Yesterday was a big day for Ted Brassfield. In many respects, it was an even bigger day for Ted Brassfield than the day when he stood up, in front of America, and asked the President what happened to his American dream. Yesterday, Ted Brassfield got calls from the National Law Journal, Fox News, and dozens of other publications. Yesterday, Ted Brassfield appeared on CNN! And when the interviewer asked Ted Brassfield whether or not he got the answer he was looking for, Ted Brassfield had this to say:
I think that unfortunately I felt that the president answered very effectively all of the other questions he was asked by the audience. But like Velma, I thought that I had given him a lay-up to say this is why you should still have hope. And he didn't say that. He didn't answer it at all.
So at the end of the day, Ted Brassfield stood up in front of America, on national television, and asked the president a question about his American dream in the hope that the President would respond, "Keep hope alive, Ted Brassfield."
And when interviewed by CNN, Ted Brassfield went on to explain how he came to find himself here, with his dead American dream, just scraping on a couple trips a year to California and Asia, nice restaurants, and a nice pad in a nice NW DC neighborhood:
Society says if you work hard, if you go to school, we will have good jobs for you.
I do appreciate that many law school graduates are having a hard time finding jobs as practicing attorneys (let alone good jobs). Further, I believe that certain law schools have intentionally misled students about their employment prospects for years. But I find it hard to take someone like Ted Brassfield seriously.
Ted Brassfield is a grown man. Let's not forget that. He's an adult. He's not a child. He's not a college student. He is a 30 year old man, highly educated, well-credentialed.
He made the choice to attend law school. Nobody insisted on it. Nobody forced him into it. He made the choice to go to a particular school, a good school, that charged a certain amount of tuition. The odds are that Ted Brassfield could have gone to other schools that cost him less money. The odds are that Ted Brassfield could have forgone law school altogether if economic considerations were of paramount importance.
Ted Brassfield made the choice to take out student loans. So did lots of us. Ted Brassfield made the choice to put off getting married and having a family--- so did lots of us.
And now, he's made the choice not to settle when it comes to jobs. Let's be clear: Ted Brassfield moved to Washington D.C. to get a job with the federal government. He made this clear in an interview with the National Law Journal:
I'm primarily interested in the government sector. The experience I've had interning at the [U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development] and the [Equal Employment Opportunity Commission] and the U.S. Attorney's Office here in D.C showed me that the resources the federal government can bring to bear are incredible-specifically with regard to training and support.
So Ted Brassfield's story is not that of a man who can't find a job, or a legal job, or a good job, but instead, the story of a man who insists on a particular job, or particular kind of job, or job of a certain caliber.
I know plenty of smart people who graduated from good law schools - schools just as good as Ted Brassfield's law school - who could not get the jobs they wanted. Where are these people and what are they doing? Working. Some work at small law firms, some went out on their own, some got state court clerkships, some are repairing computers, some are teaching boxing lessons.
But to my knowledge, not one of these people views his life as some epic tragedy. Not one of these people would stand up, in a town hall meeting, in front of the entire country, and whine to the President about the death of his American dream.
That takes a certain sense of self-importance. That takes a certain amount of self-pity. That takes someone special. Someone like Ted Brassfield.
No comments:
Post a Comment