Getting stuck in Iraq: how...stooopid. Not!

marjorie says...

I’m sure you’ve all noticed the latest “he said/she said--someone has to apologize”…stink between the R’s and the D’s, this time about what John Kerry said at a campaign rally. Here’s the quote that has the Republicans self-righteously shrieking that John Kerry, who is an actual Vietnam combat veteran, insulted all U.S. military personnel:

“You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.”

The R’s claim that Kerry, in essence, is calling the troops “stupid” while the D’s claim that Kerry simply botched a joke that was supposed to be aimed at Bush. In this instance I have to like the stink actually, because Kerry's comment is so blatant. Unfortunately, the stink never addresses the real issue...which should be no surprise given the unwillingness of the American public, much less either party, to address it: the lot of uneducated (and less affluent) people in this country is to fight our wars for us, with all the incumbent risks…such as death or being subjected to a lifetime of trauma and ill-health.

That is what Kerry is saying here. And he is right. Both parties think that is ok and they don't want to dwell on it. And there are a lot of Americans who think it’s ok too. Do the majority of us think that? I know that the ignorant “pull yourself up by your bootstraps or die” mentality is alive and well. But I like to think that more of us understand the structural inequality built into our system.

Take education as an example, since Kerry brought it up. Structurally, our system does not allow everyone to get a decent education. If it were based on equality, we wouldn’t glorify brainwashed Harvard-ites, as one example, and we’d funnel a lot more money into public education. Is smarts synonymous with education? Kerry shows his Ivy League background on that one…thankfully there are plenty “uneducated” people out there who recognize just how stupid his statement is, who recognize that “getting stuck in Iraq” has a lot more to do with access and opportunity than it does with making “an effort to be smart.”