Don't Break the Heart of the DREAMers

In 2009 the typical DREAM Act Student is not only tied up by debt.  He is tied up by not having a social security number.  Unless the DREAM Act passes, 2009 graduates will have to do construction work.  Don't break their hearts.  Pass the DREAM Act NOW.

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A few years ago I completed a PhD. It was a really big deal, especially because I was already 49 years old. It was something I never thought I would do. But when I was 42 I decided it was time, told my kids we were going to be poor for a while, paid off my credit cards and my car and got ready for the GED.

Once I was done it took a while to find a good job. Now the way things are going in academia, I guess it was a miracle I found something not just good but great, plus I'm tenured. But those years in the meantime (4 of them) were miserable. I thought my life was lost. Yes, I had a job, but it was not what I was trained for, and did not provide the intellectual future that I had fought so hard for. Yes, it paid ok, but I didn't feel it was right for me.

It seemed like the end of the road. I was so depressed.  For a while I thought teaching high school with a PhD would be better. I am sure it would have been. Maybe it was luck, or someone smiling on me, but I got a job, tenured, and here I am a college professor with job security who has written a couple of books.

What I'm getting at is that feeling of desperation and sadness when you study so so hard and you end up doing something that feels like nothing. That is how DREAMers feel. They work so hard, really struggle to pay tuition and books, at times argue with their families about the merit of school; they graduate with a college degree and then have to face everyone and say, well, I don't have a social security card, so I will have to be a cashier at the little grocery store down the road. That is the only place I can work because they won't ask for a social security number.

Its a sadness that is beyond belief. It is a broad pain inside that doesn't go away. It causes an angst as DREAMers write papers and study for exams. At this time, even DREAMers who are honor students cannot be firemen, or teachers, or police officers, or lawyers, or doctors. They can go on to graduate school but they cannot be college professors. They cannot study abroad because they wouldn't be able to come back to the U.S. They live in a cage of sadness that still expects them to work and work and work.

The DREAM Act needs to pass soon. Otherwise some DREAMers could lose their soul... As for our lawmakers and our new President, please read this post and remember you can save the day for the DREAMers.