03-09-2008, 07:28 AM
Thanks Damon, I'll take it!
But it really is an issue that is very important to me, having been one born and raised in an economically depressed rural community, and I know how damned difficult it can be to make your way in the world--even for me, not born into a broken home, with more less good health, and with better than average native smarts. Being the first in my family to graduate from college, it was a real struggle, paying for the whole thing with no guidance, with a young wife, working as a janitor for a church at 5 bucks an hour. After I graduate, even in spite of doing so with top honors in two departments, I simply cannot afford the 150 dollar graduate school applications, most of which don't even offer the courtesy of a thank you. So, I end up working at a wrecking yard, pulling parts out of dead cars at 5 dollars an hour. Many face a similar future. Fortunately that early marriage long ago ended, and produce no children otherwise I would have never dug myself out of that hole. It's very easy for affluent urbanites where opportunity is often within walking distance to expect people to bootstrap themselves. I will say, there are a lot of people for whom even a bus ticket is a lot of money. In this superficial society we live in, if your parents couldn't afford an orthodontist and you were born with funky teeth, you will NEVER hold a professional job in your life.
Genius is nothing without opportunity.
But it really is an issue that is very important to me, having been one born and raised in an economically depressed rural community, and I know how damned difficult it can be to make your way in the world--even for me, not born into a broken home, with more less good health, and with better than average native smarts. Being the first in my family to graduate from college, it was a real struggle, paying for the whole thing with no guidance, with a young wife, working as a janitor for a church at 5 bucks an hour. After I graduate, even in spite of doing so with top honors in two departments, I simply cannot afford the 150 dollar graduate school applications, most of which don't even offer the courtesy of a thank you. So, I end up working at a wrecking yard, pulling parts out of dead cars at 5 dollars an hour. Many face a similar future. Fortunately that early marriage long ago ended, and produce no children otherwise I would have never dug myself out of that hole. It's very easy for affluent urbanites where opportunity is often within walking distance to expect people to bootstrap themselves. I will say, there are a lot of people for whom even a bus ticket is a lot of money. In this superficial society we live in, if your parents couldn't afford an orthodontist and you were born with funky teeth, you will NEVER hold a professional job in your life.
Genius is nothing without opportunity.