Originally posted by mohb There is the possibility that some resent your assumption that everyone had the same opportunities
That's rich. This is America. My brother-in-law came here from England in 1976 for the 'opportunity' to earn a Ph.D. and teach college. He saw no future in England.
My grandfather had a sixth grade education and plowed land behind a mule until 1930; he to took advantage of the 'opportunity' to get a union job in the city to send money back to the farm and worked it until the day he died. My father took advantage of the 'opportunity' and enlisted at 16 and did all that WWII thing. After the war he got a GED and went to some college on the GI Bill. He sold office supplies most of his life.
I grew up in a small house in a racially integrated community; went to public school until someone saw me playing junior football. I took advantage of the 'opportunity' and earned academic scholarships to a high school, where I studied hard enough to be a National Merit Scholar.
I went to a very good college - I admit, but I paid for it. I worked as a deckhand on the Mississippi River all four summers, and 15 hours each week at college; I never had a car; dates were walking on campus. I earned my room rent as the House Manager in a fraternity, meaning I cleaned up after the kids with money every morning. I had no student loans. I am the first person in my entire family to have a High School diploma and the first to have a college diploma.
Which 'opportunity' did I have? The 'opportunity' to study hard and work hard and save and improve my life and that of my children, just as my father did for me and his for him? And I should feel guilty for doing it, or understand others' resentment?