Fight For Your Right

Good evening!  Sit tight, buckle in, and get ready for tonight's scathing editorial.  I've been waiting all week to write this one.  So without any further ado, here we go.

So Tuesday morning started out as it always does.  The alarm goes off at 6:30 am, I slowly rouse myself and I play with my cats for a little while.  And then I...  er... that is to say, the Editorial Board here at Raccoon Inc. gets up out of bed and starts running a nice hot bath for themself... er... selves.  Anyway, so when the bath is running I take the opportunity to dial up the news on my cell phone and start sifting through the headlines to see what blew up around the world overnight.  This morning it was Montréal.

Very pretty town.

In particular, I was reading the following headline in the Globe and Mail:

QUEBEC'S UNIVERSITY STUDENTS ARE IN FOR A SHOCK

When I read this headline I immediately thought to myself...

The editorial board hadn't shaved yet and was enjoying a breakfast cigar.

So I started reading it.  First paragraph:

"It’s a little hard for the rest of us to muster sympathy for Quebec’s downtrodden students, who pay the lowest tuition fees in all of North America. Even if the government has its way – no sure thing if the Parti Québécois gets back in power – they’ll still have the lowest tuition fees in North America. The total increase would amount to the cost of a daily grande cappuccino."

Well, this sure didn't sound like it was going to be a pro-student piece at all.  I skimmed downward as the tub filled until I got to this point:

"The truth is, the education they’re getting is overpriced at any cost. The protesters do not include accounting, science and engineering students, who have better things to do than hurl projectiles at police. They’re the sociology, anthropology, philosophy, arts, and victim-studies students, whose degrees are increasingly worthless in a world that increasingly demands hard skills. The world will not be kind to them. They’re the baristas of tomorrow and they don’t even know it, because the adults in their lives have sheltered them and encouraged their mass flight from reality."

What the hell is this?!  Who wrote this crap?!  I had to admit, I didn't actually look at the author before I started reading, so at that point I skimmed back up to the top of the article and checked it out.

Margaret Wente

...Wente...

I checked the time on the phone.  It was at 6:42 am on Tuesday morning that I knew exactly what story Raccoon Inc.'s editorial board would be working on this Saturday tonight.

The full column can be found right here, and it's a real doozer.  I swam through it and then checked out the comments below at the end.  To my shock, the comments seemed overwhelmingly in favour of Wente's position.  To sum it up: kids are spoiled and they should take what they get from us adults, because work is hard, life is hard, and one day they'll realize that once all of their dreams have been shattered and they fall back down to earth.  Nice.  Nice inspiring story.  Well, I think it's high time that I took up the contrarian position and wrote a refutation in favour of the strike.  Here goes.

The major bone of contention is this: a $1,625.00/year tuition hike.  Yikes!  Ouch!  That seems like a lot.  I'm a middle class income earner with a household income a hair down from Regina's median and I can see the sting of that number hitting my pocketbook.  Now, originally, the Charest government announced that they would be raising the tuition by that amount over the course of five years.  Then this happened:

Oh, if René Lévesque could see you now...

Not good.  Riots and marches in the streets as students protested the increases.  The protests even got violent at times.  Well, following night after night of this, the Premier relented a bit.  The increase would continue to be $1,625.00, but now they would spread the increase over seven years instead of the original five.  The students then expressed their acceptance of the new deal:

Or not...

And so Wente writes this article and I read it and now I'm mad.  Why?  Let's begin at the beginning.

"The total increase would amount to the cost of a daily grande cappuccino."

Hmm...  Time for some investigative journalism!  I put on my reporter's hat and marched downtown and in through the front doors of a reputable, upscale (overpriced) coffee merchant.  I breezed through their menu.  A-ha!  $4.00.  That makes... $1,460/year.  Hmm...  Man, cappuccinos must be really expensive in Montréal!  So, for cost of your grande cappuccino (and some biscotti to go with it), you too can afford your tuition increase!  Nice.

Steeeerahyeeeeeek one!

Huh.  Well, enough of the alleged price of coffee in Montréal.  Now, there's another line here in her article that has me steaming.  I've mentioned it once already in the blog, but I'll say it again to make sure:

"The protesters do not include accounting, science and engineering students, who have better things to do than hurl projectiles at police. They’re the sociology, anthropology, philosophy, arts, and victim-studies students, whose degrees are increasingly worthless in a world that increasingly demands hard skills."

Hm.  Let's see...  One of the protesting students interviewed for an article in the Vancouver Sun was one Judith Savoie.  What does Ms. Savoie do?  Well, she's a columnist for her student newspaper.  Hm.  Newspaper columnist.  How did that go again?

"...increasingly worthless in a world that demands hard skills."

Riiiiight.  Notice how Wente was so gleeful to trash philosophy, anthropology, sociology, and so on, but didn't mention English (or French) Literature students, or Communications students, or Journalism students, because of course the world needs them, right?

No caption necessary.

CBC News Montréal spoke to Nicolas Dagenais: another columnist with the Montréal campus.  Véronique Boulanger-Vaugeois is in the social work program - and it doesn't get more boots-on-the-ground than social workers.  Teachers, police, the military may gripe and complain but there is a very compelling case to make that social workers are the most overworked and underpaid class of workers in the entire labour force, especially in poor, underdeveloped rural areas with high addiction rates.  Fabrice Pinard is a doctoral psychology student.  How artsy-fartsy, head-in-the-clouds can you get?  Treating the mentally ill?  Bah!  Humbug!  Get a real job.  Be an accountant.  What do you think Mr. Harper keeps building these for?

Well, he's not holding Johnny Cash concerts.

Seriously, though, Wente's just wrong about who's actually doing the protesting.  Just.  Plain.  Wrong.  It makes a good story to giggle about the performance artist (say, Yannick Ross) complaining that tuition's too high.  It's easy, too.  Way easy.  But do people watch Canada's Got Talent?  The Voice?  X-Factor?  Music videos?  Glee?  Way Off Broadway?  Yes.  They do.  Lots of people.  Scads of people.  How many people?  To quote David Mamet:

Great big jolly shitloads.

Useless?  I don't think so - and neither do the millions that tune in and watch every single day.  Oh yes.  Now where was I..?  Ah!  Yes!

Steeeerahyeeeeeek two!

And here's another thing that I'd like to address.  This is the very first line in the column:

"It’s a little hard for the rest of us to muster sympathy for Quebec’s downtrodden students, who pay the lowest tuition fees in all of North America."

How condescending can you get?  Alright.  Wente, you're up to bat.  You mock arts students.  What do you hold degrees in?

BA in English, MA in English

Nice.  Look, I dunno if you come from a wealthy background or not and I don't care to speculate on it, but just stop for a minute, O.k.?  Think about it.  Yes, the students in Quebec pay the lowest tuition rate of anyone in North America.  Fact.  I don't hear her asking why, though.  Why do Quebec students pay the lowest tuition rates in North America?

Well, there's your problem.

That's why.  Wente sees whining; I see fighting.  They're fighting for their low tuition that they enjoy - and yes, they enjoy it.  What society wouldn't enjoy having low, or even free tuition?  What's so funny about allowing young people to have an education?  Is this a problem?  Does a society function better when advanced education is inaccessible?  Is a society better when only the nobility can afford a proper education?  No!  This whole column seems to be based on the idea that these students are out whining and complaining when in fact they have it easy.  They have it soft and cushy and they're spending their youth in the luxury dining car of Rob Ford's gravy train.  This is such bull!  Why is this such bull?  O.k.  Sure.  I'll bite.  Here's why:

Oh no.  No no no no no.  Raccoon Inc. is not done with you just yet, sir.

Vic Toews.  So they put forward the "To Catch a Predator" Act which was roundly seen as an invasion of everyone's privacy and instead of defending it as a useful tool for serious, effective police work, he instead opted to be a pompous ass about it.  Which is fine.  That's his prerogative.  Now, with a majority Conservative (keep that word "Conservative" close in mind now) government that bill would have sailed through Parliament like the Bluenose cutting through the water on brisk February morning.  Only thing is it didn't.  It didn't because people fought it.  People stood up to it, fought it, put their foot down, dug their heels in and got mad.  And the government relented.

You see, it's O.k. to stand up to government if they're doing something that the people don't want them to do.  That's democracy.  Wente, an American after all, ought to know that.  Especially with this current government of secretive bullies, if you don't stand up for what you really want, it will be taken away just like Vic Toews tried to do.  Ah, but you may say "Well, those are the Harper Tories.  We're not dealing with them.  We're dealing with the Charest Liberals here."  To that I ask who was the leader of the federal Progressive Conservative party from December 14, 1993 – April 2, 1998?

Yeah yeah!  Him!  That guy on the right!

But you may say the Progressive Conservatives and the Conservative Party of Canada are two entirely different political parties.  To that I say:

Okay, CCF, same difference.  Parties do change their names from time to time.

So government is controlled by rich people.  Right?  Right.  Old people, too.  Right?  Right.  More concerned about rich, old people problems than poor, young people problems.  Right?  Right.  My point is this: if young people don't stand up and fight for their right, no one will.  History has proven this.  Instead of mocking the demonstrators as a collection of beatniks that will be coming soon to a McDonald's drive-thru window near you to hand you your happy meal, why don't we give them the hearty slap on the back and commendation they deserve for having the guts to stand up for themselves and force the government to consider them when they go handing out the cash, unlike every other jurisdiction in North America.  Wente's "sit down, shut up, take what you're given, and be thankful for it" argument is total complete elitist crap and I applaud the protesting students on their mettle.  Saskatchewan students don't have the guts to do what they're doing.  Ontario students don't.  New York students don't.  None of them do.  They're not increasingly useless as some may say.  Some may laugh at them and think them fools for marching through the streets mostly naked, but I ask you this: they have the cheapest tuition in North America because of it.  What kind of fools does that make the rest of us?

Steeeerahyeeeeeek three!

And so at this time, the Editorial Board of Raccoon Inc. would like to change the subject to something near and dear to their hearts.  You may have already noticed the double-meaning in the title of this evening's article "Fight For Your Right". 

On Friday night, a musician died in New York.

Adam Yauch passed away today at the age of 47.  When I saw the news on my phone today, so shocked was I that I was actually shaken by the news.  The rest of the day I've been pretty down - partially cause of this, partially cause of other things, but it weighs heavily on my mind.  I owned every Beastie Boys CD.  I practically wore out Hello Nasty.  Had the album cover poster on my wall.  Really, there are two artists that whenever a new album comes out I jump and get it: Radiohead and Beastie Boys.  I've always been, like, "Wow...  Rappers that can play their own instruments.  Sign me up!"  Adam Yauch was no Charlie Mingus, but by cracky he tried.  I'll never forget the 25th anniversary of SNL.  They got an awesome intro from Ben Stiller and started playing Sabotage when Elvis barged in and crashed the party.  They were then backup players for Elvis' Radio Radio.  And there was a sincerity in Yauch's work and that he added to the groups work.  When there was ever an apology for previous... shall we say... deviancies, it was always MCA shouting it out.  And as someone whose hair is also quickly fading to snow white at a young age, if Yauch can make it look cool, so can I.  He was the guy in the group I liked most - the George Harrison of the group.  Thoughtful, spiritual, and real.  Who needs choreography, anyway?  Just do your thing.  Go out there and play.  This is music!  It's supposed to be fun!  Who needs bling in their music videos?  Who cares about that?  Not one but two instrumental albums.  Let's see Lil' John put out some instrumentals.  Yauch was real and he was human.  Too human, it seems.  A sad day for music.  A sad day indeed and I miss him already.  I thought it funny how, you know, for the Make Some Noise video they had every single cool guy on the planet in it and that the real Beastie Boys didn't appear until the very, very end.  Now I get it, and it is sad.

Good night.