STRIKE-OUT

In Baseball you get to swing the bat and miss 3 times. After which you are sent packing back to the dugout. You don't get to go to first base, you don't get to stay out on the field. Nope you lower your head and walk the walk of shame back to the dugout. That's where your at Students, your not going to get to stay at bat, your not going to get to run the bases, your not going to score any points. Nope your 3 swings are DONE! Its time to head back to SCHOOL! BUT WAIT! There is an upside. Fortunately for you you haven't done that much damage to your professional career (hell you don't even have one yet) you'll be able to pull up your britches and get right back at it. Unlike the real world you don't get to strike out all that often before you realize that your value is; how do you say it? EXPIRING. In your case you can get back to class and start again with little or no negative impact on your professional lives from your strike-out. My advice to you is this. ''take it to the bank and run your little asses off fast as you can back to class''. Its one of the only real chances you'll get in this nasty thing called, ''life''.

While I did admire for a very short time your interest and dedication to, ''a cause" it quickly became obvious that most of you (not all) didn't really understand the ''cause'' in fact it was simply a way for you to feel some sense of value in today's society. A way to feel like you were contributing to ''your generations'' process of society. All of you come from a generation of parents who also had lots of, ''causes''. The main one being , ''its someone elses responsibility ''. You come from a generation that forgot what it meant to be, ''PARENTS''. You come from a generation that spent a great deal of time ''shoveling it forward''. Some of you are saying, he means, ''paying it forward''. ''A no!'' That's exactly what i don't mean. Your parents generation decided that it was time for the government to do everything it could to take, ''living within your means'' to a whole new level. Yes girls and boys, massive debt, $5 and then $7 daycare, Tax breaks, tax cuts, little or no investment in infrastructure. It was a time of ''pay for nothing''. The phrase of the times was, ''give me everything and take as little as possible''. There was no concern about who paid for it. This was clear from another phrase of the day, ''someone else will pay for that''. So here we are. Your now on the cusp of moving to that next stage in your life where you go from being not involved in paying to being the primary payee and what do you say. ''FREEZE IT'' thats your phrase of the times and in essence it is exactly that of your parents.

There in lies the problem. Your parents and all other tax paying adults are now footing 83% of the cost of sending you to CEGEP and University. They are the ones who can no longer pay! Not you. In fact your not paying for much at all. In the mean time the past generations find themselves in a famous ''Catch-22''. They didn't want to pay for anything in the past and now are the higest taxed individuals in North America. That plan of theirs really worked out didn't it? If you take Inflation and factored it into your current tuition, the rate you currently pay to go to school is exactly what it was in 1968. Now being smart CEGEP and University students; does that make sense to you? IT DOES? Really? You see thats where you lost my support and most importantly my respect for your ''cause'', for that reason and also that your making those same people paying 83% of your education suffer by your blockades, marches and disruptions. In a certain way its a form of payback to us all. We deserve to pay a certain price for our unwillingness to demand of government a practice which should have seen CEGEP and University tuitions go up slightly each and every year for the last 44 years so the government wouldn't be in the financial predicament it now finds itself. Do you realize that had it increased every year for the last 44 years your tuition would actually be 4 times what it is now. So are you getting a deal? You bet your I-Pad, latte drinking, smart phone texting asses you are. And the kicker is you know it! But just like the generations before you you want it ''FROZEN!'' Your not interested in negotiating, you had the chance and walked away from the table demanding not less then ''A FREEZE''. Now many weeks in to ''the cause'' your crying because the government won't negotiate with you. Hey that train left the station a long long time ago. You now want a dialogue where there is none. Welcome to life; a place where if you throw a tantrum your most likely to find out, YOU LOSE!

Before you get to hating me to much I want you to know this. Your not to blame for all of this, its not your fault. Your the victims of US! If i could I'd send you all a text message, that way I'd be sure you would all get it and read it because God knows there is no other way for you to inform yourselves other then your student associations and your grey and white bearded 60 and 70's loving professors trying to live their past through your current protest. This is what my text would read, ''We are sorry we did this to you, don't do it to your children''. If you want to be pissed at someone be pissed at us, at me, at your parents and in some cases your grand parents, were the ones who let this happen. Were the ones who led you to believe that what we had practiced could go on forever. We were the generation that was scared to be real parents, to do what was right for future generations not what was easy. We set the example and your following us right off the cliff. My advice to you is stop, turn around and make a b-line in the other direction. We are where we are but you don't have to be. You are perfectly positioned to say to all of us, Government included that enough is enough! That a new way of managing must take effect, you are perfectly placed to take the society you are inheriting and make it different, better! You have all the power in your hands. Stop talking ''freeze'' and start taking change, improvement. Start marching for responsible decision making, start marching for a change in ideology a change in practices and management, start talking about a new era. You have a vote, use it! Don't vote against a current governments policy when they are for once taking their responsibility seriously. Vote for who you think can move us collectively forward in a way that no longer makes it acceptable for us to, ''shovel it forward''.

So here we are. The ironic thing about what is happening and what your currently striking for is that you are unlimately going to pay for it one way or another. It would be nice if you paid for it on your terms and not on the past generations terms. Your currently hurting yourselves and that makes no sense. Enough harm has been done to you already by those of us that allowed this financial mess. What is now ideal is for you to lay the ground work for your children to not have to take to the streets because your, while noble ideology only meant more of the same instead of fixing it. Don't repeat our mistakes. Prepare something now so that in 20 years from now you can tell your children how you fought for a better future for them and be proud of it!

FOOTNOTE: For the record i have two children currently in CEGEP and University. I and there mother do the best we can to help them finacially but both of them also work full and part time to pay for their education. Neither of them is on strike!