Below is the picture of part of a person...

I don't know if it's the arm... or the leg... or perhaps the brain.

This is Ashford University, a for-profit university headquartered in San Diego. It is the largest of several educational holdings of Bridgepoint Education, a for-profit corporation on which the United States Supreme Court 

has bestowed personhood.

First, an apology for not editing yesterday’s BLOG post before hitting the “send” button.  The old English teacher should remember what he urged his students to do… and do it.

Now, to continue where I left off yesterday.  Some rants don’t finish easily.

I wrote yesterday about the cost to a nation of widespread ignorance in its population… and the likelihood that the America of 2024 may be a bigger pool of ignorance than exists today unless enough political leaders and citizens wake up to the need for improving the American education system from earliest childhood through post high school training.  I wrote yesterday about the emphasis several European nations are putting on education by making it affordable for absolutely every citizen without imposing deep debt on parents and on the students themselves.

In Congress a simple legislative move could be made in a program that now adds insult to injury to the plight of young Americans who have had to choose between borrowing money to pay tuition for their post high school training or not continuing education. Many thousands of young Americans finish college or other technical training with crippling debt of sometimes more than a hundred thousand dollars.  Some of them crumple under the burden of student loans added to the cost of living especially in some urban areas.  Student loan debt is not included in the list of debts that can be wiped away by bankruptcy.  All Republicans in Congress have refused to approve legislation that would include student loans in the list mainly because the rippled effect through the banking industry would cut into lending institutions’ profits. It is easier than ever for corporations and rich individuals to buy legislative votes.  Because they too are afraid of loss of big-money support for reelection, even a few Democrats in Congress have been complicit in refusing to allow some responsible proposed legislation to move forward.

Also adding more insult to injury, Congress approved in 2006 a wage garnishment increase from 10% to 15% to the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005.  In 2005 the Supreme Court upheld the government’s ability to collect defaulted student loans by offsetting Social Security disability and retirement benefits without a statute of limitations.  A bill was put forward by Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) that would have allowed college graduates to refinance their loans with lower rates.  In September of this year Democrats attempted to pass the bill despite Republican inaction in the run-up to the November elections.  Republicans are convinced they can’t afford to offend the financial establishment that funnels money into their reelection coffers.

In the early 1800s the Supreme Court decided that the word “person” in the Fourteenth Amendment should extend to corporations so they could sue each other or sue individuals and in other ways legally contract with each other the way natural individuals may relate.  Jump forward a hundred years: In 2010 the Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission explicitly gave personhood rights to corporations… Included is the right for the corporation to act in the same way that individuals can act in funding specific political campaigns. Corporate executives now have an incentive to throw the financial support of a corporation in the direction of politicians who can promise that they will be friendly to their company in legislative matters.  These corporate leaders are rich people who have an incentive to support politicians who are in favor of low taxes on the rich, especially taxes on gains from stock.  Corporate leaders are rarely committed to addressing problems of the lower and middle classes unless their attention results in increased profits for their companies. 

THIS IS A PICTURE OF TWO PERSONS.  One of them is a San Diego policeman.  

The other is a homeless person.

THIS IS A PICTURE OF ONE PERSON.  He came out of the grocery store.

THIS IS A PICTURE OF ONE PERSON.  I am ONE PERSON of several PERSONS who watched delighted as this ONE little PERSON danced to the music of a street musician while his parents, TWO PERSONS, watched with obvious pleasure and pride.  He will grow up to be ONE adult person.  No corporations were watching.