Student Loan Debt

I’m going to be embarrassingly honest, and say that I have been so incredibly disconnected from real life while in this orb of Grad School, that I am completely unaware of the local issues in Baton Rouge, and I am also so far disconnected from my hometown in Michigan, that I am likewise unaware of issues there. This is, of course, completely on me for being stuck in an obscenely narcissistic mindset. I should come out from under the rock of our program, and be more informed about the state of current events. That all being said, I’m having a very hard time with this post, so I apologize in advance.

            My issue of social importance is student loan debt. This is, of course, a nation-wide issue, not simply local. In the US, the standard of living is high, the job market is competitive and difficult, and student loan debt is crippling. This is an issue that is important to me as I am getting ready to step back out into the world with a huge financial burden on my back simply for pursing higher education that may or may not allow me higher paying job opportunities (considering that my field is acting, I probably shouldn’t bank on higher paying job opportunities).

            I will form my protest in the style of a march. The choreography would be as follows: we would start at LSU on the parade grounds. The uniform would be to wear clothes representing your current school/Alma Mater or business casual (what you would expect someone in a well-paying job to wear). We would have signs saying what our plans would be after school if we didn’t have debt. Examples of this could be moving to other countries to expand our cultural knowledge, move to other countries or places around the US to research x, y, or z, go to grad school, start a family, etc. Underneath this on the sign would be “but I have X amount of student loan debt I need to take care of first.” Other signs could say things like, “What did I do to deserve X amount of debt? I got educated.” Or “My degree cost me X amount of debt. Am I guaranteed a job after school to pay it off?” The march would move from the LSU parade grounds through neighborhoods, where people from all walks of life and all ages who have struggled with or are still struggling to pay off their debt would join in. Our end destination would be the Capital building. So, in march fashion, this would be a demonstration of non-violent direct action.           

            Since we are so dependent on media and technology in this day and age, we would use that to our benefit. We could use facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. to make the community aware of the protest well in advance, to spread the word and get conversations buzzing. This would hopefully improve the number of people joining the protest on the actual day. Any media coverage on the day of the protest should show the planned choreography of a large group of well-behaved, well-articulated, and given the topic, well-educated people, marching in a civil manner. There would be nothing rowdy or seemingly disorganized about the march. If we are concerned that the media will portray us in a poor light, we can have some protestors filming throughout the march, creating a video of the protest from the inside that accurately depicts the image we are going for and shows us in the light we are hoping to be viewed. These videos can then be posted on facebook and youtube to counter any undesirable media against us.

            Our protest will end and be complete when more serious discussions start occurring about what must be done about the student debt crisis and when actual solutions start coming to the forefront.