We actually remortgaged our house in order to pay off my oldest son's student loans and he pays us instead. He was more and more in debt but couldn't afford to pay more than the hundreds each month he already was paying. Paying month after month and the balance never moving or even going up instead of down. He's paying the same amount each month and is more than 2/3 paid off after 2 years. He doesn't even have a traditional degree because he quickly discovered that wasn't the right path for him so I can't imagine how much he would have owed if he had stayed at the 4 year university. But I still 100% support student loan forgiveness even though it's too late for him (us) to benefit from it. I am very aware of the fact that we could do that for him reeks of our white middle class privilege. I grew up poor and no way could my parents have done what we did for any of their kids.
I want to also chime in that my sons (28 & 24), my daughter-in-law (24) and my niece (18) show me time and time again that there is hope for this world. I have others in my family who are younger and I'm hopeful will do great things, but these four have already shown me that they are ready and willing to fight for what is right. And they (especially my 28 year old) help keep me in line. If I say something like "is that a boy or girl?" about a toddler he says "why does it matter?" and he's absolutely right. He teaches me every day and I'm thankful. I swear, I think I'm a pretty good and decent person. He gently shows me that there is always room for improvement.
"a remarkable ineptitude for moving the needle on climate change" -- Quite honestly, I find that the least remarkable thing in the world. "Remarkable" things are surprising, whereas our societal reaction to AGW is so unexceptional as to be tedious. We're hardwired to deal with what is in front of our noses; we're scarcely able to plan ahead far enough for next season's planting of crops. This is why I was unable to watch more than the first 20% of "Don't Look Up": nothing about it was funny, and everything about it was depressing. (This is not to say the film was not well done. Quite the contrary, it was *TOO* well done.)
As a late Boomer (and, by the bye, it offends me that the 'Boomer' designation is stretched to 1965; what bullshit -- the Boomers ended in 1960) who has only ever hung out with an extremely selective group of my own gen, it has always baffled me, the endless choruses of damnation for the younger generation. Like Pauline Kael ("How could X* get elected? Nobody I know voted for him!"), I've a self-selected, and consequently significantly curtailed, view of what people "my age" are saying about the world. (These days, where I live is only a little better than rural Mississippi. People "my age" are all Christian Nationalist-Dominionists who think "God the Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit" means Trump, Don Jr., and Ivanka. I don't need the pandemic to engage in social isolation.)
* Apparently Kael really did say this, but I've seen the quote where "X" is identified as either Nixon or Reagan.
Yeah, we've thoroughly screwed the pooch. Thanks for trying to fix our fuck-ups...like you have any choice if you want to have anything resembling a livable world.
We actually remortgaged our house in order to pay off my oldest son's student loans and he pays us instead. He was more and more in debt but couldn't afford to pay more than the hundreds each month he already was paying. Paying month after month and the balance never moving or even going up instead of down. He's paying the same amount each month and is more than 2/3 paid off after 2 years. He doesn't even have a traditional degree because he quickly discovered that wasn't the right path for him so I can't imagine how much he would have owed if he had stayed at the 4 year university. But I still 100% support student loan forgiveness even though it's too late for him (us) to benefit from it. I am very aware of the fact that we could do that for him reeks of our white middle class privilege. I grew up poor and no way could my parents have done what we did for any of their kids.
I want to also chime in that my sons (28 & 24), my daughter-in-law (24) and my niece (18) show me time and time again that there is hope for this world. I have others in my family who are younger and I'm hopeful will do great things, but these four have already shown me that they are ready and willing to fight for what is right. And they (especially my 28 year old) help keep me in line. If I say something like "is that a boy or girl?" about a toddler he says "why does it matter?" and he's absolutely right. He teaches me every day and I'm thankful. I swear, I think I'm a pretty good and decent person. He gently shows me that there is always room for improvement.
Well written, well said! Thank you!
"a remarkable ineptitude for moving the needle on climate change" -- Quite honestly, I find that the least remarkable thing in the world. "Remarkable" things are surprising, whereas our societal reaction to AGW is so unexceptional as to be tedious. We're hardwired to deal with what is in front of our noses; we're scarcely able to plan ahead far enough for next season's planting of crops. This is why I was unable to watch more than the first 20% of "Don't Look Up": nothing about it was funny, and everything about it was depressing. (This is not to say the film was not well done. Quite the contrary, it was *TOO* well done.)
As a late Boomer (and, by the bye, it offends me that the 'Boomer' designation is stretched to 1965; what bullshit -- the Boomers ended in 1960) who has only ever hung out with an extremely selective group of my own gen, it has always baffled me, the endless choruses of damnation for the younger generation. Like Pauline Kael ("How could X* get elected? Nobody I know voted for him!"), I've a self-selected, and consequently significantly curtailed, view of what people "my age" are saying about the world. (These days, where I live is only a little better than rural Mississippi. People "my age" are all Christian Nationalist-Dominionists who think "God the Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit" means Trump, Don Jr., and Ivanka. I don't need the pandemic to engage in social isolation.)
* Apparently Kael really did say this, but I've seen the quote where "X" is identified as either Nixon or Reagan.
Yeah, we've thoroughly screwed the pooch. Thanks for trying to fix our fuck-ups...like you have any choice if you want to have anything resembling a livable world.