[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dDLxEyCBCM
This morning, when I read that Cornell University, slammed with a crappy financial outlook, will have to hike tuition at its 10 schools, I was reminded of an early segment on 60 Minutes this past Sunday. Scott Pelley’s excellent piece should be required viewing for anyone who still doesn’t get how the recession is affecting America’s most vulnerable. Maybe we don’t get it because we haven’t been hit that hard. Or maybe we have been hit super hard, but our friends are still there to get us drunk and pick up the tab once in a while. But what if almost all your neighbors, family members and friends were also screwed? Then you’d have an idea of what it’s like right now in Wilmington, Ohio.Ever since DHL decided in November to close its hub there, 7,000 people in a town of 12,000 lost their jobs. That’s 58 percent of the population.In the segment, one of the residents called the town “ground zero for unemployment.”If you have a soul, it’s hard to watch with a dry eye. And maybe I was seeing things, but Pelley himself looked close to tears at one point as well, when a mother, who is stockpiling food and toilet paper, says she’s had to pull her son out of college because she can no longer afford his tuition. Obviously Cornell’s $36,000 tuition is out of the reach of most Americans anyway, but we’d be foolish not to see it as one more harbinger of hardship.
Tags
advertisement
More for You
-
14 images of badass women who destroyed stereotypes and inspired future generations
These trailblazers redefined what a woman could be.
Throughout history, women have stood up and fought to break down barriers imposed on them from stereotypes and societal expectations. The trailblazers in these photos made history and redefined what a woman could be. In doing so, they paved the way for future generations to stand up and continue to fight for equality.
-
Why mass shootings spawn conspiracy theories
Mass shootings and conspiracy theories have a long history.
While conspiracy theories are not limited to any topic, there is one type of event that seems particularly likely to spark them: mass shootings, typically defined as attacks in which a shooter kills at least four other people.
When one person kills many others in a single incident, particularly when it seems random, people naturally seek out answers for why the tragedy happened. After all, if a mass shooting is random, anyone can be a target.
Pointing to some nefarious plan by a powerful group – such as the government – can be more comforting than the idea that the attack was the result of a disturbed or mentally ill individual who obtained a firearm legally.
advertisement

