President Barack Obama Credit: Courtesy of TNS

President Barack Obama
Credit: Courtesy of TNS

 

Letter to the editor:

The letter to the editor by President Barack Obama, published in The Lantern on Monday, appeals to us all. It appeals to the child in us. That is what politicians do — particularly politicians who have abandoned American values and replaced them with the values of leftism. “Vote for my party, the Democratic party, because we care for you. You are human; you have rights. You have the right to education, health care, a kind, compassionate boss, a well-paying job, sick leave, food, housing, maternity care, an Obamaphone, care for your old age, clothing … endless rights to free stuff. We in the Democratic Party are just like your mom and dad. We take care of you from cradle to grave. We give you lots and lots of free stuff. We soften the trials and tribulations of life. Don’t worry about the details; that’s what adults and mean conservatives do. Just sit back enjoy the ride; this week, enjoy your free college education.”

But once we leave kinder-college and enter the adult world, most of us grow up, become strong men and women, embrace American values and reject such destructive childish, leftist foolishness. We know nothing, nothing at all, is free in life, and you have to work for what you want and need. We don’t worry about oceans drowning us from carbon dioxide; we worry about the reality of oceans of free-stuff ­— debt killing the prospects for a decent life for our kids. You have to pay for the stuff, girls and boys, men and women. Government doesn’t give anyone anything. Government has no money. Government takes by threat of violence hard-earned money out of your pocket and gives it to another person to pay his college bill. Government blithely prints money to churn the free stuff engine. Government orders your neighbor to go out and work for you because government says you deserve the fruits of such labor more than the man who has earned it. That’s not right. That’s not moral; it’s not American. That’s not lawful under our Constitution. That’s not “social justice,” it’s extreme social injustice.

What you do have a right to is to desire an education. You have the right to go out and earn money to pay for the skills and intellect of your professor. That’s what you have a right to. That’s the obligation you have as well. You also have a moral obligation to abide by the contract you make with your neighbor to borrow his money for college. You have the obligation to pay him back in the manner it states in such a contract. You have no moral right to cheer a politician that negates the loan and leaves the neighbor who has lent you the money high and dry.

And regarding education, most of our students today, despite all the money and all the numbers attending college, graduate ignorant in vast important areas of life. Our graduates know how to recycle but can’t string an intelligible sentence together about our Constitution, our great elevated history, our Republican versus Democratic form of government, or our other wonderful basic American values. Basic economics is unknown by most. The primary reason, for example, college is so expensive is that government subsidizes it. What do you think a college president does when facing tens of thousands of bright-eyed, clueless, Hope and Change students handed wheelbarrows of money provided them “free” by the government? He builds more high-tech gyms, state-of-the-art dorms, hands foolish professors of feminist poetry a raise to $175,000 a year, and massively boosts tuition. That’s why college, high school, middle and grade school are so expensive. It’s because of government and how many of us harken to its call to stay children all of our lives. Reject the call; reject the leftism. Grow up and become strong American men and women with American values. Reject the mommy and daddy big state pandering to your lowest desires.

Maybe learn some American values in places like the great five-minute free courses at Prager University, an online education resource.

Avrum Hirsh

Reader in Washington, D.C.

[email protected]