The education of our president - lib challenges Bush to spend a day at Portland State University

Portland State University Vangaurd ^ | June 04, 2004 | Jason G. Damron

[Vision Thing]

Dear Mr. President,

I am graduating from college after a fair amount of sacrifice and struggle. I go to Portland State University, a fine institution that has done a lot for me, and I have attempted to do as much as possible for it. When I began, I felt so optimistic about the changes that I was seeing all around me. It was a time of great purpose and I felt a calling to serve my community in a way that I had never felt before. It was an exciting time. Don't get me wrong, Mr. President, I have not given up. It is just that everything has turned out so differently than the clear depths of promise that we all once enjoyed. This is the reason that I invite you to attend my university for a few days of classes. Portland State University, while not the most loyal compatriot to you, will offer you an education that you have, by all accounts, been lacking in your administration and in your decisions.

It disheartens me, though, that you dismiss my education, my planning and my purpose as elitism. This is especially confusing when you attended the most exclusive institutions in the world, while dismissing this fact as not worthwhile. I know of so many who struggle just to pay their electric bills, while dreaming of the chance to be educated in the way that you were. I am equally flummoxed by your political reasoning, which rejects differences of opinion and condemns a truly breathtaking feature of democracy: the press. For these reasons, as well, I look forward to you sitting beside me for a day as a PSU Viking (Vikings were fierce warriors, you know).

On Day One at PSU, we will attend the classes that I mentor in the general education program. Our goals, in these classes, are to negotiate ideas across rifts of opinion, to explore the reasons and social thinking that accompany categories of difference both locally and globally, and to communicate effectively using not only words, but all the media of technology, in presenting and arguing our evolving perspectives. The fundamental goal is to create a space of academic safety, not intellectual comfort, where we can challenge and inspire each other. On good days the room is filled with light, on others, like the day we discussed the torture at Abu Ghraib, we feel heavy and caked with the danger that you have foisted on our own fledgling democracy. You will be received with care, though, and knowing the intense consideration that my peers utilize with each other, you will be received with fairness. But you will be required to explain your actions; you will be required to clearly present your argument for all the things you do; you will be graded by your use of logic, not rhetorical flourish.

I am concerned that, due to your busy schedule, we may have just one day together at Portland State. In that case, let me prepare you for a few questions that you may be asked after your presentation. One of my gay students would like to marry; he will most definitely ask you why his love would bring down western civilization. Another student is very concerned about the deep influence of companies like Halliburton on your policy decisions. He is also very concerned about the manifest deception that Cheney has fostered concerning his connections to the companies that now run your war. One of the most politically conservative students is likely to ask why your administration has violated the basic tenet of conservatism by championing the Patriot Act. Another student, who exerts great effort in raising her child and attending school full-time, would like to know why her estranged parents received such a large tax break (when they clearly did not need it) while she is barely able to afford child and health care. She is also extremely worried about the rumors of implementing the draft. Another student, who is in the National Guard, awaits her war papers, while desperately trying to ignore the utter collapse of the organizational and command structure that you promised would be paramount in this effort.

Mr. President, I would like to know why your campaign spits the word "educated" and "liberal" in a shoddy attempt to create an enemy at home to cover your own actions abroad. I would also like to know, Mr. President, how you conceive of your actions as conservative when they more closely resemble Evangelical and Zionist zealotry. Mr. President, I invite you to my university because I would like you to see that we remain hopeful, not because of what you have done, but in spite of what you have done. We reminds ourselves, through the labors of liberally educating ourselves, that the shallow register of promise and potential that is definitive of your presidency will soon wash away.

[JPJones]

Portland State University, while not the most loyal compatriot to you, will offer you an education that you have, by all accounts, been lacking in your administration and in your decisions.

While I have nothing but the utmost respect for PSU, it's no Harvard or Yale (where W graduated from).

And speaking of education I would think a stint in the armed forces wouldn't be a bad idea for this young man, to round-out what he apparently believes, is his superior station in life.

Foregoing that enlistment, which is almost certain for this clintonian-style student, a good number of years spent meeting and paying a large payroll would certainly shed new light on domestic and geo-politics for this shameless student-hack.

[tellw]

"Portland State University...The High School AFTER High School!"

[Big Giant Head]

We reminds ourselves,

We wants it, my precious....

I must reminds myselfs and all you'ns here that this here college student is gonna grad-e-ate with an dimploma.

I bet he's real durn proud of hisself with this well educumated writin' too.

[Captain Rabbit]

I am graduating from college after a fair amount of sacrifice and struggle.

LMAO. Then you know nothing about sacrifice and struggle.

[vpintheak]

What a moron! Typical leftists idea-log, that has no real concept of the world. Yeah, those evil bastards who make more than other people are getting to keep more money, wow, that just blows me away! It is so tough, I thin I'm going to cry. I know a lot of people are, or were in my boat right now. I am not well, off, going to school so I can make more money to support my family. I am not going to whine about the people who have already done it, and say they aren't "paying their fair share!" This kind of thinking makes me want to beat some heads, figuratively speaking of course.

[Vision Thing]

I normally give a pass to incorrect syntax, but when someone (such as this author) tries to push arrogant semantics, he deserves to be slammed on misspellings and bad grammar.

[Vision Thing]

LMAO. Then you know nothing about sacrifice and struggle.

When I graduated from college, I was so drained. I felt like I lost five years off the end of my life.

The author of this article doesn't sound like he sacrificed and struggled all that much. In his words, he only spent a "fair" amount.

[daybreakcoming]

geeze....I have 1st cousin who teaches at Portland State and I am not suprised by any of this. You cannot reason with them at all.
Need I mention we have not spoke in a couple of years after a small altercation...........

[Hibernius Druid]

Idiots like this believe they're "thinking outside the box." They ARE the box. This poor "scholar" can't see what pious platitudes and deconstructionist bromides riddle his copycat liberal prose. But Jason sure does mirror the tenured radicals running American postsecondary "education." In fact, he's their clone. Heaven help us.

[Vision Thing]

Idiots like this believe they're "thinking outside the box." They ARE the box.

Not only that, but they are a closed box. They do not tolerate any views outside of their liberal worldview.

[jerry639]

Now, there is a liberal with a college education, a head full of knowledge and not a lick of common sense. Like most liberals, has probably never done a full day's work in his life. Most likely went to college on daddy's or the taxpayer's dime.
Can tell this person something about growing up in the real world. During the summer when I was age 7, my first paying job was to walk almost 3 miles and tend an elderly lady's garden from 7am until 5 am for a dollar a day and lunch. As a child my family was poor (make that very poor). There were several of us children and we all worked at some job during the summers. We didn't spend our summers in the local pool. Have picked strawberries, picked tomatoes, cut cabbage, filled silos and put up hay to make a few dollars, which I saved to buy used books and a few clothes for the next school year. There were no handouts of food and clothing during my childhood. With all things going against me, I did manage to graduate from high school, and take a few college courses. Am I complaining? Hell No! Did we set around and blame the President of the U.S.A. for our plight. Nope! I grew up fast and decided to make life better for myself. Retired back in 1986 from a factory, where I worked 34 years. Most of the time 6 and 7 days a week. Many times 11 or 12 hrs a day. Have been able to provide a good life for my wife of 46 years and my 3 daughters and 3 sons.
Can't stand liberal whining babies who think the know everything, just because they sat in classes for 4 years and listened to liberal college professors. Learned a lot more in life from listen to older people, who had been there and done that, even though they probably had not had as much formal education as I did. Book learning isn't everything. The President of the US isn't responsible for every little thing that happens in this country. Senators and Reps pass the laws and are actually more responsible for things that go wrong than any President. I will vote for George W. Bush for President in November as most intelligent voters will do.

[Vision Thing]

Wow! Great story!

I agree with you about college-educated liberals whose heads are full of facts but lacking in common sense.

There's a theory out there explaining why overeducated libs are so weak. They were raised according to a reward system that is so different from the reward system in the real world of work. In school and college, you get rewarded for impressing your teachers. However, in the real world of work, you're rewarded for delivering what the marketplace demands, which is a more stringent judge of performance.

Most overeducated Libs cannot make the conversion of pleasing a teacher to performing for the marketplace.

[jerry639]

Thanks for your reply.
Helps me understand something that has frustrated me for many years.
In the latter years of my employment, I had to deal with college educated management that thought it necessary to have a 30 minute meeting on why a box needed to be moved 3 ft from it's present position. Personally I believed them to be just plain stupid. lol

[stands2reason]

Hey, that's not fair! Maybe this brand-new college graduate is smarter than George W. and everyone else in the White House combined! I mean, look how well he absorbed his instructor's opinions! (snicker)

[Watery Tart]

[DISCLAIMER: I couldn't read all of this crap. I quit about here: Our goals, in these classes, are to negotiate ideas across rifts of opinion...Life is too short. Sheesh.]

Message for Jason: Write me again after you have been working and paying taxes a while.

And after your student loan is paid off.
P.S. Put in for a refund right away. You (or Daddy) have been ripped off. "...rifts of opinion..." ???

[exDemMom]

Our goals, in these classes, are to negotiate ideas across rifts of opinion...

This one phrase, taken alone and out-of-context, really does sound like the author is willing to contemplate in an open-minded fashion, alternate opinions.

The fundamental goal is to create a space of academic safety, not intellectual comfort, where we can challenge and inspire each other.

So does this phrase.

On good days the room is filled with light, on others, like the day we discussed the torture at Abu Ghraib, we feel heavy and caked with the danger that you have foisted on our own fledgling democracy.

However, the illusion that this person can even listen to a differing opinion, much less consider it open-mindedly, is shattered by this incredibly biased statement.

Another student, who exerts great effort in raising her child and attending school full-time, would like to know why her estranged parents received such a large tax break (when they clearly did not need it) while she is barely able to afford child and health care.

Hmm, maybe because she doesn't earn enough to pay taxes and her parents do? This statement is a prime example of how a liberal student can stuff tons of knowledge (some factual, some not) into his/her head without developing even the slightest ability to reason.

Another student, who is in the National Guard, awaits her war papers...

By "war papers" I assume the author meant that this student wrote term papers on the war and is anxiously awaiting her grade on those papers. Otherwise, this just sounds like yet another case of a liberal trying to sound like they know what they're talking about when they really haven't a clue.

I know of so many who struggle just to pay their electric bills, while dreaming of the chance to be educated in the way that you were.

Yeah, I'm jealous, too, of people whose college education was paid by their parents, while I grew up in such poverty that to even ask for help in paying for college never even crossed my mind. But does it do any good to complain? Can I accomplish anything by being bitter and angry? (In my personal experience, people like me a lot more when I'm perky and smiling.) Or do I just accept that life isn't fair and make the best of what I have?

[nwrep]

Here is a good response from someone on that website to this letter:

I understand PSU is not ranked among the best places in the country to gain an education in any field. After reading your letter that view seems justified. Apparently, PSU, and other entities where you partook your education, did not reveal to you the single most important, and really the only, constitutional duty of the office of the Presidency, namely the protection of the Republic. In this respect, the conduct of President Bush has been stellar. Faced with the most serious attack on the US mainland since the war of 1812, the President has shown an admirable combination of patience, perseverance, resolve, and courage, in uprooting, scattering, and decimating the forces that launched this attack.

Moreover, taking his constitutional duty seriously, when faced with evidence suggesting a potent adversary armed with dangerous weapons and intentions, he launched a historical pre-emptive strike, overthrew the said adversary, and liberated 25 million people from under this tyrant.

For these bold actions, my brothers and sisters in Iraq and Afghanistan thank President Bush, and pray that he will be re-elected, despite the misguided and unfounded criticisms leveled by people like you.

Best regards,
Sharif

Sharif Mohammed
Engineer
Beaverton

[snooker]

Yeah but the real thing to note is he graduated.

Standards, we don't need standards. Tests, we don't need those either.

What comes out as educated these days... makes you wonder.

[Big Giant Head]

I normally give a pass to incorrect syntax, but

Incorrect syntax, misspelled words, etc. drive me up a wall. I do it also,on occasion, and I cringe. I'm embarrased when I don't catch a fat finger error even in a post here, much less in papers to be turned in for grades, or published.

This poor fellow is attempting to look down on the President of the United States of America from his little perch in a college. If he wants to take such a "I'm so much smarter than thou" stance with President Bush, he needs to turn in FAR better work. Incorrect syntax is an elementary school error. His lack of consistency and logic is another matter entirely.

[Sloth]

Is this letter the result of some logic experiment, where students compete to cram the most rhetorical fallacies into one passage?