War And No Peace – College Style

When I was growing up, I was always told by my mother that physical confrontations weren’t a sign of strength but evidence of a lack of intelligence. She said that when someone lashes out with their fists, it’s usually because they don’t have the brain power to make a substantive reply. A look at what is going on in the world around us today reveals that the bully tactic is in full play with very little brain power behind it.

During the recent presidential campaign, the Democratic supporters resorted to violence at President Trump’s rallies instead of concentrating on supporting their own candidate. All it took was the sighting of a Trump hat to set them off to physically assault people who were just exercising their right to have a say in the election results.

The college students are spending more time being incensed by reality and taking it out in physical violence and destruction of property. They are being subsidized by loving parents in order to attend institutions of higher learning while degrading themselves with revolting language, inciting destruction of property and beating up any opposition. Of course, when confronted, they always have their safe spaces and hot cocoa waiting.

Whenever a speaker is invited to a campus, these days, if the ‘children’ don’t approve, they burn down college buildings, destroy property, and threaten the speaker. Actually, I think they either do not understand what the speaker might represent or are afraid he/she might be using words to argue that might strain the limitations of their brains. Instinctively, they may be concerned they will learn something which would mess up their angry mind set.

Even many of the professors egg the students on with biased pieces of education and give them their view of the world which they must adhere to in order to pass the class.

Seems to me that when manners fled the world and four-letter words became every day vocabulary, it blunted the brain waves and opened up empty heads to violent reactions in response to concepts they couldn’t understand.

Suck It Up, Buttercup!

Finally, a welcome voice of reason has spoken from our United States! And not a minute too soon, either. Bobby Kaufmann, a Republican State Representative says that he will be introducing a bill when the Iowa State Legislature resumes business in January. The name of the Bill is Suck It Up, Buttercup. An adult has spoken and has no sympathy for students (and professors!), that need time to mourn, color in coloring books, knead out their post-elections traumas with Play-Doh, and whimper even as they sip on hot chocolate all in aid of their tender, fractured feelings because the election went according to the laws of the land and not their way.

The snowflake space patrols have been rustling around for awhile now with the advent of ‘safe spaces’ but it was a positive blizzard when the elections voted in more sense than the usual rhetoric. Even though I’m willing to bet a lot of them didn’t even vote, it hit the poor babies hard so exams were cancelled, classes were dismissed, and they gathered in large groups to share in their devastating sorrow . . . and create mayhem, damage, and hurt upon other people. Funny how their guarded sensitivities never once were granted favor to innocent people who happened to get in their way as in driving home from WORK, taking sick people to the doctors, wanting to go grocery shopping in safety, etc., instead of dealing with milling crowds of grief-stricken snowflakes unable to face an adult situation (like an election!) with anything even close to maturity.

The Bill proposed by Representative Bobby Kaufmann, Suck It Up, Buttercup, would deal with taxpayer-funded state universities with a budget cut for DOUBLE the amount they spend on pampering, election-related activities. This would not, of course, take away from therapy and mental health services for real problems.

Just thinking about these college ‘students’ wandering around in a saddened daze and wanting to impeach President-Elect Donald Trump and who knows what other ideas shows how little college is actually preparing students for life after college.

Some of the things Representative Kaufmann reported hearing about were Play-Doh, coloring books, safe spaces to talk out your feelings without contradiction and even some schools bringing in ponies. How are these ‘children’ going to handle the real world? If, God forbid, this country ever goes to war, afraid they won’t be finding any ‘safe spaces’ to get away from the loud report of weaponry when they are called up to defend their nation.

It is refreshing to find a voice of reason being raised and if you want to keep track of his progress with the Bill, just search ‘Suck It Up, Buttercup’ on Facebook.

Curing the Current Snowflake Storm

The Snowflake Epidemic

The last few years have brought into being a lot of problems in how people view the world and each other. It has also ushered a great many young people into a more self-centered view of life and how life should treat them rather than how they should assimilate into society. The prevalence of the social malady seems to hover primarily over institutions of higher learning but some of it is starting to infect the high school places of education.

A ‘snowflake’ is a delicate bit of the world that cannot take the heat. Heat is a reality so after a short-lived moment in the sun, it melts away. Well, we have a preponderance of such swarming college campuses these days. They are delicate creatures who take offence to anything that doesn’t agree with their adolescent view of the world and their place in it.

The human ‘snowflakes’ take every thing very seriously. In one event, someone chalked the name ‘Trump’ in chalk on some college campus steps. They had to call in counselors to deal with this. Calling the college maintenance and having them hose it down would seem to be a less anxious option. Then, when too many ‘things’ brought distress to our young students, they demanded a manner of speech restraint so any dissidents against what they wanted to believe would not interfere with a dose of reality. Unfortunately, teachers and professors stood by these tender people and encouraged them to stand their ground. Of course, taking time to protest, took away from study time, and then some had to demand special favors in the grading of their exams like nothing less than a C and forgoing the exams entirely. If there were any pre-med students in the mix, kind of makes one worry about future medical attention in case your ailment was covered in the cancelled exam.

When the anxious voice of the students wasn’t adequately attended to, they demanded and actually were given ‘safe spaces’ where it had to be all sunshine (not the global warming type!), flowers, and good thoughts. Trying to impart a grain of truth into the mix would get you promptly banned from the ‘safe space’.

It is a worrisome phenomenon and doesn’t bode well for the future. Showing my age but when I graduated from just high school, we were considered adults and capable of actually getting a job, supporting a family, or going to college or trade school to learn something for a career. The thought of taking “Literature of the Ancient Druids”, “Comparative Analysis of Main Streaming
Gorillas Into Society”, or “Godzilla: Fact or Fiction” would have been laughed at as how would that further a viable career. Okay, I exaggerated my examples but I imagine there a few in the sacred reality of the scholastic system that would rival them.

Gentle introductions of conversation that even have a tinge of disagreeing with the snowflake generation causes them anxiety. Various people have gone out into the streets to see what young people actually know/understand about the country they live in and the results were abysmal. This is our future and they have no idea of the past and how we arrived at this point in life. They want a feel good/hash tag sort of existence. Morality gets in the way of their freedom so an abortion-minded throw away existence is in place today. Commitment is a cause of anxiety because ‘what happens if they change their mind’ so living together is a beautiful option – never mind the impact of any resultant children of such unions that are allowed to live. The recent resurgence of socialist offers in the Democratic campaigns plays right in to these students lack of knowledge and their ‘me, first’ mentality. Free college for everyone? Do they understand the mechanics of providing such money? Would their professors start working for free in order to possibly make this a viable option? Equality for everyone financially is not a true option. When the masses start realizing that they get the same as everyone else does even though they are working and being taxed and the “enlightened’ snowflakes are living off the land, would they continue to work?

But I get ahead of myself in the grim forecast of the coming future. Most of these young people are still in their parents’ home and already living off the land. So, has a bad economy without enough jobs been fueling this travesty of living? Bad example of hardworking parents? Or, a government who would like to be dominant in our lives and make them dependent on other people’s earnings seem the more worthy of the world. In any event, things are not looking all that rosy if you are able to leave your safe space and study the matter. History repeats itself and, well, when you learn about social justice versus understanding the realities of society and justice . . . history repeats itself.

Anything Free in Life Always Has a Price!

The year before I finished twelfth grade, I started mailing out inquiries for brochures on various colleges I was interested in possibly attending. It was exciting to get mail and read about all the interesting classes that fit into my plans for life. I remember staying up late, one evening, excitedly reading about one college in particular. It offered all the classes I wasted plus many I had never thought about. I was especially excited about the junior year where the students would study in Europe. I was enthralled at the possibilities and actually ran downstairs to tell my mother about it. Well, in my enthusiasm, I didn’t note the late hour and woke my mother up. She, however, carefully listened to what I had to say and then burst my bubble with, “There is no way we can afford this for you.” I trudged back upstairs to bed and that was that. Even working during the summer wasn’t going to make this possible. Fortunately, my high school had an excellent student counselor who took note of my good grades and strongly suggested I enroll in the community college and then see how things go. I just made the deadline for enrolling, my summer wages covered the cost of books and the tuition was reasonable.

Meanwhile, a relative made fun of me for not getting into a four-year college. Following my graduation, she graduated from her own high school and insisted her parents send her to a four-year college in the area. Since she chose a state college, the parents managed with some difficulty to cover her expenses. When she hit her junior year in college, she wanted to study in Europe and her mother gently told her that it would be a severe strain on the budget. The young lady applied, unbeknownst to her mother and was accepted. The parents gave in so as not to disappoint her, and she went off to Europe for a year. I observed how the parents struggled while she was away to make sure she got regular care packages and spending money even though they went without.

Meanwhile, things got tight at my house and I cashed in my credits earned to date in college, got my AA degree, and got a job. When the relative came home from her stint in Europe, she liked to make fun of my ‘lack of education’ and told people I had only gone to college to find a man and when that didn’t workout, I got a job.

Ten years past college found us both working in similar jobs making about the same pay. She was constantly in debt with maxed out credit cards. I saved up my salary and went to Europe almost annually. Shows was a ‘little’ education can do for one, right?

When I hear about the current students march to demand so many free perks in life including totally free college education, I remember my time in college. Nothing was free and if you wanted it, you worked for it. If parents were able to help, that was a bonus but wasn’t a perquisite for doing so. As in the case of the relative, demanding and getting what she wanted when she wanted it didn’t do her well in the long run. Free education for all will fill the colleges with eventual malcontents who would never figure out from where their blessings come. They are the product of a society that has become afraid to discipline or be straight forward with their children and teachers who give everyone a reward in a contest so there are no hurt feelings. It’s putting self-esteem ahead of reality and calling in counselors every time someone stubs their toe so no one has to deal with the real problems in life and learn from them.

I don’t see this relative anymore which is fine with me. Real family doesn’t always have to be related by blood. My last conversation with her she was bemoaning the champagne tastes of her children which kept her maxing out her credit cards, saying, “What can I do? I just don’t want them to lack for anything like I did growing up!”