Rant #2,330: Another Day

Yesterday started out as just another day on the schedule ... but it became so much more than just another day.

A bombshell dropped by mid-day in the news, something that pretty much everybody knew about, something that has probably been going on for generations, but something that is just so wrong--and now, something is going to be done about it.

The FBI has busted several wealthy people for buying their kids' passage into college. These individuals--including actresses Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman--literally paid millions to get their kids into prestigious schools under false pretenses, and they did it because ... well ... they could.

A total of 46 people have been charged thus far in what has been called the largest such college admissions scheme in history.

And these are all big-time colleges that these well-heeled people got their kids into simply because they had the means to do so. Millions were spent on so-called "students" of the rich attending such bastions of learning as Yale, Georgetown and Stanford universities.

Sometimes, the kids got into the schools because of their parents' wealth, and didn't even show up at classes or take part in programs that supposedly got them into the schools. Other times, SAT scores were faked, as kids took the tests proctored by those who would change their test answers so as to boost these scores, thus making them more attractive to schools like this.

And this scam included a wide range of people well beyond TV and movie stars. It included school administrators, proctors, athletic directors, and others up the chain to get into these schools.

And now, they are all going to be subject to jail time, stiff fines and a lot of bad publicity for their actions.

Look, everybody knows that this has been going on forever. Didn't you ever wonder when an actor would tell an interviewer that his or her child was going to an elite school just how that kid got in there?

Were they smart? Did their parents's names give them leverage over others? Was there something else going on?

I can think of one actress, in particular, who I won't name here, who I often wondered about. She was quite popular way back when as a child star, and then as she reached college age, she went right into some prestigious program, and somehow, she graduated right on time with a degree, even though it appeared that her workload as an actress, coupled with her education, would not allow her to 1) not even be able to attend school in person, and 2) not allow her to graduate on time.

I often wondered how she did this, and now I think I know how and why.

Why is this such a dangerous practice?

First of all, it is unethical. You get into school because you earn a place in that school by your grades and what you can bring to that school, and not because your mommy and daddy are rich and can pay for you to get into that school.

Second, you are taking up a spot that should go to someone who actually earns their spot in that school, and from what we have heard, some of these elitist kids got into school by supposedly playing sports that they had never, ever played, which again, is taking up a place for someone more deserving.

There are other reasons that this is just plain wrong, but somehow, these schools are not being held culpable for this crime, which I am not sure that I fully understand.

Even though several middlemen were supposedly involved in each of these scams, we are talking about millions of dollars changing hands. Sure, these underlings had to be paid for their part in each of these scams, but by the time it got to the colleges, how could these bastions of learning not know that they had x millions of dollars coming into their coffers from certain people?

This scam stinks like the NCAA recruiting and other sports scams reek, and have reeked for years. If you have money, or if you have athletic prowess, you are treated quite differently than if you are average Joe.

I mean, nobody paid to get into my alma maters, Dowling College, which doesn't even exist anymore (if anybody paid millions to get in there, maybe it would still exist), or C.W. Post College.

We are talking about some of the most well-known schools not only in the country, but in the world, and these children of privilege, well, were evidently very privileged to be there.

Funny, Loughlin and Huffman are part of the Hollywood crowd--and the wealthy crowd in general--that is constantly telling us that they know better, that tells us that the causes they stand up for are the causes we should all back, that tells us that if we don't agree with them that we are wrong.

They also constantly wave their privilege in our faces, yet they feel that they stand for the American people.

Once again, they stab themselves in the foot with their arrogance, and it is high time that they, and other wealthy people with influence, are brought down to earth.

They put their pants on the same way we do, so why do they think they are better than we are?

I don't get it, but I kind of do get it.

LIke the old song says, "Money changes everything," and yes, it does, it even changes people, who think that their wealth makes them better than others.

I guess a case like this shows that this simply isn't true.