Saturday, January 12, 2019

Definitely a debt to someone

This isn't about writing or fiber art; I'm just venting my mild irritation with a blog post I read elsewhere, about someone's fury at having been told by a commencement speaker that they owed "a debt to society." Maybe it's true for this generation, and even the previous generation, that they did it all themselves; I'm old, I haven't lived their experience. But speaking for myself:

My father served during WWII. So had all the men I met who were his contemporaries. Every. Single. One. Including the one who lost a hand, and the one who ended up in a psychiatric hospital.

The public schools I attended varied in quality, but at least they taught long division in third grade. (They don’t now. It was fifth or sixth grade when our kids went to school, and I suspect by now they just say, “Oh, use your calculator.”)

I went to the University of Texas at a time when you could get a first-class education there (though you could also avoid it if that was your choice), any graduate of a Texas high school could attend, and tuition for in-state students was $100, which even people who were working their way through college could manage without getting a bank loan.

I feel I owe a lot to the previous generation, who defended our country and this system; and since I can't pay it back, it was my responsibility to pay it forward. It's still my responsibility, and will be until the day I die. Maybe that’s not the same thing as “a debt to society,” but it feels like it. I can certainly understand the adverse reactions from people who feel they’ve been screwed by society (with outlandish tuition fees, going or sending their children to worthless public schools, etc.) but I don’t, personally, share their sentiments.


  1. My great-aunt served during WWII. The stories were distinctly limited because -- well, the last time we asked what she had done, we were told "Don't ask."

  2. Yep, that's what my father and his friends felt like too.


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