College, my friend, and the war: a tale of why we must fight

When I go to the cupboard, and find no coffee, no sugar, no pins, and no meat, am I not living politics?

This war touches people

I start this diary with a quote from the HBO mini-series about John Adams.  John is talking with Abigail about the Continental Congress and the  apparently endless debates.  He dismisses the debates as merely politics and Abigail responds that politics has a personal reality.  Somehow, it feels especially appropriate.  Among my many debates here, although I try to be a pragmatist, at least I feel like I do try, my arguments here tend to get very nuanced, and esoteric, and somewhat theoretical (Probably my dad's fault - he's a lawyer but no longer practices actively).  

But not today.  Today, I want to tell you why we need to fight.  Why we must win.  Not because of esoteric or theoretical reasons, but for reasons that are very concrete and real.  Let me tell you about my friend Ben.

Ben and I both attend the University of Michigan, and we are both studying Aerospace Engineering.  Ben and I met earlier this year, and in that time we've become good friends, partly because we are in the same classes (and thus spend many sleepless nights working on homework and studying for exams), partly out of a love for our chosen major (although he is an airplane guy, and I am a space guy), and partly because we've both had academic difficulty (more on that in a second).  

Ben (not his real name, I should say at this point) moved to the United States when he was quite young.  He is now a naturalized citizen.  Seven years ago, Ben joined the ROTC - for 2 years in High school, and 5 years while at college.  

By and large, Ben has been doing well in college, up until about 2 years ago.  After returning from field training, his family was about to lose their house.  Because Ben had such good credit, he took out a mortgage, in his name, so his family wouldn't lose his home.  But the pressure from that, the general pressure from school (and ROTC training), family issues and along the way, a bad breakup with his girlfriend caused his grades to suffer.  This put him on academic probation for University of Michigan's Engineering college.  He was unable to enroll until he petitioned the college and demonstrated that he could do the work required.  Fortunately, he was successful with his petition.

As evidenced by the situation with his family's home, Ben paid for part of his college through the use of student loans.  Because Ben is under 24, the FASFA form requires parental involvement, which has been very difficult, because of a strained relationship with his mother.  As such, he has attended class, while not enrolled, because his mother has not done her part of the FASFA.  He explained the situation to his professors, and the hope that his mother would eventually complete her part.  She has had since January to complete the forms, but only last week did she go into the Financial aid office, to fill out said forms.  In that time, while still not being enrolled, Ben attended classes, did the work, completed the assignments, and was optimistic about passing the class, while assuming that his mom would, eventually, do her part, and fill out the forms.  While dealing with that situation, he received some other bad news this year - because of the drop of his GPA, he lost his commission from the ROTC, and, as a result, he is required to enlist in the near future without officer rank  for a 2 year tour of duty.  However, after talking to the Air Force ROTC, and explaining that he only had a semester's worth of classes to finish until graduation, the air force agreed to let him finish his degree, provided he did finish this semester, in good standing.  

Of course, to finish the semester, he had to be enrolled for the semester.  The deadline to complete enrollment for this term is this Thursday.  After considerable effort, Ben finally got his mom to go down, and sign the forms, for him to get the financial aid.  While he did get the money required for this semester (approximately $4,000 dollars), it turns out that, despite what he was told, he had a $3,400+ financial hold on his account, because he never paid for summer courses he took last summer.  He was told that he wasn't required to fill out an additional FASFA form, for the summer semester - this proved wrong, and as such, he never received money to pay for that semester.  And now, its to late to get money through financial aid, and as for other student loans, because of the mortgage, as well as other difficulty, he cannot get a student loan without someone else signing it, and he has only until Thursday to find someone, which is quite unlikely.  

Ben is a patriot, and understands his responsibilities, and fully intends to finish his responsibilities, and serve his two years enlistment.  But he would like to finish his degree first, since he is so close.  But with only until Thursday to find $3,400+ dollars, the odds are looking unlikely, and that all of his work will be for nothing.  And, if that is the case, then he will be called up to active service at the end of this month, with the odds being very good he would end up in Iraq or Afghanistan.  

I tell you this story, to remind us what we fight for, and why we must win.  We cannot afford it - good people, like Ben, cannot afford it.