My latest internship venture ended this past Friday. All in all, it was a good experience and I got a chance to learn more about how a school district operates. But I learned something else too. There are two things in this country especially that get no respect whatsoever: Work and Education.
We're always told to work our fingers to the bone, yet at the end of the day we have nothing to show for it because any fruits that do come from our labor are strip mined and given to our ever so benevolent 'job creators' so they can buy their tenth summer home or 100th Rolls Royce.
But that's not all. We tell our kids and grand kids to get an education so they can get better jobs and do better for their communities....at least, we used to.
Nowadays, the only way to make a decent living is to look for the latest get rich quick scheme and strike while the iron's hot and then privatize every possible gain while passing on the failure to the people who actually built you up.
Those same 'job creators' I mentioned are even telling us how to educate our kids. Of course, all those rich fucks are interested in is destroying the child's love of learning with pointless drilling, meaningless tests and curricula designed only to inspire brand loyalty. Those who do make it through will likely just continue the cycle of bullshit because you can't get enough people to come together to change anything. How can we do that when we're all being worked to death?
Sure, you'll hear some empty suit pay lip service to workers, teachers and education, but when it's all said and done, they'll go and write some bullshit laws just so their friends can put a few more pennies in their stock portfolio.
Then, when their policies fail to produce any results, they'll just tell us to blame the poor, disabled, the elderly, gays, Muslims or anything or anyone else that they know will draw our attention away from their blatant state and corporate sponsored organized theft.
I'm sure you're tempted to tell me I have programs that can help me get employment, but you wouldn't even know the half of it. No. Instead, I've had to go through numerous internships just to have a prayer of a chance at seeing the bottom of the ladder. In fact, that's what life is like for many with disabilities.
And for fuck's sake, this isn't about entitlement. Not even close. This is about people like us having a shot at long term so-called gainful employment, which, as far as I can tell is practically non-existent.
Like I said, work and education don't get any respect, and let's be real here, they never have. Don't bother saying it isn't true, because history easily tells us otherwise.
See you around,
Homer