Senior Year Box Set

The third subject I was focused on was veterans because they’d volunteered to make our way of life possible. While talking to the director of the Homeless Coalition, I discovered that some vets fell through the cracks and ended up on the street. The sad part was that many of them had mental health problems, and we’d turned our backs on that issue.

Last of the groups was children and families below the poverty level. The hunger problem was just the start. If you were worried about food and housing, you never got beyond that. There had to be ways for people to work themselves out of that situation. I knew that some people just wanted to game the system and live off their government handouts. They were the ones that left a bad taste in my mouth. I guess I couldn’t begrudge them if they didn’t see a way forward. I was sure that, if given the opportunity, the majority would work to make a better life for themselves and their families. They just needed to be shown how.

All these problems had been worked on for decades. In one of my history classes, we learned about John F. Kennedy. He said welfare should be ‘a hand up, not a handout.’ Somehow, we had to start helping people make a better life for themselves. We needed to see the number of people on welfare drop because of success stories and not see it grow year after year.

I was sort of caught in a Catch-22. Clearly, these problems were too big for an individual to solve. And I was beginning to believe that government wasn’t the answer. One example my grandfather pointed out to me was the debt in our state. They say the highway to Hell is paved with good intentions. My state thought that if they threw money at a problem, it would go away. Nine of the last twelve years, they’d spent more than they brought in and had accumulated nearly $16 billion in debt. That wasn’t even the worst part. The state had over 200 billion dollars in unfunded pension and healthcare liabilities. If you broke it down by the number of taxpayers, they would each have to pony up $50,000 to pay it off. I couldn’t see how we could tax our way out of that hole.

I knew they’d done what they thought was right. The question wasn’t whether the state government would either need a bailout or go bankrupt, but when.

Sometime soon, the bills would become due, and the most vulnerable would suffer. I feared that when it happened, it would overwhelm the volunteer networks, and then people would get desperate.

Then again, maybe we should just kick that can down the road and let our children worry about it. Wait, that was me!

An obstacle in the way of any solution, no matter how easy or difficult, was the divisiveness in politics today. Everyone was out to get the other party. You had to toe the party line and sing from the same hymnal. When did we stop working together to solve the big problems and start just playing the blame game?

When I thought about all of that—the problems I wanted to solve, the government, the political environment—my head hurt. Did I really want to go into politics and try to clean up the mess that was being left for my generation? I might be better off sniping from the sidelines and working to secure my friends and family’s future.

I think I’d always known I wasn’t one for the sidelines. But I suddenly understood something. When I went into politics, I would have to stand alone many times if I were to be true to myself and the people I represented. I just hoped I could stand up for my convictions. I’d seen too many politicians have grand ideas until they got the job. Then they did everything they could to keep it instead of what they truly believed in or were elected to do.

I took a deep breath. Was I ready for this? Apparently, the answer was no, not now. I had to laugh when I thought I might be prepared ‘someday.’ What the mental exercise did was help clarify things for me. I decided I didn’t really hate my uncle for posing tough questions. I’d been focused on the present, and it helped to step back and look at the big picture.

In the end, no matter whether I made movies, played baseball, or played football, there was a clear path from each to my ultimate goal. And who knew, I might figure out how to get there without going into politics. My grandfather had worked himself into power without ever having to take a higher office.

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The class I found myself looking forward to was Photography. I know I’m a ‘stupid boy’ and should have connected it with modeling. I’d absorbed a lot more than I realized about different lighting, filters, framing shots, and the like. Ms. Saunders spent the first week talking to the four of us taking the class to find our level of knowledge. She then planned to work with us individually to help us improve our craft. Today was my day to find that path.

“I think you have a firm understanding of what makes a good picture of a person,” she started.