I paid for my own college too.

Well, I got some help from my family (a great sacrifice for them), but I'd guess about 80% of my college expenses I paid for myself, I count GI Bill as "money I earned", although that funding was not available to most other students, or even to me until I came back from the service. I never applied for scholarships of any kind. I didn't have to. I paid for my graduate school out of my earnings on a blue collar job, but I was young, healthy, lived rough, and had no family to take care of.

But that was then. I couldn't do that today without going into extreme debt, like most middle class kids today have to do. I went to a state university because it was cheap, and a lot of my jobs during that time were provided by the university. My education was subsidized by the state. I had to come up with tuition, fees and books, but that was only a small part of what it cost the taxpayer to operate my little piece of the University of South Florida.

That's why I have always felt so strongly about this issue. I will not deny anyone else what was given freely to me because now that I am old and successful, I am too cheap to pay taxes to offer it to someone elses kids. Everyone benefits from educating the young, not just the kids who were educated. The purpose of education is to help the student and the community at large, not his employer. And since I was subsidized by the state, it is my duty and my obligation to pay taxes so that other people's kids will have the same assistance I profited from.

I was brought up poor, not grinding, abject poverty I'll grant you, but we were working class. I never would be where I am now if some of the resources of the state were not diverted to me so I could earn my way out of poverty. I owe that debt to my community and so do you. It is a solemn obligation I intend to honor. I intend to pay my share, and through my vote, see to it that you do too.

But the Right seems to think they don't have that obligation. They see themselves as the makers, and everyone else as the takers. They are convinced they are the only ones who work, and the only ones who sacrifice, the only ones who deserve the rewards and benefits of society because everyone else is lazy and stupid and crooked. The makers want the freedom to send their kids to whatever school they choose, but they also want those government vouchers, don't they?. And they want to make sure that only those who can afford the price of admission get them.

Maybe that makes me a class traitor, but I am the first person in my family to join the bourgeosie; my loyalties lie elsewhere.