I have recently graduated with a Bachelors degree,
and I was able to do so because of the financial aid I received from Pell
Grants. These Pell Grants are aid from
the Federal Government that help in need students afford college. During the Debt Crisis in 2011, these Pell
Grants were under fire, but thankfully the Obama administration fought to keep
the funding for these grants and actually increase them. Unfortunately, Republicans in Congress fought
to eliminate Federal Funding for college education.
I am now a grad student at one of the most
prestigious universities in the country.
I fought hard during my undergrad years taking on extra courses and
completing an honors program, and maintaining a GPA at a level high enough to
graduate with honors. But I am now
struggling with my schooling for different reasons. Due to the Republican opposition of Federal
financial aid for education, the only way to keep Pell Grant funding was to
give up subsidizing federal loans for grad students. Now, instead of the interest on my student
loans starting once I graduate, the interest compounds while I am in school. This alone costs me $50.00 a month, per
semester, while I am attending school (total cost to me will be about $3,000
paid to interest alone by the time I graduate in two years).
Republicans in Congress, and presidential candidate
Mitt Romney, would rather I struggle to pay this $3,000.00 of interest payments,
than to have the tax cuts on the nation’s richest people expire! This is their view of America? Students struggle to pay for higher
education, but the rich pay less taxes?
Over the past four years I have seen great steps to
realizing my vision for this nation—a vision of Equality and Fairness under the
law. Some of my closest friends can now
serve our country without having to hide who they are. And they can now take pride that they have a
president whom believes that they should have the Legal Right to Marriage,
along with the legal benefits that follow marriage. I now know that my girlfriend, sister, and
mother have protection under the law to receive Equal Pay for Equal Work. I can remain comfortable that my female
friends continue to have the right to choose what it right for their own
bodies, and that God forbid they are sexually assaulted, they will not be
forced to live with that tragedy because Republican congressional candidates
want to ban abortion even in the cases of rape!
Presidential candidate Mitt Romney wants an
amendment to ban Equal Rights to Marriage.
He wants to eliminate federal funding to higher education. He has publicly disapproved of the Obama
administration’s first act to sign into law Equal Pay for Equal Work. He has publicly endorsed congressional candidates
that oppose abortion even in the cases of rape!
His answer to the sacrificing the Equal Rights and Fairness in Society…
he will take away regulations of Wall Street and lower taxes for even the
richest people. He will raise funding
for a military that already out spends the next 10 largest militaries in the
world. This is his answer to our
sacrifices.
I have a vision for an America that promotes
Equality and Fairness under the law. Not
a country that keeps the middle and lower classes down because they cannot
afford higher education to get better jobs.
Mitt Romney believes in an America that protects the Aristocracy of the
wealthy and negates the Civil Rights measures for the past decades. His answer to higher education funding,
borrow the money from your parents, and if they don’t have it, borrow from the
banks and go into debt. And if you can’t
handle that much debt, don’t get a college degree. Do you want to get out of poverty and become
a doctor or lawyer, well too bad, because grad school will now cost even more
after the monthly interest payments…
That is not the vision for a middle-class America. He is not the vision for Equality of gender,
race, and sexuality in America.
Tomorrow, we must march to the polls!
Tomorrow, we must show our government and the world,
that we want a Equal and Fair America!
