Wednesday, June 26, 2019

Eliminating College Debt Eliminates Personal Responsibility

Eliminating College Debt Eliminates Personal Responsibility
Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
June 25, 2019

“And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country.” 

It’s sad the author of those words need be identified, yet 58 years seems like ancient history to today’s students whose collective knowledge of American history is dismal at best. John F. Kennedy spoke those words on January 20, 1961 in his inaugural address the day he swore to uphold the Constitution as the 35th president of the United States.

The then liberal Democrat would probably be considered a conservative by today’s standards, or lack thereof, of the Democrat Party. Kennedy probably would not even recognize today’s Democrat Party that seeks to redistribute wealth, reduce health care to a single payer, non-competitive system, reduce free speech to what they believe, dominate the educational system through socialist indoctrination, strip gun rights from honest gun owners, raise taxes, thwart entrepreneurship via more stringent regulation, and punish success.

The Democrat Party of the Millennial generation is not about serving this great nation, but instead is about what can it get for free. The two dozen Democrats seeking their party’s nomination for 2020 are in an all out battle of who can out Socialist each other. Leading that parade, as he has been pounding that drum the longest and loudest, is Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders (S) with his mantra of free college for all and how Wall Street will be responsible for paying the $1.6 trillion in student loan debt.

While I fully support the notion of more affordable education costs, I also support more affordable housing and automobile costs. It would be nice to dine at five star restaurants, visit five star hotels, and own a private plane as the daily course of existence. But we live in the real world with a free market system, competition, and personal responsibility. With Sanders’ Utopian fantasy, he would remove the notion of personal responsibility from people’s lives giving them what they want with the so-called rich footing the bill.

Most of the rich got that way via hard work, education, invention, talent, and creativity. Most paid their dues climbing the corporate ladder, providing great service to grow a business they started, serving great food, being great singers, dancers, ballplayers, and/or rising through the ranks in a professional field. The American dream is not dead, but it is being taxed and regulated to the point of being on life support.

This outrageous notion of absolving people of their student loan debt is not only irresponsible, but it teaches them that personal responsibility is inconsequential. No one forced students to incur massive amounts of debt to go to school. Students knew what they were doing when they made the choice to accept the terms and conditions of these loans. And isn’t that what Democrats, liberals, and progressives clamor for - choice? 

Be fiscally responsible - attend a community college for a year or two and complete prerequisites and non-major coursework. Live at home. When transferring to a four-year school, again, choose prudently and opt for an in-state institution. Major in subject matter that won’t leave you wondering why you can’t secure employment following graduation. There are myriad ways of keeping college costs to an almost reasonable amount. Apply for scholarships and grants.

To be fair, were government student loans to suddenly dry up and disappear, colleges would have no choice but to lower tuition rates. This is also about supply and demand and there are plenty of schools complicit in the runaway student loan debt “crisis.” (Everything is a crisis, according to liberals, except the genuine crisis of the illegals running amok invading the southern border of the United States.) Don’t forget, cancelling student loan debt does nothing to lower the cost of college. In fact, it will simply be the impetus for universities to raise their prices - and further implicate them in this rampant pattern of irresponsbility.

Universities could reduce costs by limiting the abundance of food offered in their dining halls. They could offer numerous so-called student services on an a la carte basis, instead of rolling them into tuition costs - athletic fees, health/medical centers, workout facilities, etc. Does anyone actually parse their tuition bills for these hidden costs and fees? It’s akin to interpreting a cell phone or cable bill.

If a student is the picture of good health and never sets foot in the campus medical center, why pay for it? Students should be subject to those costs on an as needed basis - just like visiting a doctor off campus - with insurance and a co-pay. For those who suggest that all students pay the same fees for that service whether or not they take advantage of it, that’s called socialism. Same with the athletics fees - some people spend four years on campus and never once set foot in a football stadium or a basketball arena, yet they are paying for others to do so.

Then there’s the almost usurious rates of interest the government and private lenders heap upon students. While lenders certainly have the right to make money - that’s what keeps them in business - interest should be capped at five percent and only be compounded upon the commencement of student remuneration after graduation. Instead of saddling students with such high rates that reach double digits, go after the scofflaws who default on their loans and punish them, not those who make their payments on time.

Why eliminate college loan debt? Why not eliminate car loan debt? Why not eliminate mortgage loan debt? If students can attend colleges with costs beyond their ability to repay, why not sell Rolls Royces to everyone, regardless of their ability to pay, instead of selling them a Saturn. Why not sell people houses they can’t afford… oh, wait, that failed in the last decade. It’s called personal responsibility and living within one's means.

Next, former students who paid for college on their own and/or completed their loan payments are going to demand a refund on all that money - and why shouldn’t they? Why are the irresponsible being rewarded?

And just who will pay for those rewards? We the people. Sanders said Wall Street will pay the freight, but that simply means the taxpayers. How many of us have already been to college and paid our bills and now we are expected to pay for those who are either irresponsible with their finances or with the choices they made on campus. My children are in college - that’s our responsibility - not the taxpayers - they have their own responsibilities.

By absolving students of their college debt, in effect, the millions of students who have paid their loans diligently are being punished for doing the right thing. This is the same liberal, progressive M.O. of punishing the success of hardworking Americans with higher taxes. The slothful are rewarded, while the industrious pay the price. This is backward thinking, yet this is the work of the liberal progressive. JFK would hardly approve.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN.

Tuesday, June 18, 2019

AOC is an Insensitive Moron

AOC is an Insensitive Moron
Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
June 18, 2019

On the very far outside chance Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez actually reads this, I will use simple language to say that she is an insensitive moron.

“The United States is running concentration camps on our southern border - that is what they are,” said US Rep. Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). “The fact that concentration camps are now an institutionalized practice in the land of the free is extraordinarily disturbing,” she continued in an Instagram on Monday, June 17.

What is extraordinarily disturbing is that those are Ocasio-Cortez’s actual words - comparing migrant detention centers to Holocaust concentration camps where millions of Jewish people were murdered simply for being Jewish. Such chutzpah!

There are stark differences between an American detention center and Nazi concentration camps. Migrant detention centers in the Unites States are housing refugees and/or asylum seekers - people who have chosen to flee their country of origin specifically heading to the United States, when they could seek refuge in many other countries. These people were not forced to come to the United States, they are not being held beyond their will - they are free to return to their country, nor are they being forcibly put to hard labor, tortured, or murdered.

Concentration camps, some constructed as labor and/or prison camps, but mostly designed as death camps to slaughter, en masse, entire populations of Jews as well as gays and Gypsies. More than seven million were murdered. Millions of Jews were forcibly deported from their legal residences where they were citizens in the various European countries they inhabited. Tens of thousands of Jews were arrested on false charges of various so-called crimes and remanded to concentration camps never to be seen again by their families and friends. Concentration camps held millions of Jews beyond their will with inhumanely less than adequate food, clothing, and medical attention. Jews were tortured for no reason, shot for no reason, stripped naked for the amusement of guards, heads shaven - hair to fill pillows, skin tattooed - skin used for lamp shades, the victims of medical “experiments,” then ultimately gassed to death and incinerated in crematoria as part of Hitler’s plot to rid the world of the Jewish people.

The people held in detention centers are receiving food, health and medical care, opportunities for exercise, reading materials, and are not being tortured and murdered. This may not be the most ideal circumstance for these migrants, but it is vital that they be vetted and a determination made whether or not they are a national security risk or if they should be permitted to remain in the United States. They are not prisoners, but they must be detained to insure the safety of the American people while their background is under investigation. After all, the United States is a sovereign nation and has the absolute right to determine who is permitted within its borders. Because there are so many people flooding the southern border of the United States, it will take a lengthy period of time to thoroughly complete the vetting and investigations.

For Ocasio-Cortez to call these detention centers concentration camps is demonstrative of her complete lack of knowledge of history - both American history and Holocaust history. Her words, intentionally chosen, are disgraceful and an insult specifically to Holocaust survivors, demeaning the memories of the six million Jews slaughtered, and offensive to the Jewish community as a whole. Ocasio-Cortez, who has not visited the border or a detention center, is ignorant. Has she ever learned anything about the Holocaust? Comparing President Trump to Hitler also proves how little Ocasio-Cortez knows about history.

Ocasio-Cortez is also offending the members of the Border Patrol who are working difficult jobs under very challenging circumstances. “It’s disgusting to compare concentration camps to what the men and women are doing here protecting our country,” said Art Del Cueto, vice president of the National Border Patrol Council. “It is definitely a slap in the face to a lot of those people who had family members who actually went through concentration camps,” continued Del Cueto. Del Cueto offered to personally escort Ocasio-Cortez through a detention center to prove the level of humane treatment the refugees are receiving while awaiting their vetting results and asylum hearings.

It is careless and irresponsible for Ocasio-Cortez, who supports the dismantling of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), to use such language, particularly when those Holocaust survivors had precious little option in their disposition. If she really wants to point fingers, crack open an American history book and lay blame at the feet of President Franklin Roosevelt (D) for the internment, from 1942 through 1945, of between 110,000 and 120,000 Japanese-Americans in concentration camps via his Executive Order 9066. 

For more recent history, don’t forget Barack Obama (D) had detention centers, only the Obama-friendly media did not shine the light of day on them as they do at present. Why are there more people seeking asylum in 2019? Perhaps more people are trying to enter the United States because of a stronger economy and this country is simply a better place then that of their countries of origin. Plus, more people have been trying to enter the United States before stricter immigration laws are enacted.

Regardless, none of that excuses Ocasio-Cortez and her insensitive and ignorant use of language. She owes numerous apologies - to Holocaust survivors and the members of the Border Patrol at the very least, but such apologies would be disingenuous at best. Ocasio-Cortez continues to engage mouth prior to engaging brain and has many lessons still to learn.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN. He is also a Charter Member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC.

Thursday, June 6, 2019

Remembering D-Day - 75 Years Later

Remembering D-Day - 75 Years Later
Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
June 6, 2019

Against seemingly insurmountable odds, fighting an enemy so vicious, the survival of civilization and all humanity were at stake, Allied forces, under the leadership of General Dwight David Eisenhower stormed the beaches at Normandy on June 6, 1944 in one of the greatest displays of bravery in the history of mankind.

D-Day; the Longest Day; Operation Overlord; Omaha Beach; Pointe du Hoc - all synonymous with the largest amphibious assault over the English Channel into France to fight the battle proving to be the turning point of World War II - the battle and war for the soul of humanity - and that is not hyperbole.

“These were people who knew they were going to die,” said President Donald Trump, speaking on the 75th anniversary of this battle that should never be forgotten and should be seared into the minds of every freedom loving person on the face of the earth. The first wave off the essential, yet little remembered Higgins Boats, suffered severe casualties in a necessary push enabling the succeeding waves of military forces to triumph in their vital quest.

Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander, sent his troops off on the all-important mission with these words: 

“Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force: You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hope and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you.

In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.

Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped, and battle-hardened. He will fight savagely.

But this is the year 1944! The tide has turned! The free men of the world are marching together to victory.

I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty, and skill in battle.

We will accept nothing less than full victory!

Good luck! And let us beseech the blessing of Almighty G-d upon this great and noble undertaking.”

The complete text of Eisenhower’s speech: https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/dwighteisenhowerorderofdday.htm 

The level of bravery and valor exhibited by the men who stormed the beaches at Normandy on June 6, 1944 is virtually unmeasurable and incomparable to any other battle - and that is to take nothing away from every man and woman who has worn the uniform past or present. Yet D-Day veterans themselves downplay their own heroism in typical Greatest Generation stoicism - “the heroes were the ones who never came back.”

But Eisenhower understood their importance with his pre-battle words. And he would later walk through the depths of hell when liberating Nazi concentration camps, where “conditions of indescribable horror prevail,” Eisenhower wrote to George C. Marshall. Eisenhower’s invocation of prayers and of G-d also demonstrated the visceral importance and urgency of the times.

President Franklin Roosevelt also offered a D-Day prayer, which he read over national radio. https://www.fdrlibrary.org/d-day 

On the 40th anniversary of D-Day, June 6, 1984, at Pointe du Hoc, President Ronald Reagan also offered prayers of thanksgiving and praised G-d in one of the great speeches of any presidency. http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/reagan-d-day.htm 

President Trump also invoked G-d in his speech this morning - something no one should be afraid to do. Part of the greater problem from which the United States, and quite frankly, the world suffers, is straying from a belief in G-d. The D-Day messages transcend the battlefields. There are battlefields here at home in the United States - gang wars, invasions at the border, the life and death debate over abortion (it’s murder) and more than a modicum of prayer is most definitely needed. There are no atheists in foxholes nor on final exam days!

“You are among the very greatest Americans who will ever live. You are the pride of our nation. You are the glory of our republic and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts,” said Trump, speaking before more than 170 World War II veterans at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial where 9,388 Americans are laid to rest. Their sacrifice should not have been in vain. Trump’s full speech: https://www.foxnews.com/world/president-trumps-speech-75th-d-day-anniversary-normandy 

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN. His cousin Seymour was killed in the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium and maternal grandfather Leon worked on the Manhattan Project.