Every once in awhile, I need a place holder for a story.
My daughter, Chloé, left on Sunday for her final year at the University of Edinburgh, where she will obtain her Masters Degree in History. From there, she will head to another university somewhere for her Masters Degree in Global Affairs on her journey toward her law degree. Pretty ambitious, but I have no doubt about her capability. If she wants it, she’ll get it.
In a recent conversation with her grandfather about her plans, he expressed to her that he’d like her to add some American universities to her list of choices. He told her that the U.S. is no more dangerous now than what it was when he went to Harvard in 1968-1970 during the race riots in Boston, Vietnam war protests and political challenges.
I beg to differ.
PANDEMIC – this is the primary reason for my opinion. The U.S. has done a criminally negligent job of containing a virus that never should have gone unchecked. It was politicized from the start, and (at last count) 190,000 deaths could have been avoided. Why would anyone voluntarily want to move into that situation? What kind of education is worth putting your life at risk? The rest of the world is safer. The virus has it’s own timetable and no amount of youth, money or ignoring its existence can sway it from its purpose of killing people.
Grampy is of the opinion that U.S. universities are “the best in the world,” but currently, the only thing the U.S. is best at is killing its own citizens. The only way to safely go to school in the U.S. is remotely, and since the universities have not reduced their tuitions – and indeed, raised them in a few cases, all they’ve done is proven how non-progressive they are and that it’s not about learning at all – it’s about the money.
THE PRESIDENT of the United States is an unstable mad man doing his best to tear the U.S. apart, and all of the checks and balances put in place for that not to happen are complicit. I have zero doubt he will be re-elected. After all, you don’t cheat to lose. And the Democrats cannot keep their heads down and their eye on the prize, they’re too busy listening to themselves scream at the top of their lungs with no hope of a consistent message. Democracy, as we know it, will have come to an end: the American experiment a failure due to avarice.
RACIAL PROTESTS, which I agree are entirely valid, have been painful to witness – certainly far worse to experience. As a middle-aged white woman in the suburbs of Toronto, I can’t do much, if anything, to be helpful. All I can do is put my white privilege to work and provide a voice for those who have no voice, and I do so on social media as much as possible. I’m also doing all I can to educate myself so that my assistance can be effective.
ECONOMIC COLLAPSE and a terrible, almost impossible, job market. How in the world does a full-time student get a part-time job? The only thing learned is that the most essential workers in our economy are the poorest paid and have been put at the highest health risk. Which brings us back to my first point: what kind of education is worth putting your life at risk?
So, with respect, I disagree that the U.S. is no more dangerous now than it was in the late ’60s.
NOTE: As a Canadian conservative, that makes my beliefs left-of-centre to start. I am not saying that Canada or anywhere else in the world is perfect, but we do endeavour to put science, common sense, and the lives of our people first (not enough, but it’s improving). I am grateful for the U.S. shining a light on our own failures and I can only hope that those who lead us will take heed.
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