Finneran: Earned, Not Given

Friday, April 15, 2016

Tom Finneran, GoLocalWorcester MINDSETTER™

Is it wrong to give an opinionated ignorant in-your-face bully a punch in the nose? Thank you…….I didn’t think so.

How is it that so many phonies speak of safe spaces, micro-aggressions, empathy, and tolerance yet act like so many little dictators? They are the least tolerant and least empathetic people on the planet. They are hypocrites of the highest order. And they need a good punch in the nose.

Allow me a comment over the word “privilege”, wielded so often today against ordinary and hard-working Americans by pampered bigots.

Apparently skin color now connotes privilege. White skin in particular.

Such is the verdict announced every day on almost every campus in America by tenured radicals, ignorant students, and frightened administrators, all desperately trying to rinse their “guilt” and their own very real privilege by attacking others.

The parents of soon-to-be college students would do themselves and their children a world of good by studying the course catalogues and the nonsensical sensitivity requirements of prospective colleges.

Western Civilization? NO. English Literature? NO. American History? NO. Math? NO. Sex Week? YES. Inane monologues? YES. How America pillages the world and destroys the planet? YES, of course……All this and more for the bargain basement price of 40-70 thousand dollars a year!

Those parents would do their sons and daughters a world of good by finding the few colleges who have avoided the poisoned swamps of political correctness, colleges whose idea of diversity is a faculty made up of roughly equal numbers of liberal and conservative thinkers. Today’s college campuses are more like ideological concentration camps where only one school of thought is allowed.

Once upon a time George Orwell’s 1984 was considered far-fetched. Not anymore. 1984 has arrived like a locomotive. The brave and thoughtful student who expresses some doubt about the prevailing political and social notions of the New York Times is immediately shunned, shamed, and bludgeoned into a meek and apologetic submission for his heresies. Perhaps an academic could explain the difference between these everyday campus outrages and Mao’s or Stalin’s show trials. Perhaps an academic could explain why conservative authors are routinely run off campus by crybaby students in need of safe spaces. Of course for the ultimate irony, you can bet that these crybaby student bullies all belong to some anti-bullying group. Self-awareness is not a strong suit of these overly-indulged brats.

Of all the nonsense tolerated, encouraged, condoned, and subsidized in these lunatic academic asylums, nothing quite tops the “privilege” war cry. A student who studies diligently, who earns good grades, who writes well and thinks clearly has a fair chance at gaining admission to a good school. I know two young men, high school seniors, who have earned admission to Boston College, Boston University, Fairfield, NYU, Brandeis, Northeastern, and Tulane. Those are pretty impressive schools and these young students are to be applauded for their efforts. Note the word---“earned”.

The parents of these students are not wealthy. They are not “privileged”. Their mothers work hard. Their fathers work hard. Every little bit of success in their households has been earned by such hard work over many years. The students themselves worked hard at their studies. They worked hard pumping gas and bagging groceries. They worked and worked and earned their so-called “privilege”. They are not trust fund kids. They are not prep school kids. And they are not “legacy” admissions based upon their parents’ connections to the admissions office. Yet it is likely that they will have to endure the arrogant lectures of trust fund fools and the sanctimonious poses of prep school kids, none of whom have ever earned a thing and whose experience with real diversity is nil.

I’m all for diversity—diversity in admissions, diversity in professors, diversity in thought. And any true application of such principles of diversity would lead to certain happy results---a lot less nonsense about privilege and a lot more respect for the concept of earning one’s way forward.

Remember the word---earned.

Tom Finneran is the former Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, served as the head the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, and was a longstanding radio voice in Boston radio.

Finneran: Earned, Not Given

Related Slideshow: The 50 Most Diverse High Schools in Massachusetts

#50 Curtis-Tufts HS

Medford, MA

#49 Boston Green Acad.

Boston Green Acad. Horace Mann Charter, Boston, MA

#48 Fitchburg HS

Fitchburg, MA

#47 Global Learning

Global Learning Charter Public HS, New Bedford, MA

#46 Lowell Middlesex

Lowell Middlesex Acad. Charter HS, Lowell, MA

#45 Community Academy

Jamaica Plain, MA

#44 Quincy HS

Quincy, MA

#43 Foxborough Regional

Foxborough Reg. Charter HS, Foxborough, MA

#42 Boston Collegiate

Boston Collegiate Charter HS, Dorchester, MA

#41 Full Circle HS

Somerville, MA

#40 Waltham Senior HS

Waltham, MA

#39 Medford HS

Medford MA

#38 Snowden International

Snowden Int'l School at Copley, Boston, MA

#37 Brockton HS

Brockton Champion HS, Brockton, MA

#36 Worcester Tech. HS

Worcester, MA

#35 Acad. of the Pac. Rim

Acad. of the Pac. Rim Charter Public HS, Hyde Park MA

#34 Lynn Vocational

Lynn Vocational Tech. Institute, Lynn, MA

#33 Boston Arts Academy

Boston, MA

#32 Greater Lowell

Greater Lowell Reg. Vocational Tech., Tyngsborough, MA

#31 Amherst Regional HS

Amherst, MA

#30 Horace Mann

Horace Mann School for the Deaf, Allston, MA

#29 Everett HS

Everett, MA

#28 Lynn English HS

Lynn, MA

#27 Boston Latin HS

Boston, MA

#26 Prospect Hill

Prospect Hill Academy Charter HS, Cambridge, MA

#25 Brookline HS

Brookline, MA

#24 New Bedford HS

New Bedford, MA

#23 Randolph HS

New Bedford, MA

#22 Charlestown HS

Charlestown, MA

#21 Burncoat Senior HS

Worcester, MA

#20 Springfield Ren.

Springfield Renaissance School, Springfield, MA

#19 Sabis International

Sabis Int'l Charter School, Springfield, MA

#18 Quincy Upper HS

Boston, MA

#17 Springfield Central HS

Springfield, MA

#16 Mystic Valley

Mystic Valley Reg. Charter HS, Malden, MA

#15 Univ. Park Campus

University Park Campus HS, Worcester, MA

#14 Doherty Mem. HS

Worcester, MA

#13 North HS

Worcester, MA

#12 Lowell HS

Lowell, MA