what's money got to do with it

People say everyone starts out on an equal playing field; but, it’s just not true.

If you’re born into a family with money, the odds are on your side. You don’t have to work in high school and you have the time to volunteer and be involved in community groups for extracurricular activities. You have the benefit of attending a good high school and probably have the luxury of having tutors. You were able to choose and practice your favorite sport and probably had music lessons. You were able to meet the right people at the right places so that you could get into the right schools and then the right companies. You had it all because you had the means to achieve it all.

If you’re born into a poor family, the odds don’t look so good. You have to attend a public school while working after school and on the weekends. You resent your family for not offering you what the other kids have. You get lucky if you find the time to play a sport and the sport has to be cheap and unorganized. You don’t get the personalized attention and training needed to make a star athlete. You don’t get the resume builders needed for colleges because you didn’t have the time to volunteer or participate in school organizations. And even if you did get so lucky as to get into a good college, you know you can’t afford the loans you would have to take out to attend. You’re old when you’re young and you’re too experienced in the rough ways of the world. You lack faith in society and the common good. You despise individuals who had the easy life while secretly wishing you were one of them.

And these my friends, these are the two groups of people that make up our political parties. Of course, on occasion, some of us poor folk like to dream big and be called republicans too.