By Ron Friesen / Herald Forum
Something’s rotten in Denmark.
I have used this phrase without knowing its origin. I have been to Denmark and found nothing rotten there to write home about.
Turns out the warning is from Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”: “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.” It is a warning about corruption in Denmark under the rule of Claudius, who murdered the king and usurped his power. This comment now denotes corruption in business or government.
As we average citizens go about trying to live honest, productive and happy lives, there is an increasing awareness that, “Something’s rotten in Denmark.” It is not as blatant as the murder of a king, but it’s diabolical and we feel it.
In India there is a diabolical caste system. It describes your position in society, determines your income, who you associate with, and how you shall live. Its most notable feature is that when born into a caste, you can never leave. You and yours are forever locked into that same caste with no ladder to ever climb out.
The lowest level were the untouchables. I remember learning about this in fifth grade and thought: “Thank goodness I am in the U.S.A.! This could never happen here!” I was in a poor family, but knew even then that I could move up the ladder. And I was right.
Back then, education was the ladder. My grandfather had an eighth-grade education. My parents graduated from high school. I got a college degree. As we got better educated, our economic situation improved because they usually went hand in hand. Now that ladder is broken.
What I see is destruction of the education ladder. The old equation was more education equals more success and a better life. But there is mounting evidence that we don’t believe that equation anymore. The ladder is losing its rungs, from the bottom up. It is hard to move up the ladder when bottom rungs are missing.
We have more people at the bottom than ever before. The middle is shrinking as a few move to the top, but most are stuck. And those at the bottom struggle to stay out of total poverty, let alone move up to the middle or upper middle class. Our caste system is relentlessly forming.
Our version of untouchables or outcasts is our growing number of homeless and those with addictions on our streets. Efforts are just beginning to help them, and these are important efforts. What’s missing is proactive prevention. All the old motels being purchased, and all the pallet shelters we can build only addresses symptoms, not causes. We need to restore the rungs on the ladder, from the bottom up.
The first rung is family. Families living on the edge of poverty typically are working hard with multiple jobs. With poverty wages, do they have time to nurture their children so they are ready to learn when school starts? No! Then who has to pick up the slack? Our public schools.
The first rung is removed.
And when schools are viewed as “I paid my taxes for this free baby sitter” instead of the opportunity of a lifetime, what attitude do students show up with? It’s goof-off time, not learning time!
Another rung is removed.
Teachers and counselors see these students falling through the cracks and ask for extra help. The cost to intervene and invest here is fire-sale cheap compared to the long-term cost of not intervening. But we see only cost, not benefit.
And another rung is removed.
Pay of $25 and hour is right at the poverty borderline in Everett and Marysville. But the choice of business and government is to have people on welfare and food stamps rather than paying them a living wage.
There goes another rung.
Higher education is priced out of reach for the majority. It takes a half-million dollars to be a doctor, and even their pay makes it difficult to pay back students loans. Meanwhile, pharma and medical insurance executives rake in millions.
And another rung.
And another.
And another.
I could go on. But in a nutshell, something’s rotten in Denmark.
Ron Friesen is a longtime Marysville resident, a retired music teacher and community and church musician and is committed to community improvement.
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