Servitude Circa 2014

February 6, 20114

Dear Mr. President:

You are aware of the House Committee Report on Education. The report was really old news. My data on this particular manifestation of servitude which goes by the euphuism of adjunct teachers comes through my daughter. My daughter had to give up her quest for a PhD with only the dissertation still to do. Overwhelming student debt and the servitude wage she was paid for adjunct teaching at the University, forced her to find a job.

She did secure a "decent job" i.e. free person's work that pays a living wage in turn for the labor worked, at McGraw Hill as an editor. Like so many of the other Owners/Managers, the Owners/Managers of the McGraw Hill Plantation, or Corporation as they are now styled, instituted the profit enhancement practice called "outsourcing"  i.e. moving "decent jobs" to a place where they could obtain servitude rather than employees.

It is interesting to note, that the big change that has occurred in our Nation since the Emancipation Proclamation is that rather than shipping the slaves to this country, the Owners/Managers ship the work to where they can maintain slaves, i.e. "pay" them the least possible amount to maintain their physical ability to do whatever the work is.

In addition to the new slave trade called outsourcing, the fact that we are locally "maintaining" our teachers, whose work cannot be outsourced, as appendages in subordinate capacities of servitude, and the  resistance to a national minimum wage of $10.10, indicates that certain vestiges of the Owner/Slave mentality are still well entrenched in this Nation.

A little hard data: When the amount of wages that my daughter is paid for teaching English to 5, 30 student classes, is divided by the number of hours that are essential to do the job in a decent way, she earns $8.00/hr. This level of servitude carries no health benefits, sick or vacation time. She drives 140 miles a week to 3 different colleges.

Teachers who are exposing young hearts and minds to the Principles, like Equality, upon which our Nation rests are the absolute essential cog in the wheels of any nation that wants to be a Democracy. I think that you understand this, and I wonder how we can move this issue to the front of the line of issues.

Education is not a business, especially not a "for profit" business. It is an absolute essential right of any human being, the cornerstone upon which this nation was built and without which this nation will not stand.

-tom