14kgoldnyc:

nobsaur:

“When a young person makes the honor roll, I know he took a school bus to get to the school, but I don’t give the bus driver credit for the honor roll.”

— Mitt Romney, Romney and Ryan’s disdain for the working class - The Washington Post

My grandfather was a bus driver and I know so many students, both from rural and city areas that credited him for his wisdom and kindness on the bus every morning. On every ride home. These people are important people, they matter, they take care of other peoples’s children for that time for the sake of an education that is needed by the younger generation and to belittle and over look these people simply because they’re of a different “caste” system is disgusting to me.

He should give the driver credit. After all, how else would the kid get to school? Oh, he’d be driven? By whom? A working parent? Who would have to arrange their work around getting the kid to and from school? And thus would need job flexibility? 

Or alternately, you have the driver deal with the to-and-fro, so the parent can work and make a living and have time to feed the kid and help them with homework from kindergarten on because schools track kids and their ability to make the honor roll will depend on all their classmates and teachers helping to create a learning environment, so their classmates need to get to school too, are you gonna drive them all? 

No, Mittens. This is called society. In civilized society, all the participants’ lives intersect in the grand scheme. What you have is a quasi-society, a gated society, where you think you standing above everyone else but really you’re just standing on their backs.

I am a school bus driver. And I get up way too early. Earlier than the parents in the big houses meeting the bus in bathrobes. I make sure your kids get to school safely and on time. I am a friendly face, I am someone for the kids to talk to about kid issues. I am a member of the community. I know many of the kids on my bus from outside of the bus, from around town. I know all of their names, their siblings names, their pets, if they are having a bad day. I am given drawings from class, and I keep them all. They say “hi” to me when they see me in the grocery store or at the fair. I am the “adult” that kids are told to report bad things to. And I have had to respond to that call. I help teach respect for each other, rules, and property. I am trained, qualified and professional. Most politicians would not even qualify for my job. They couldn’t DO my job. It is a great way to meet the next generation and see them grow up. There is a place for everyone, and that makes everyone equal. 

(via spinsteraunt)