Some stuff I just skip over either because I don't have time to read it or already read a bunch of articles about the topic, but sometimes I break down read all of the emails that have collected in my inbox (yes, I do have a special Politics inbox-- I'm a nerd, what can I tell ya?) and really look at them for content if not a similar opinion.
Yesterday? (Or some other day this week!) I found an article which pretty much sums up the way I feel about money, opportunity and people when those three words are found in the same conversation.
Kelli Goff, whose op-ed pieces I find quite fascinating, wrote an article entitled,
"Gwyneth Paltrow is Right. We're All Jealous (of her and George W. Bush)."
which is pretty much fan-frickin'-tastic.
Her claim is this: We understand that some people are born into privilege and some aren't. We accept that. It's a fact of life. But what really get our goad is when a person born into privilege A) doesn't realize it and B) further ignores his privilege by defining his success as an achievement which came solely from his own hard work.
NOTE: It's important to define the two major words at work in this article.
Privilege: a right, immunity or benefit enjoyed by a person beyond the advantages of most.
Success: the attainment of wealth, position, honors, or the like.
The reason for this note is that often people get the two confused in conversations like these, i.e. proponents of the "Don't hate; you're just jealous" mentality.
BACK TO IT.
Goff writes, it better than I do:
Well if your last name is Bush (or McCain or Kennedy for that matter) you don't need affirmative action programs, or Pell grants for college or an extension of unemployment benefits if you find yourself out of work, and your kids won't either. Why? Because you had the privilege of being born into privilege. And this is ultimately the issue. People should not be punished for being privileged. They can't help that anymore than the rest of us can help NOT being born into privilege. But it would be nice if they would extend the rest of us the courtesy of acknowledging their privilege, and not simply pretend that their success is built solely on a combination of hard work and chutzpah. But it seems like increasingly all we get to hear -- from members of Congress and now Ms. Paltrow -- is that if we're just a bit more disciplined and willing to work a little bit harder, we can achieve the same Dream as the privileged classes."
Now, isn't that just AWESOME? I love when people tell it like it is.
:) Love!
