p
d, sty-)
adj. stu·pid·er, stu·pid·est
1. Slow to learn or understand; obtuse.
2. Tending to make poor decisions or careless mistakes.
3. Marked by a lack of intelligence or care; foolish or careless: a stupid mistake.
4. Dazed, stunned, or stupefied.
5. Pointless; worthless: a stupid job.
tripe (tr
p)
n.
1. The rubbery lining of the stomach of cattle or other ruminants, used as food.
2. Informal Something of no value; rubbish.
When elected officials don't support those things that assist an individual on the bottom rungs of the socio-economic ladder in obtaining an education I know immediately that these officials aren't just ignorant but downright stupid, and there is nothing worse than a stupid person in a position of power.
I owe my climb out of the depths of poverty to Pell Grants, Cal grants and the ability to obtain federal financial aid, all of which helped me overcome my 8th grade education (it was at that point that I had to find a job in order to support myself) and attend a state university.
Every month, I send $318 dollars into the coffers of our federal government as I repay my student loan. Every two weeks, the benefits of that higher education now put hundreds of dollars into the tax base of our local, state and federal coffers.
Every day, I am able to help contribute to the vitality of my community because I can spend some "disposable" income at businesses around town.
I help our environment because I can afford to purchase a newer vehicle, and I can afford to smog and insure it as well, protecting others from the dangers of uninsured motorists and pollution from older, more heavily polluting vehicles on our roadways.
My higher education helped me end my addiction to heroin and cocaine, which made the drug war even less pointless than it already is and irrefutably proves - again - the efficacy of treatment over incarceration.
Higher education made it possible to break the cycle of generational ignorance and poverty by allowing me enough income and acuity to recognize the importance of higher education for my children and actually provide it for them.
And a higher education also taught me how to analyze and critically think about the world we live in. This in turn helped me to make informed decisions about how to participate in our Democracy, something our Forefathers felt was essential if this 'grand experiment" called America was to succeed.
Clearly, this is the benefit of higher education that instills fear in those who would attempt to manipulate and control us through misinformation, lies, deceit and hyperbole. There can be nothing scarier to one in power than to have those being controlled suddenly become aware of the devious, scheming nature of their activities and behavior.
It's no wonder the Tea Party tyrants want to end Pell Grants. Come to think of it, maybe "stupid" isn't the right word here.
"Shrewd" and "treacherous" seem far more appropriate....
Tea Party Won’t Vote For Pell Grants For Welfare Queen College Students
Frothing gremlin mosh pit “the Tea Party Caucus” is psychologically composed of the shrill, whiny kids on the playground who were already yelling “socialism!!!!” by age four when the teacher tried to give another kid a turn on the swings at recess, so here we are today with your adult-size whiny children complaining they won’t vote for John Boehner’s debt ceiling bill because it includes $17 billion in funding for Pell grants, small federal awards which average around $3,700 per college student annually and help over a quarter of college students. This is pretty much a steal compared to the $12,613 that the government spendsin Medicaid funds for an unplanned pregnancy, but there is that weird playground nightmare still playing over and over in the Tea Party collective unconscious, so money for college is just “welfare.”
From the Hill:
Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.) has compared Pell Grants to “welfare”.“So you can go to college on Pell Grants — maybe I should not be telling anybody this because it’s turning out to be the welfare of the 21st century,” Rehberg told Blog Talk Radio in April. “You can go to school, collect your Pell Grants, get food stamps, low-income energy assistance, Section 8 housing, and all of a sudden we find ourselves subsidizing people that don’t have to graduate from college.”
Yeah, let’s skip all that and go ahead and do a nation of illiterate, starving, homeless pregnant people freezing to death. [The Hill]
