forced to find gold.  If they didn't find enough their limbs were cut off.  In other cases the natives ran off when they were caught they faced muskets, swords, or being burned to death.  Mass suicides began and within 150 years, no original native descendants were left on the island.
In Germany during WWII Hitler had control of the Nazis.  People were also rounded up, shot down, or put into camps where many were sent to death.  (You all know the story so I don't really need to elaborate.) 
But if it has happened before, is it happening now, and can it happen again?


On a lighter note:

Allies

In reading the chapters assigned in Adams, I found most of it to be very interesting, and several parts stood out to me.  One part in particular was the section 'Allies.'  According to Adams, allies are "members of the advantaged group who act against the oppression from which they derive power, privilege, and acceptance."  While I do not consider myself a strong 'activist,' I still feel like I can relate to this.

Several years ago my father was diagnosed with cancer, which eventually led to him using a wheelchair and handicap plates or tags for our vehicles.  Whenever we went out into public people would stare at us, mainly my dad, like something was wrong or abnormal.  Really? What is there to stare at?  It's a person in a wheelchair, not a weird freak of science or something!

The simple task of parking and getting out o your vehicle isn't so easy when your mobility is impaired.  We would park in handicap spots, IF they were available, but I remember several cases when there were vehicles without handicap plates or tags parked in the handicap spots.  One time even led to a verbal confrontation (or should I say shouting match) in the parking lot between my mother and another person.  I guess you could consider her more of an activist than me.  One of my biggest pet peeves to this day, is people parking in handicap spots illegally.

Another thing this experience opened my eyes to was the entrance into buildings.  How are people in wheelchairs or other mobility problems supposed to get inside without a ramp?  Newly constructed buildings are required to meet these needs, but some older buildings have an intricate system of twists and turns up a narrow ramp that can be difficult to maneuver. 

Although I, as an individual can relate to being an ally, I believe it is because I am on my way to being a social worker.  After all, we will all one day become allies to people.

Pelton and Responses

This first blog post addresses Pelton's article and it's responses.
 Before reading these articles, I always thought, and still think, that being in a group gives a human a sense of identity and belonging.  That it is not something that could be overall harmful to the situation.  However, he raises the idea that this focus on groups, takes away from the focus on helping individuals in society.
Pelton also addressed that the level of care between groups is not 'just.'  While some people in need recieve welfare, other's are lacking what they need in order to maintain their lives, such as veterans and the aging population.  In my opinion this is obvious when you hear stories of people 'abusint the system' while there are other people out there who actually need the help.
One specific example he used while discussing groups was the child welfare system.  Parents who's children are taken away are often labeled 'abusers and neglecters.'  When in actuality it may be due to other problems, such as not having their financial needs met to care for their children.
Jumping right into the subject after a long break from class  proved to be more difficult than I expected.  The reading was somewhat hard to wrap my head around, but I have to say that I agree with a few points that Scanlon made in his response to Pelton. 
Scanlon wrote that some group based practices are necessary in order to achieve a common goal.  The example he gave was gay and lesbian groups fighting for their equal rights (marriage and adoption.)  I also enjoyed the point he threw in about John Rawls 'Justice as Fairness,'  which includes the fairness principle and the principle of equal opportunity.  Social workers, and others, strive for equality for all members of society, whether in individual or group levels.  But is it really possible for everyone to be treated equally in all aspects of life?

Newbie

So this whole blogging thing is new to me.  The blogs from last semester look interesting, so hopefully this is something I can get into and not view as 'homework.'  Have a good weekend 325!