SUBMITTED BY: Helen Smith
Student protests blocking access to public buildings, garnering media attention with large and loud demonstrations of their disdain for an unprecedented tuition increase: reminds me of the ’60s! I applaud the student activism, but it is misdirected.
With two students at UCLA that I am supporting fully, I am doubly affected by this increase; however, the Regents had no significant alternative. They’re like a kid on an allowance whose parents squandered the family fortune. It’s the parents who should receive your anger.
Let’s begin with the state bureaucrats. They have spent more than taxpayers have provided. Period. Yes, they want to appear compassionate, but the overgenerous redistribution of wealth has milked the cows dry and reduced the size of the herd. Incumbents of both parties take much more than they give. Consider that when you vote.
California’s initiative system is also to blame. You, as young voters, should be aware that clever political organizers manipulate this tool to pork the populace. Almost every bond measure in the past few decades has passed, no matter the cost, and some have totaled more than a billion dollars. I’ll be long gone before your generation and that of your children have paid off this debt. Often, these bonds are generated to enable overspending by the legislature or provide a windfall for special interests. Consider that when you vote.
Finally, the parental unit is a threesome. Politicians have been in bed all along with corporate and special-interest lobbyists out on the pig farm. I know you don’t need another lecture on the pork in legislation, but I would like to say this: As our nation’s future leaders of commerce, government and science, please resist the temptations of greed and urge anyone you can influence to do the same. We are now suffering the effects of avarice that has been hidden for years. The underlying reason for this tuition increase stems from a cataclysmic crash of integrity fomented over years of greed that our federal and state legislators underwrote with public coffers.
Lastly, I want to say: Hang onto your morals. Be the change you want to see in the world.
Now go, let them know your sentiment in Sacramento.
Smith is a mother of two UCLA students.