At the risk of offending Alpha Man I have decided to take issue with a recent article written by the illustrious Elie Mystal of Above the Law.

http://abovethelaw.com/2010/10/bullying-shouldnt-be-a-crime-no-matter-how-many-people-kill-themselves-because-of-it/

As a blogger myself I recognize an article titled simply to get hits and draw commentary.  Normally I think touche and go on about my business.  This article pulled me in with it’s Karate Kid analogy.  I happen to have an encylopedic knowledge of that movie.  Now if one recalls, the Karate Kid is about a kid named Daniel who moves across the country from NJ to LA.  There he accidentally offends a group of Martial Arts students after hitting on one of their ex-girlfriends.  After several run-ins four or five of them chase Daniel through a field and beat him until he is unable to stand.  The bullies argue briefly about whether to leave him or keep going, and they decide collectively to continue.  But for the intervention of Mr. Miyagi while Johnny was in-flight, Daniel almost certainly would have died from the next strike.

It has nothing to do with being fragile, Elie.  A beaten and broken human-being cannot survive a flying sidekick to the sternum.  Let’s break this down a little further…

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I’ve got alot of pills
And Not a Single Reason Not to Take Them
Suicide? No. Depression.

I can’t explain it
I just want to die
Suicide? No. Mental Illness

I’m me – I can’t not be me
Society says that’s not ok – or worse I am evil
Suicide? No. Collective Murder

I’m me – I can’t not be me
Society says that’s wrong so I keep it a secret. You outed me.
Suicide? No. Murder

Arguably the worst kind. Your ugliness makes me sick.

I know Mike Triforce doesn’t really go to work ever but I couldn’t help but notice that he spent all day yesterday commenting on ATL, instructing random commenters on everything from how to get a hand job in public to how to cheat on the LSAT. I was somewhat flattered to be honest- obviously Mike Triforce needs a new receptacle for the bullshit he generates on a daily basis. But I need to address the cheating thing.

But first a law school update. It’s going great! This is the best part of first year. It’s way too early to be concerned with outlining but most of the initial fear has worn off. Everyone has been called on and life is just one endless giant mug of beer.

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President Obama and Retired General Powell each are undertaking laudable efforts to promote education in this country.  Sometimes investing in one’s education means taking on debt. I am undertaking a questionable effort to raise awareness about oppressive student debt that basically amounts to a prison sentence. Sometimes avoiding this debt means delaying or foregoing education. Are these two conflicting goals? I don’t think so. Plus, if they were, would Alpha Man write for a blog that questioned two black leaders of such prominence? Probably not.

Read on to see where I am coming from.

When Obama or Powell say “education” they mean a high school diploma plus MAYBE a two year college degree in some kind of trade (think ITT Tech before they started scalping students).  When I say “education” I mean a highly-specialized graduate degree where pre-2006 you could expect a six figure salary for the foreseeable future after completing the necessary post degree work (research, clerking, residency, exams, etc.) That’s a wide gap. Let’s examine the prospectives.

I do not pruport to be an expert on either of the aforementioned gentlemen. However I do know that Obama worked between college and law school and I believe Powell attended West Point (which is free if you get in). While both Obama and his wife Michelle had student loans they are simply more talented than you and I and being twenty instead of two years removed from school, had much more reasonable debt loads. On the same token as a white suburban kid they had tons of adversity whereas I occasionally overslept the alarm clock and would have to have a cold breakfast…or demand my hot breakfast and feel somewhat guilty as my dad drove me to school. The guilt was minimal.

Also Obama and Powell are concerned with education at a macro-level. Their policies, advocacy and foundations affect millions of students. This blog is concerned with education at a micro-level. The posts are highly anecdotal and meant to warn potential students who far and away have already exceeded the metrics that Obama and Powell are talking about.

There are countless other differences. Obama and Powell are targeting children. This blog targets adults. They command armies. I have a half-dozen surly bloggers. They have lived all over the world. I live in my mother’s basement…

Um, but back to the point. I believe that there is a great deal of overlap in our positions. I support a higher graduation rate. High School is free. Am I in favor of a longer school year? Sure, that’s more free school. Likewise Obama has eliminated alot of the middlemen allowing the Federal Government to loan directly to students.

Now that is not to say we’d agree on everything. Whereas Obama or Powell might tell some kid to follow his dreams Id tell him he’d be better off avoiding his nightmares or more specifically my nightmare. My endless horrid nightmare.

Point is parents, aunts, uncles, older siblings etc. Do not just dismiss what you read here as useless satire. There’s good stuff here and it’s not by any means anti-education.

It recently came to my attention that people who make a mere 250k and live in a major metropolitan feel poor and are outraged by the suggestion that they should pay taxes similar to what they paid 12 years ago when the American economy was a force to be reckoned with.  Huh. A day or so later a friend pointed out that Biglaw attorneys who take jobs outside of biglaw and have to take a pay cut also feel poor because, compared to their peers, they are no longer making as much. Um, well that’s interesting.

Most people however did not share my apathy toward cliche articles designed to create traffic on sites that are going down hill.  This puzzles me.  Why is it a revelation that people generally dislike taxes and aren’t one more rung up the ladder than they are already are? I mean, even Kings and Presidents at the pinnacle of existence at any given time are obsessed with comparing themselves across time and space.  Someone is always better than you.

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- Do Not be Paralyzed

By Your Ability to See Both Sides

Look Towards Your Anchor and Act

However, Choose your Anchor Cautiously

For it is the basis of all your journey’s decisions

Lest you be lead in the circle of hypocrisy

- Anonymous –

These aren’t my words but I thought I’d share them because they illustrate the other “law school scam” that has nothing to do with the fact that it’s an overpriced waste of time that has little chance of getting you any sort of gainful employment, much less one that might help you pay off your loans and start a life before you’re dead.  I also am not going to take issue with professors whose only job is to write and consider teaching a nuasance.  I am taking issue with the fact that a legal education is an enemy of “truth” as defined in the discipline of philosophy and as such eliminates the anchor spoken of in the prose that introduces this entry.  Allow me to explain.

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Y’all must think you’re pretty slick. Seriously, pulling something out of Reagan’s playbook: paying faux homage to King (in Reagan’s case in the form of a national holiday) while doing everything you can “behind the scenes” to promote the disparagement harassment and discrimination against African-Americans. Oh, do I have some words for you! But first let me say this to all you minority inmates in debtors prison (which like real prison is made up of a disproportionate number of us) first we’ve got to look up from staring at our own problems long enough to notice things like this and second  we may not have gotten jobs or meaningful contacts out of our fancy degrees but at least we pissed off uneducated white trash like Beck and Palin. Sure they are millionaires and we owe six figures but their jealousy and envy can at least get you through the day.

Ok now for Beck and Palin. Look, Reagan got away with what he did because 1) he was President 2) he was a charismatic actor and 3) that was 30 years ago before the Daily Show.  Glen Beck is so stupid he thought Al Sharpton marched with Dr. King…I mean can he even count to 47? Sarah Palin is on record mocking the very IDEA of being a community organizer… What do you think Dr. King WAS?! The unofficial Prince of Negroes? And these aren’t things those idiots did or said ten years ago, this is all since 2008.

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A question was posed in the New York Times recently

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/magazine/22Adulthood-t.html?pagewanted=10&hpw

asking whether the collective failure of “twenty somethings” to 1) finish school 2) move out 3) become financially stable 4) marry and 5) have a child by age 30 and hence achieve adulthood is so rampant that perhaps we are witnessing some kind of collective devolution such that a new category in addition to adolescence is needed between childhood and adulthood called “emerging adulthood.”  This article is more than just another slap in the face to young people who have never had the opportunity to start a career mixed with some struggling, debt-ridden academic’s sad attempt to make a name for himself.  This article is the very antithesis of what this blog is all about and as such merits a response.  As I peel back the layers of lies and hypocrisy I ask that you the reader not lose sight of the fact that at the end of the day life is not about 1-5. 1-5 simply has to do with a society perpetuating its own existence.  Your LIFE is measured by how you advance an organized movement designed to benefit others well beyond your few years on the planet.
 
First, let me say this: ouch.  I don’t say ouch lightly.  This was not a bee sting or a splinter.  This was a sledgehammer to the ankles.  This is like getting a test back from a teacher that you failed so badly the teacher actually begins to wonder if whether you have some unknown mental deficiency.  I mean, the article is saying someone in my situation is so hopelessly pathetic that SOCIETY NEEDS TO MAKE SPECIAL LAWS TO ACCOMMODATE MY EXISTENCE.  I have a friend who completed 1-5 by age 23.  I was 0-5 then.  Now I’m 28, 1-5, with nothing on the horizon.  This article suggests that when we rent cars, purchase alcohol or engage in other activities that the law treat us differently…kind of like insurance companies do when evaluating what kind of risk you are or mortgage companies do when deciding whether or not to give you a loan.  According to this article pursuing a graduate degree and not being able to get a job right away could eventually make you a protected class under the Constitution!

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I attacked my day with gusto and zeal

For you see, I’ve decided not to feel

I hardly notice as those whose exercise unjust dominion over me

Mock what I hold most dear

Go get ‘em champ! My smile is real!

For you see, I’ve decided not to feel

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What do student debtors and the unemployed have in common? No, not Benito (or the millions of others who are in the same boat). Selfishness. That’s not a criticism. I’m not judgmental. It’s certainly not praise. I am not Mike Triforce. It’s not even a challenge because I am not President Kennedy.

But I would be remissed if I didn’t point out two trends and suggest that perhaps one should rethink which hole their particular cog in the machine fills.

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