There was a fairly innocuous movie that came out a few years ago entitled “Bridesmaids.” Hollywood has made hundreds of such movies over the decades; they are cotton candy and help us pass the time. Bridesmaids falls into that category. At the heart of the thin story line are a couple of self-indulgent young women vying for the opportunity to prove to the bride that each is the bride’s best friend. As I said, it is cotton candy.
One of the bridesmaids is played by actress Kristen Wiig who is going through an early 30s crisis because her bakery failed, her love-life stinks, she is forced to work as a sales clerk and she is “lost.” But she is not poor.
Enter the Federal Student Aid agency (FAFSA), the folks who determine a student’s eligibility for government grants, loans and work-study programs. The agency that oversees the agency is the U.S. Department of Education.
The entire loan process to apply for federal student aid is not a comedy. It is an application born out of necessity. Is it a blessing for many students and their families? You had better believe it. However part of its “blessing” requires that parents, guardians and students accept the fact that they need help. There comes the time when someone has to say to a child, that there isn’t enough income to finance an education. We have to apply for a government loan. Oh, and guess what? You’re going to be saddled with payments for many years to come. For many families, just “making it” through the week or the month is huge a victory. To pay for an expensive college or trade school is just not possible.
Higher education is a financial struggle, and we all know this. We also know that very, very few teenagers have the athletic ability to get a full scholarship at a college, or the outstanding grades to qualify for Harvard or the musical aptitude to play for a marching band and on and on.
If I know this, and you know this, why wouldn’t the U.S. Department of Education know this?
Kristen on an Airplane
So someone within the FAFSA hierarchy, believing that they were masters of the social media, posted a screen shot of 30-something Kristen Wiig on an airplane. The actress is disheveled and wearing sunglasses and her life is falling apart. But she is not poor. Yet under the picture, placed on Twitter for all to see is this:
“Help me. I’m poor.”
The body of the tweet said: “If this is you, then you better fill out your FAFSA.”
In my mind, I picture a truly needy family sitting around a kitchen table trying to fill out the lengthy form and struggling make a financial plan to support the aspirations of their child. No one at the table is making jokes. It is very serious stuff. If I can picture this, and you can picture this why wouldn’t someone at the U.S. Department of Education picture this?
When the tweet was posted, the federal agency was blasted for its insensitivity. The tweet was quickly deleted and later that day, there was an apology.
Here’s why
I understand bureaucracies and I understand that many of the people who spend their careers within the labyrinth may love “talking the talk,” but might not relate to the struggles of others. Let me try to give those within government an ethical idea or two to think about.
“Poor” is an extremely, extremely powerful word. It is a word filled with desperation and pain and judgment. I know a woman who is 96 years old, and she still remembers the poverty her family endured in the Great Depression. She remembers her two dresses, she remembers meals of potato soup and she remembers her older brothers and sisters who were out of work. Oh yes, she remembers working as a shop clerk for 35 cents an hour and though very intelligent, the family having no money to send her to college.
Poor is the same today as it was then. It is dashed dreams and sadness and a feeling of dead-end and failure. I am willing to hazard a guess that the 96 year-old woman has more in common emotionally with a 16 year-old inner city child, than either of them have with the social media guru who posted that tweet.
Poor does not mean a lack of dignity. A 30 something self-indulgent woman on an airplane vying for the prize of being the bride’s best friend is a movie plot. It is also embarrassing and just a bit pathetic.
The family sitting around a kitchen table struggling to complete a financial aid request is beautiful; it is noble and filled with dignity. It is one of those “I am” statements. It says, “I am going to school and I will not be defeated.”
If I know this and you know this, why not those in the bureaucracy? Simple; it is not convenient for some of them to relate what they have to what others need. When that occurs, a lack of ethics and empathy defines the organization no matter how large.