Rick wants my vote!

Rick Sanctimonious wants me to vote for him. This is known because he called me on the phone and left me a message to that effect. The Phactor is quite sorry he missed the opportunity to chat with Rick, but he was gardening, and on the whole, accomplishing more than talking to a politician. But still so there are no bad feelings, let me leave Rick a message in response.



Dear Rick, I’ve spent a great portion of my life getting educated and then doing my best to educate others and get them excited about really learning about things, actually thinking and sounding articulate and, well, educated. So it is with profound sadness to learn that you think my efforts, those of a self-professed liberal elitist, actually harms our country. Rick you need to understand that nothing that takes place in my classes or labs even remotely qualifies as indoctrination. As a professional the Phactor is quite careful about not presenting his own opinions, although he does admit to being a devil’s advocate frequently to provoke thought. So unlike what you seem to believe, students are not told what to think, but taught how to think. And apparently that, and that alone, generates the harm you perceive. But Rick you want to be President of the most powerful country on Earth, at this time, and yet you think higher education something harmful? Quite a number of statements have been attributed to you Rick, and they don’t sound like the sort of ideas that come of a well-educated person, yet you are. Apparently Rick, you made your way through higher education without learning anything that you didn’t already believe true. Rick, how can somebody so proud of their ignorance, so incapable of learning, think they can run something as complex as this country? You don’t think science knows anything, upon what are you going to base policy? It makes me wonder what kind of country you wish us to be, and apparently you would prefer a highly religious country to a highly educated country, a highly moral country where neither the government nor affluent citizens give a crap about others, about public welfare, public education, social security, and other things that watch out for people. But you may still get my vote Rick, and this is the reason, you may represent the easiest candidate for Obama to beat, even easier than the millionaire weather vane, and that’s the reason you found my name on GnOPe voter rolls; voting for a spoiler to game the system often seems like a good idea. So glad you called; wish we could have actually talked, but my guess is that it would have only reinforced your opinion about us educated elites.  Best regards, TPP.