Justice For Justin

During the days when I was on a blogging hiatus , kind of sort of and just publishing fluff...a couple of things were happening that needed commentary...Sure, I was fired up about Dr. Head, Scott Walker and this story I'm about to purvey to you, but to tell you the truth...I was having one of those weeks last week and I was just plain exhausted...

Anyway....it seems that some people are outraged...(American lead the world in being outraged.)that UCLA, (Yeah, same UCLA that is giving Dr. Head such a hard time!) strapped for cash in California's budget crisis, awarded a $54,000 merit-based athletic scholarship to Justin Combs, son of hip-hop impresario Sean "Diddy" (or Puff Daddy, depending on what era you grew up in) Combs, who hardly needs the cash.

You don't have to live in California to understand the outrage. Soaring college costs, battered state budgets and shrinking opportunities for rising income are a national crisis…Yet, the real source of our national frustration is less glamorous and more widespread. Upward mobility in America is not what it used to be. It's easier to climb the socioeconomic ladder in many parts of Europe than it is in the U.S., according to recent reports from Brookings Institution, Pew Research Center and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

From what I understand...Justin Combs maintained a 3.75 average in high school and excelled on the Football field as well...so in other words..He earned that scholarship on his own...Not because he is the son of the Famous Rap Producer,Record Mogul and everything bling...Sean Combs.

Justin's scholarship money doesn't come from taxpayer funds, UCLA says, and it wouldn't even tickle the state's projected $16 billion deficit if it did.

So picking on  P.Diddy's fortune or his son's hard-earned achievements distracts us from the issue burning at the core of the discontent: How do we make higher education more affordable for young strivers who don't have wealthy parents?  Like my daughter...Like my grandchildren!!!!

Okay...We know that Sean "Diddy" Combs is loaded right??? In April he topped Forbes' latest of the wealthiest moguls in hip-hop with an estimated net worth of $550 million, which makes Justin's scholarship sound like pocket change, mere lunch money.

On Justin's 16th birthday in 2010, his father gave him a $360,000 Maybach, which is to autos what Beverly Hills is to neighborhoods.You get the picture right?

Yet Justin, to his credit, defies the spoiled rotten slacker-rich-kid stereotype. He finished his senior year at Iona Preparatory School in New Rochelle, N.Y., with a reported 3.75 GPA and football scholarship offers from at least four  other colleges.

That's why he tweeted last week to all the haters out there: "Regardless what the circumstances are, I put that work in!!!! PERIOD."

Damn right he did! I'm serious...He did. I know that an argument could be made for  directing scholarship money to students based on their economic need, While another argument could equally be made for motivating students toward excellence with rewards that are based on their own achievement, regardless of their family's wealth or lack of it also.

Even in the best of times,Most colleges have enough money to offer both. These of course  are not the best of times. With that in mind, we can only hope P. Diddy will become a generous football dad, creating new scholarships in his son's honor to show his appreciation. I'm just sayin...It would be kind of like guilt money I know...But it would go a long way towards spreading good will and getting the haters, fueled by the press off of his and his son's backs.

Ironically, because of his wealth...Sean "P.Diddy" Combs is actually that one percent of the wealthy that should pay more of their fair share of taxes and that the Occupy America people were protesting against.

What We ought to be talking about though is the lack or the difficulty of upward mobility in America now of days... Republicans and Tea Party types are hell bent on destroying the middle class and creating a country of just wealthy and very poor (and sick) people...A kind of feudal system of living.

I said it before and I will say this again..It's easier to climb the socioeconomic ladder in many parts of Europe than it is in the U.S., according to recent reports from Brookings Institution, Pew Research Center and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

In other words, today's aspiring youths on average have an easier time moving up the socioeconomic ladder in many parts of traditionally class-conscious Europe than here in the home of the American dream.

Without some schooling beyond high school, it is becoming increasingly difficult to enter the middle class or stay in it. Yet Washington has been gridlocked in budget fights or simply brain-dead about new ideas that can lead to comprehensive remedies. Yeah...both!

The partisan fight over student loan interest rates, for example, is expected to lead to short-term solutions. Raising interest rates would be too unpopular for lawmakers to allow in an election year, even though student loan debt already is breaking records.

So while politicians on both the left and the right argue, hundreds of thousands of low-income students will lose their Pell Grants as of July 1. That's because of a little-noticed congressional decision to save $11 billion over 10 years by reducing or eliminating aid to the most effective program for helping low-income students move up the educational ladder.( I had a Pell Grant when I was in college.)

As we see doors closing on opportunities for advancement, Diddy and his son's scholarship are only visible symbols of our frustration. We can't all be leaders of hip-hop or athletes with multi million dollar contracts or lions of industry, but we all deserve to have a chance to try. That used to be the American dream. We hate to see it go, but it's slipping away....fading away...

I say let Justin have his scholarship...He earned it...but let's get to work on making it easier or reachable for all students to have a shot at getting scholarships and grants and most of all a good education if they want it.

We have to vote this fall people-

I'm telling you.....I'm not even hiding the fact , that this is the only man that gives us a shot at that future....!