Lawrence O'Donnell had Joe Scarborough and they talked how the national debates have been side-tracked by abortion and contraception. A main issue for many college students is the student loan problem, which includes principal, interest, actually needing to take a student loan out and more. I have been campaigning in NYC for 4 days and going back to Ithaca Friday. I wandered into and participated in a OWS march to the City Education building. I listened to students from NYU and other colleges including many city colleges tell their stories. I am fair and balanced on these issues. On the one hand, no one forces a student to take out $300,000 in loans and, not being rich in many cases, having to pay it back. This is in stark contrast to the single mother going to CUNY and having trouble paying several thousand dollars a year in tuition.
I feel that we need to work towards paying the first year of junior college. I think an associates degree is highly valuable in certain job types and is much more affordable than a four year degree. For many requiring a four year degree, there should be a cap on student loan interest rates as in my web site for all loans including undergraduate and graduate. The penalties in forbearance and deferment need to be wiped out. There also needs to be better matching between the job market and what people graduate with. It is multi-factorial in nature and is the next and actually, current bubble.
Current elected officials including the person, albeit nice, will never cap these rates, credit card rates, rein banks in with Glass-Steagall, etc. I am a friend of the Occupy movement, although I don't agree with everything they do or say including calling police f'ing pigs which fizzled out pretty quickly today. We need action, peacefully, by large numbers of people that are not drinking the Koolaid of either party. I realize this is difficult, but if you want for say a candidate like myself that is for a Federal BAN on fracking, not 'safe' fracking, then you'll have to consider being a little more open to this kind of grassroots. Putting your hand out to help get folks like me on the ballot and address main street issues, not regress on reproductive issues that people should squash (vaginal probes for pre-abortion screening and the like).
It doesn't have to be all or none. You can solve some of these problems in small, but aggressive stepping stone approaches, and do the right thing all along the way. Voting for Bush Tax cuts and avoiding the OWS movement isn't going to stop an "American Spring' this time. I hope you will join me, not fight me in doing the right thing for once. I'm sure there will be the usual 'pouncers' because I oppose their party pick. Lighten up and get back to the main issues. Politicians who just ride out the storm and mainly scream about social issues but don't take the pen and write bills to help people economically will push OWS even harder into actions that might not be helpful if the frustration level gets even higher.
Happy Purim to those it applies to.
Scott Noren DDS
www.norenforsenate.com