Bay City Education Association

When a society deliberately works to stifle or cripple the education process, that's when some of the less savory elements of the public media are able to propagate lies, mistruths, and broken thinking.

If you had told me five years ago even that I would be genuinely concerned that we're heading for an Orwellian dystopia, I would have said you were being paranoid. I find myself today reconsidering that proposition. When you read some of the things that people are writing online as political commentary, you realize that people really are beginning to believe that ignorance is strength, that war is peace, and that freedom is slavery. People in this country and elsewhere aren't thinking anymore, they're just reacting. Guy on TV says "hate," we hate. Politician tells us what we want to hear and then acts directly in contradiction to what they've said, we ignore it or assume it's for our own good or we point our frustration at the targets they assign.

From the "birther" movement to the taking by force of municipal governments, we have developed a bad habit of turning a blind eye to things that should, by all rights, have people up in arms. Here in Michigan Governor Rick Snyder has proposed slashing education funding to education at all levels, with public universities and K-through-twelve education taking the greatest hits. Yet at the same time, Snyder has given 1.8 *billion* dollars in tax cuts to corporations which *haven't* produced jobs or stability in the state, even while opposing the one tax credit that *has* produced jobs - the relatively new tax credit for film-making.

We give free money to the corporate courtesans who service the Randite right wing...and then claim that we have to cut education because there's no money. Doesn't anyone else see a problem with this picture?

The net result: a greater population of uneducated people who are competent only to fill out forms and push buttons, but not to understand that they're being relentlessly underpaid and overworked by corporations who don't pay taxes. Some of those corporations include media outlets who consistently reinforce the misinformation that drives public support for these measures - in other words, the very information sources that we the people rely on to keep us informed of these issues have been compromised.

And with every education cut, we the people become less capable of standing in opposition to these cuts. We become ever more responsive to authoritarian corporate bullying - "give us our tax breaks or we'll take away your jobs" - and we become not only increasingly reluctant to oppose such suicidal measures, but we become increasingly *unable* to forumlate cogent dissent.

We *must* end the anti-intellectual drive to subjugate the masses for the profit of the few who are fortunate enough to be born into wealth and opportunity in this country. The United States is supposed to be a land of *equal opportunity.* How does one have "equal opportunity" when the only way to get a good education is to be born into enough wealth to afford it? That's not equality of opportunity; that's "some animals are more equal than others."

I, for one, am not interested in seeing my state turned in to an "Animal Farm." I am not an animal. I'm a United States Citizen and more importantly, a human being. My life is not a statistic or a ledger entry in some corporation's profit and loss calculation. My will is not a toy to be manipulated by propagators of hate and division for the material benefit of those who already have more than enough material benefits.

The school year is coming to a close now, but another one is starting soon. I urge you all, in the strongest possible terms, to please, PLEASE get informed and stay informed. Cutting education in favor of short-term material gain for corporate friends of elected officials is not just wrong, and it's not just suicidal: it is an act of war against the people by government and industry.

You will have many opportunities in the coming weeks and months to stand up and make your voice heard. Take a stand for our future now...or face the possibility that we *have no future.*