Monday March 20, 2006 Just another thought

All men are NOT created equal.

I'm sorry, but it just isn't true.
Some of us are taller, some are fatter, some at smarter, some are stronger, some are richer, some are healthier. Some of us will live longer than others. Some will have a happier life while others will muck around their whole lives. Some of us were lucky enough to have two loving parents. Not all of us have the same advantages.

Last night I was watching a special about Ewing Kauffman. He was the owner of Marion Laboratories here in Kansas City. He amassed a large fortune and was good enough to share his wealth with fellow Kansas Citians. He believed that if you gave a young disadvantaged student a chance to get a good education, that young person could achieve a better life. Ewing made a contract with hundreds of students here in town that if they would work hard and complete their high school education with adequate grades, he would provide them with a four year full scholarship with books and room and board. Many of these kids took his offer, stuck with school and completed their college educations at various universities around the nation. It proved that if you give everyone an equal chance and opportunity, they can improve their lives. Mr Kauffman firmly believed that education is the key to making your life better and he helped show that.

Unfortunately, there aren't enough Kauffman's around to do the same for the thousands of students in school today. Many of these students will not have the finances to fund further education. Now with the manufacturing facilities leaving the United States in greater and greater numbers, it is vital that we find some way to improve the plight of the upcoming generations. Education has been free to all children through high school for some years now and it helped the nation to have educated workers available to our various manufacturing requirements. Times have changed and the requirements now require greater levels of education. Why don't we take it upon ourselves as a nation to provide higher education to all students? If a student hasn't the aptitude for college, he should be given technical training to help him find a better job. If we invest our money in creating a better educated populace, won't it pay off in the long run with higher paying jobs and higher collected tax revenue? We spend so much money on special interest projects and throw away so much money on wars and war materials. We defeated our old nemesis, Russia. We now have ties with China. We are the remaining super power on Earth. We shouldn't have to have any wars with these little countries that are no threat to us. There should be a peace dividend. Instead, we create wars to keep our expensive military machine well oiled. Why can't we invest in our own future?

To me, it makes sense for our elected government to help us all to better ourselves. It makes sense for the government to step in and make sure that all of us are healthier and better educated. We would be pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps and ensuring a better future. As it stands now, the health and education is distributed primarily to those who can afford it and the rest of our citizenry are left on the outside staring in. They know that they aren't equal to those who have the advantages and never will be.