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Every semester I can expect to get a student who is more concerned about his next female conquest than he is about education. This is typically the underachiever who—if he does show up for class—sits in the back of the classroom, laughing or talking during my lecture or disrupting the class in some fashion. This is the kid who is privileged. This kid was accepted to the university because his daddy and granddaddy and great-granddaddy and great, great granddaddy attended the university and gives large sums of money for its academic and athletic programs.
This kid only participates in classroom discussions when I have the dreaded conversation about affirmative action. Despite his privileged background and legacy admission to the university, he’s the one who often rails off the loudest against affirmative action programs. He’s the petulant one who doesn’t respect me because he sees the darkness of my skin and assumes that I’m only his professor because of affirmative action. He’s the one who speaks often about ‘personal responsibility’ and how poor people beg for government hand-outs and don’t want to work. He’s the kid who believes that racism no longer exists, and that if people simply worked hard, they can be as rich as his daddy is.
This kid doesn’t have to worry about getting good grades. If I were to give him a bad grade, rest assured that his daddy would be calling the department head threatening to withhold further donations to the university until the grade is adjusted. And he certainly doesn’t have to worry about jobs. His daddy’s friend has a friend of a friend who has a friend that works at a prestigious law firm and has a lucrative position already lined up.
John McCain reminds me of this kid. And he’s the reason why I no longer assign group projects. Why? Because John McCain is precisely the kid I’ve described above who’ll claim credit for work that he didn’t contribute. John McCain is that kid who is the slacker and spends time just sitting and listening and stealing the ideas from the members of the group and posing as if they were his own. John McCain is the parasite of the group. He feeds off the hard work and determination of others then reaps the benefit because each member of the group receives the same grade. He’s funny and a class clown, but deep inside, the class hates him! They know that he comes from privilege and they aren’t as fortunate as he is, and yet, he’ll never have to worry about jobs or bills.
All of this can be summed up in this way:
The stunt that John McCain pulled yesterday is a reminder that he’s still that kid from the Naval Academy just 40 miles away from where I sit who graduated at the bottom of his class but claimed credit from his father’s and grandfather’s accomplishments. John McCain never succeeded like his father and grandpappy did. He never became a Navy Admiral as they did. Maybe that’s why, like George W. Bush, he feels that he has to succeed at something, to prove that he can do it. Perhaps he feels that by achieving the presidency he will have “one-upped” his father and finally succeed at something other than being a party guy and a ladies man.
But he’s still that kid that nobody really likes but puts up with because they feel sorry for him.
I have come to despise John McCain because yesterday’s events not only reminded me of those students who I resented because they never had to work hard, but because this guy just might become president because of someone else’s accomplishments.
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