The Centre Conundrum

So, last week, Centre College hosted a program were successful alumni came to campus to have “speed networking” dates with us job-worried students.  There were a couple who piqued my interest; a top marketing guy at Jack Daniel’s and another guy who was a deputy chief of staff for a Senator and worked on a presidential campaign.  And the cool part was all these guys were no older than 35, with most being under 30. 

As I was uninterested in most of the careers represented, I asked the alumni for tips in getting a student’s foot in the proverbial career door.  There was one common theme that ran through all their experiences; that Centre doesn’t narrow down your possibilities, but expands them.  This may seem like an obvious quality to any higher education, but it is more complicated when further analyzed.  At a state school, education tends to track you into a career: education, business, etc.  My beloved liberal arts education is education at its core, and not glorified job training.  Our core and major classes overlap to an incredible degree, allowing our interests to expand and future to open up.  Settling on one clear path, especially for me, my major, and my career field, seems impossible right now.  My interests range from camp to campaigns to the legislature to bureaucracies to public opinion to marketing at any given moment.  I only have so long to be a nomad (as politics requires to a degree) before I want to settle down with a family.  I have to make the most of it, and try to figure out where to start now.

But one more summer for me, and not my career, is  is in store.

The Death of Federalism

Our country is unique to most others on the modern map for many reasons.  One of the foundational differences is the federalist system.  States are not mere bureaucratic distinctions to compartmentalize administrative processes.  They have their own governments and (at least originally) come together in support of a national government.  This was done for many reasons.  No state would have been able to defend itself against colonial powers and separate isolationist policies would economically devastate most of the states.    We originally tried a confederation, but found it to be too weak of a union to be effective.  Federalism was our next try, developed during intense negotiations in the Constitutional Convention where our founders were somehow able to come to agreements and compromises.  And this system has lasted for 223 years.  Or so we think.

The brevity of the Constitution is amazing.  Compare it to any state constitution or one of another country.  This fact has allowed the malleability of interpretation for the evolution of society.  This is good and necessary, to an extent.  But the rules it originally set forth for the federal government have rusted and faded with the weather of time.  States are no longer represented in Washington D.C., the people are.  State governments have no course of action to challenge the Feds save the court system.  Originally Senators and electors of the Electoral College were the realm of the state. 

Currently, 48 states are facing budget shortfalls and have to create balanced budgets for the next year or two.  The new Health Care Law from the federal government mandates that everyone who earns at or below 150% of the poverty line be eligible for Medicaid.  While some states are already at this level, others are not.  The new costs will add $2 billion to California’s already ravished budget while medium sized states like Arkansas and Louisiana will face an additional $1 billion.  Besides fudging federal dollars, DC has simply thrown costs on the states who can not carry debts.

Will governors respond, or simply beg for more federal dollars to subsist and suck on the teat of government dependence?

In The Beginning

For most things, it is either hard to begin, or hard to end. Enjoyable things are a pleasant to start, to dive into and be submerged in. And you never want them to end. You approach non enjoyable things with apprehension, fear of the unknown. And are glad to finish them. Then there is the indifferent and the necessities. I have a midterm paper due Monday. It will be difficult the whole way through, not from trepidation but from apathy, from beginning through the end.

I have tried blogging in the past. 2 failed attempts. The second better than the first, and hopefully this one better (and longer lasting) than its ancestors. I have thought for a couple weeks how to start one. Do I just pick up with a mundane observation, or outline my life philosophy in the first post. Do I give my unneeded two cents on the raging political debate, or link to interesting pictures archived in a far corner of the web. Or just talk about the beginning.

So here's to another beginning, and hopefully not another end.