Have you noticed how popular it is these days to not be successful? I don’t mean “not successful” to mean that people are praising homeless people for not being able to provide for themselves, but in general, people seem to be happier when they aren’t successful.Just think about it. For those of you who gamble, say you go to the craps table, and put down $100. After a little while, you may be up $50 or so, and you’re having a good time. You should be happy with your success and walk away, but you don’t. You keep playing until you start losing. Finally a little while later, you’re putting your last $10 chip on the table just to see the shooter crap out. You may walk away disappointed but you still feel like you had a good time. But think about it. Anytime you have the opportunity to walk away with more money than you came with, and wind up walking away with nothing, it is not a good time.

Maybe that doesn’t really prove my point that well. Instead, think about when you were in elementary school, and the consequences of not passing a grade. If you are an older American, if you didn’t pass a grade, you wound up taking that grade over the next year. That’s not true anymore. Granted, in some cases kids who learned absolutely nothing may still stay back, but for the most part kids who are on the borderline will usually get bumped up a grade. In reality, all this does to the kid, is tells them “hey, you may not have learned much, but that’s OK. We won’t make you feel bad about your failing grades by holding you back a year.” And what happens to the kids who excel? Well, if you praise their success, you may make the less intelligent kids feel bad about themselves.

Even the smart kids know less than kids their age about 100 years ago. In Joseph Farah’s book Taking America Back, he put an 1895 eighth-grade final exam from a school in Salina, Kansas. The point he was trying to make, by putting in the exam, was that not only couldn’t today’s eighth-graders pass that exam, most high school and college graduates couldn’t either. And he’s right. I’m a reasonably intelligent person, with a B.S. degree in Accounting, and I would probably have a difficult time passing the exam. Even the math section! Now that’s not to say that I’m a failure, or that I don’t try, but over the years, our schools have made the passing requirements a joke.

I think all of this leads people to feel dependent on others to do things for them, rather than feel a reliance on themselves to succeed. Like the kid who relies on his teachers to pass him or her into the next grade, rather than on his or her own skills, many people make excuses for themselves so that they can rely on others or the government to do things for them.

The problem is only going to get worse. People these days give up on themselves far too easily. Most times they aren’t willing to put in any extra effort (or any effort at all) to strive for success, because they know that they will be allowed to float by with minimal effort. They see people around them who are leeches to the state, and figure if they can do it, why can’t I?

Public schools are pumping out these drones by the millions, and it has to stop. According to Farah “the most important step we can take… [is to] take responsibility for educating your kids; don’t leave it to the state.”

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A few weeks ago I received a disturbing email from my college’s President. It said:
Despite our efforts over the past several years to develop a climate of respect and pride in social, cultural and ethnic diversity, there still remain individuals who resort to vulgar and racist comments to express their views. Although most members of our community are far beyond this kind insensitive and wholly inappropriate behavior, two individuals recently left a telephone message for one our finest faculty containing comments of this kind. We will not tolerate even one incident of this kind. In an environment that is increasingly global, we must learn to live and work together. And this is even more important in an institution of higher learning where the free and civil exchange of ideas is a core value. In light of this incident, I have asked the Vice Presidents of Academic and Student Affairs to redouble our efforts to ensure that every student participates in educational experiences aimed at fostering a greater appreciation for the richness and value of our diverse community.

Now you may read this over, and not think twice about it, thinking that fostering such an environment is an admirable goal. But is it really? Sure, racist and other such negative comments is never a good thing for one’s morale, but does it mean that someone shouldn’t be able to speak his/her mind if that’s what they really feel?

We live in a society that is so politically correct, that a person is looked down upon for speaking their mind. I don’t know the exact details of this incident, but assuming that there were no threats of violence made, and the only thing said was “negative” racist remarks, really, what is wrong with that? The President even says himself in the letter, that “we must learn to live and work together…this is even more important in an institution of higher learning where the free and civil exchange of ideas is a core value”. If his desire is truly a “free exchange of ideas”, then why can’t someone freely say what they want about race, as negative as it may be?

What if, for example, this “fine faculty member” taught a class in a manner that made the white students of the class feel inferior for prior generations racism. After several weeks of putting up with the professor’s blatant racism, the student decided to take matters into his own hands (civilly) by leaving a message (with racist remarks) on that particular professor’s voice mail. Is that a bad thing? I say it’s not. An institute of higher learning’s goal should be the free exchange of ideas, whether they are pleasant to, or even agreed upon by everyone or not.

If you think that something like this is outrageous, think about this true story. I had a professor, who on the first day asked us “Who here is a Republican?” Of course I raised my hand, but unfortunately I was the only one in the class to raise it. Everyone else just sat there staring at me. The rest of the semester, I took all of the professor’s insults towards Republicans, as if I was the one responsible for all that was wrong with the country. I’ll be honest, it made me feel quite uncomfortable, and I even felt like I couldn’t defend myself, without hurting my grade, so I didn’t. What if I was to call up that professor and leave a message with “hurtful” and “insensitive” remarks? Would I be wrong in doing so? Or should I just let myself be brainwashed by taking whatever she said as being the truth about Republicans?

My point with all of this, is that we shouldn’t shun people for their beliefs, regarding race or any other issue, if our goal is a free exchange of ideas. If you are going to promote a diverse environment, then you absolutely have to recognize the fact that not everyone will agree with you on all issues, and as such they should be allowed to freely speak their mind.

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In an effort to prevent raising taxes where I live, the town council passed a “pay to play” program at the high school. The program is not unique to our town, but it basically makes the student athletes pay for the costs that used to be covered by the school, such as uniforms and other related items.Last week I read an editorial in our local paper from a citizen who was outraged at this program, saying that it was “double taxation” since parents were already paying for education costs through their property taxes. And that the students should be entitled to a free public education, which in his mind includes sports.

I initiated a counter attack on this citizen’s philosophy, by writing an editorial citing reasons why pay to play is a good thing. First, you have to understand that in our town, and in most towns the parents with children going to public schools have it easy, because a good portion of the cost of public education is paid for by other residents without children in the public schools, through their property tax. These people, by the way, get no benefit from paying for other children’s education but are still expected to pay. Now if you eliminate the pay to play program, you cause the taxes on all property owners in the town to go up, not just those with children in the school system.

Secondly, to address the double taxation issue, I pointed out that we are taxed on things all the time through, what I like to call, a “cause and effect” tax. Just think about the federal taxes you paid (or are going to pay) this year. After you finished filling out the various forms, you went down to the post office slapped a 37¢ tax on the envelope and mailed it in. If this person’s logic is correct, then this situation is also double taxation, because you have to pay a postage tax in order to mail in the tax that you owe to the government. The reason why it is not double taxation, however, is because while the post office is a part of the federal government, your federal taxes don’t go to cover all of the post office’s costs to operate. This is where your stamp comes in, and it’s reasonable that it is paid for in this manner, isn’t it? If it wasn’t, the post office wouldn’t be able to operate without raising everyone’s taxes, and this wouldn’t be fair to those who choose e-mail or the telephone over “snail mail”.

As with the postage you put on your letters, the pay to play program can be thought of as an additional tax, but it is a necessary tax that was put in place in order to prevent everyone’s taxes from going up, including those who get no benefit from the tax. You don’t expect anyone else to pay for the birthday card you send to your Aunt Bertha, so you shouldn’t expect anyone else to pay for your little Billy’s soccer uniform.

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