Guest Column: Occupy rebuttal

In response to Senator Carmine Mowbray’s article on the recent Occupy Polson movement — I am deeply disappointed. I feel like an important issue in today’s society has been overlooked without good reason.

As an organizer to this movement, it is something that I am passionate about, and it is something that I feel affects our entire nation. She suggests that the proposed $845 cut to the Pell Grants a year is minuscule and could be replaced by 15 days of full-time work at the current minimum wage. She offers that the only thing standing between us and the means to pay for a college education is “disciplined time management, but each of you seem motivated.”

There are several gaping problems in this solution. Fifteen days of full-time work is not what I protest, what I do protest is the fact that she is assuming we do not already work. I already work full time from the beginning of summer to its end, as do many people attending our protest. From this, I have saved a sum of money, which has been reserved by my own choice for my college education, but it looks measly when compared to the quickly rising college tuition. Fifteen days is the equivalent of three full weeks, almost a third of our summer vacation. We do work; we don’t simply sit around all summer.

To add to that, I don’t know if Senator Mowbray thought about this, but jobs aren’t exactly in excess right now. In the current job market, it is not an effective solution to suggest someone “just get a job.” That, for many, is not feasible.

A teacher at school told us that her very own son was in Portland, Ore. trying to find a job to aid in his financial difficulties through school. He applied to 40 different venues, and you know how many calls he got back? Zero. Many kids are fortunate enough to have found jobs, but we occupy the same job market as many of the adults in this country, and if so many of them cannot find jobs, how can we?

I do work, as do many of us. We are not looking for free handouts for our college education; we are asking that the already bare-minimum program not be cut more. I plan on working one or two jobs throughout my college years to help pay for the costs, but unlike many members of the older population in this country, that will simply not be enough.

I did not protest earlier this month for selfish concerns, I am not writing this letter for my own benefit.

I will attend college next fall, Pell Grant cuts or not. I am doing this for my less fortunate counterparts who, without the federal aid our government supplies, could simply not afford to further their education at all.

I ask that everyone take a closer look at the facts and realize that times are changing. In this changing world, the education of our young people is of utmost importance.