Shortly after today’s session in the House I and a fellow Representative came upon a group of college students sitting on the steps inside the Capitol. Many of them had written on their arms phrases such as “Save HOPE” and “HOPE is my only hope.” As we walked down the steps next to where they were sitting one of them asked me if I had voted for Governor Deal’s HOPE proposal. When I said I had howls of protest began. I pointed out to the students that if we didn’t act, they would receive no money for college in the very near future. Surely 90% is better than nothing. They responded by chanting “shame” much like the petulant Democrats in Wisconsin did.
Once they quit chanting I pointed out that while in college I commuted and worked 15-20 hours per week to pay my own way. I had no scholarships, no HOPE, and took out no loans. To which they responded with further chants of “shame.” I thanked them for the civility they were displaying, urged them to get a job, and left. 
The AJC has more on the student protests at the Capitol today.
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I drove to Dalton State every day for 5 years, had a slightly-above minimum wage on-campus job, but I did have HOPE and worked hard to get scholarships through our college foundation to pay my way through college debt-free. What has happened to our work ethic?
I paid out-of-state tuition and worked 22 hours every weekend unloading freight. Things have changed.
This had little to do with how hard we had it or the old saw “I walked a mile thru snow to school” – I hated the broke days of college & made sure my kids did not have a debt burden when they got out…..& NONE of them had a scholarship….
It had everything to do with takeaways……the students have a message that needs hearing…..right now no one is hearing what it is, focusing on their own experience of how hard we had it……see below remarks…..
Maybe if you had spent more time studying and less working you would have learned how to use the word “myself” properly.
KIDDING!! Your awesome. Way more greaterer than those stupid Dems!!
It’s spelled you’re, just kidding
Yeah, I had a scholarship. I also worked a part time job and took out loans that took me ten years to pay off.
Students love protests. They like to shot. They also are frequently wrong about the way the world really works.
Grift, whenever we agree about something I like to say so.
Shouldn’t they have been in class or studying or something instead?
One would think.
If they had bothered to ask why tuition has increased so much more than inflation over the last 30 years, they might have been worth listening to.
Mike, you hit the nail on the head. The lazy professors need to put in a full week of work and teach more than 1 or 2 courses a semester. If they want to research let them get private grants and do it on their own time and dime. If they want to write a book or publish an article let them do it on their own time and dime. And every one of those kids at the capitol should lose whatever scholarships they have.
We’ve got two new generations of voters with an entitlement mentality — these students and their parents. Why pay to send yourself or your kid to college when someone else can do it for you? The negative effects of “free” college for everyone are apparent all around us: grade inflation in HS and college, runaway tuition, longer time to degree completion, increasing percentage of students taking remedial courses and/or dropping out, diminishing economic returns to many college degrees, and busted state budgets.
Excellent post rebelyelp, I came in to say the exact same thing. We have created an extitlement group with these yahoos.
Most kids these days don’t even think they should be working in the summer, much less during the school year.
This kids don’t think the should be working during the summer, much less during the school year. Your proposal means less partying. You might as well been telling them how you had to walk 5 miles to school every day.
tell ‘em to go buy more lottery tickets.
That’s the worst part. I’ve got a funny feeling these middle class Dems that were down there protesting don’t play the lottery. I bet their parents don’t either. Forgive the generalization there, but does anybody not agree with that?
And Mike Hassinger definitely has it right. I definitely want to keep getting lower income students into college (i.e. lower the income cap on HOPE, but voters might get pissy) but the more HOPE money that goes into college the more they can charge for tuition. You know, rules of economics and all that hubub.
At least, HOPE is paid for through lottery. I use HOPE and if the money isn’t there, then the money isn’t there. Protesting isn’t going to make the money appear out of thin air.
At least, the state of Georgia doesn’t borrow the money from China to offer students money, like the Fed.gov does with PELL.
These kids these days don’t appreciate a thing. And I did walk bare footed for five miles to get to school. After walking and suffering through one of Georgia’s coldest winters on record, I motivated myself to better myself. I got an after school job, bought a car and started driving to school. That worked pretty well until one of the other student’s parents complained about my driving. I still don’t know what their problem was with me driving to middle school. I was 17 and had a license.
If they’re going to protest they need a cause larger than themselves. My generation was so successful at protesting that we led the Nation to accept wholeheartedly Nixon’s War on Drugs. You have my generation to thank for that war.
If you
If you offer 90% to 100% you tick off 100% of the students.
If you offer 100% to to the lower income 90% you tick off 100% of the Republican donors.
+ 1000
Students protesting……
…..Yeah, why don’t you make one meaningful contribution to society first. And no, membership in College Republicans/Democrats doesn’t count as meaningful. Or as a contribution.
Shame indeed.
And this is coming from a former young idealistic naïve young man. I thought I had all the answers too. Take it from me, protesting students, you don’t know jack, and no one cares what you think. Go out, get some life experience, become tainted like the rest of us. Then we’ll see if you’re still crying “shame”.
1. Too stupid to understand that tuition is established by the Regents not the legislature.
2. A new definition for “ingrate” is Georgia College Students.
3. Any financial help is a gift not an entitlement.
Buzz or anyone else; my question is this, the explanation of why we are having problems now is not only because of the recession but also because at a certain point, lottery revenues level out, while college tuition does not. Why was this not contemplated when HOPE was started? Aren’t we still just kicking the can down the road, won’t we once again outstrip the lottery as tuition and attendance continue to rise? These are honest to goodness questions, I’d be curious to hear others thoughts or suggestions.
A very good question!!! This is why programs like this, Social Security, Medicare….all most be indexed. This is the same way a reasonable person manages their family budget.
It was contemplated Joseph. That’s why there was a lottery trust fund set up. Frankly, the lottery’s increase in revenues has lasted a lot longer than was originally projected.
But, as has been mentioned, no one really projected that tuition would increase far faster than inflation over a long period of time.
Then there were the several votes that increased the beneifts to a larger population – much like the many expansions of social security benefits outstripped that trust fund too. Politicians love to give away free benefits that only cost folks in the future.
And then, thank the students. About every major college has had a referendum since HOPE began to add to student fees for fancy new rec centers, new football programs, and all those things they feel they need as part of the “college experience”.
Except, so few think tuition and fees should be part of that “experience”.
I’ll meet Buzz at the campus of his choice tomorrow, and we can chant “shame” at the few who will actually show up for their 7:55am class.
Shame? The only shame is those lazy a-holes aren’t trying to earn money to pay their own way. I think you showed remarkable restraint. Others might have told those socialist pukes to quit whining and get a GD job! These Baby Boomers Lite think they’re entitled to the wealth of others.
Disgusting.
Love ya Buzz but you all do deserve some shaming, including our own leaders in the House.
I understand some cuts had to be made, but the 35% rule was never even explored. Y’all pushed the bill through in a week when we could afford the current system until 2013. I am not saying we should have waited for the last minute, but we could have spent more time looking for alternative solutions.
*eyeroll*
40 days, genius. 40 days.
Your first confrontation, Buzz! Congrats!
In other matters, I worked all through college. As a receptionist at a law firm and as a waitress. If I can do it anyone can.
I am a first generation college grad. Both of my parents worked for an hourly wage. They found a way to send me $100/month while I was in college. I worked two part-time jobs while in school, and 60 hours a week every summer. I also took out loans for college and grad school, and last week, 25 years after entering college, I paid off my last student loan. There was no HOPE, but education was a priority and my family found a way to do it. I have absolutely no sympathy for anyone who called shame on you.
Let’s look at this from another angle. No one likes takeaways regardless of the validity.
This might be a self-inflicted problem the politicians deserve.
Maybe: They optimistically overcommitted from the git go. They overestimated revenue and underestimated the universities systems ability to outfox them in costs.
They have long abandoned fiscal conservative practices and are now looking to tweak the system under the name of “fairness” by targeting the planners and savers in the middle class workers & seniors to the advantage of those that will get a subsidy check, debt relief or public employment & entitlements.
This reaction would pale in comparison to the demonstrations if the legislators attempt to get public pensions under control. But that will be ten times harder so it is easier to delude ourselves with fuzzy math. Probably YEARS from now.
The students offer a good message: Better now to get a gripe on HOPE & other expenditures than when the sub reaches crush depth. It ain’t gonna get easier.
The path is not raising taxes but where to cut bureaucracy and how to rework the entire tax code.
“Our pockets empty, Our stomachs are empty”
(http://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-politics-elections/democrats-students-challenge-hope-858190.html?cxtype=rss_georgia-politics-elections)
Wow, “Sha-mara”…..how eloquent. Pretty powerful stuff.
No matter what the issue, blind emotion usually drives people to protest. Protesting is “cool” and it certainly doesn’t take much skill, mental acumen, or effort. Anyone can pick up a sign a shout stupid slogans. In this case it’s students, in Wisconsin its union actors, during the heath care mess it was the anti- Obama reactionary.
The problem is, protesters often turn a worthy cause into a freak show deserving of such marginalization. The reality is there are huge problems with exponentially increasing tuition and fees that are almost 25%+ of tuition. Additionally, there needs to be serious talk about increasing revenue for the HOPE fund, not this vague “yeah, everything’s on the table” response I’ve been hearing from legislators. This would be a great time for the legislature in engage in such discussion. I wonder also if as many high achieving students(“Zell Scholars”) will still chose the Georgia schools, considering the ~$2000/ yr fees, when they can go to boarding state schools, on a scholarship anyway.
I’m sorry, but protest actually does take a lot of effort, mental acumen and skill. In addition to being a student and working 30+ hours a week. I dedicate many unpaid hours per week to what I believe to be a worthy cause. I often get 4-6 hours of sleep per night, decent meals a rarity. Since you say blind emotion usually drives protest, you’ve obviously never been to an organizing meeting, of which there are many on a weekly basis. We are people just like you, with thoughts, beliefs, and ideas about society. I actually feel a little bit sorry for comments, as this economic crisis continues and more states make devastating cuts to their budget…well…read some history books about the 1930′s. You weren’t a freak when you protested, you were someone who cared about a civil society.
Tom, I’m not blasting your cause, just your methods. I am also a college and just now starting top learn more and more about the political process and influence. I have found(and research has even shown) that legislator’s own constituents, especially one they know personally, have the more influence, then any other entity. One problem is that “activists” and “movements” tend to have a “us” vs ‘them” mentality. It is much better to learn more about the institution(in this case the GA-Gen Assembly and USG), and try to work from within, rather then try to influence legislators from the outside. It is easy for citizens to look at legislators as out of touch and corrupt, and it is also easy for legislators to marginalize people’s concerns as unrealistic or too radical.
A protest is ok, but the problem is when a huge number of people gather based on emotion, there almost always going to be trouble makers, and obnoxiousness. So what happens is the opposition is able to criticize the opponents without even addressing the actual issues of concern.
You seem pretty hard working and a person of strong conviction. That’s always good thing, but I think it would be better to encourage students to directly contact their state rep and senator. Let them know the specifics, and the issues they are facing and what issues need to addressed. Additionally, just looking for “increased funding” is rarely effective. As Charlie points out are a huge number of group that think they deserve money for what ever reason. For one, address the issues with the Board of Regents, who aren’t even elected, and can’t be directly controlled by the state gov., but have soooo much power in the USG. There are many other issues as well, but you seem to pretty knowledgeable, so I challenge you, get a group of students, and meet with, and talk, write and call, as many legislators as you can, especially ones that represent their home town. It many still not work, but you will certainly be more effective then having a rally can easily be subject to such an article.
Aw, Buzz, how sweet. Your first encounter. They sounded much more polite then these guys.
I’m wondering if their college professors and administrators put them up to it.
lol – excellent – we need a Cojones Chart to measure our politicians tenacity on how they’ll handle bigger issues…..
I’d bet some grade improvements were involved.
I spent 10.5 years in the Army and got the GI Bill. Tde GI Bill paid for my dual undergrad, my Master’s degree, and is now paying for my PhD classes.
Meant to say “the”. The idea of people protesting because they may not get free money to go to school off the backs of other people makes me not able to see straight.
this may sound a little crazy, and i’m not even sure i agree with it as an actual solution–but why doesn’t the state say a HOPE’r gets 10k a year, or whatever it is and if you are a state school in ga, you will accept it as tuition for that student–sort of the way an insurance company pays x for a procedure and the dr. agrees to write off the balance…overly simple explanation, i’m sure details have to be hammered out, but that would end the “out of control” tuition increases…
Might have something to do with the relationship between the funding by the Assembly and the Board of Regents administration of espenditures.
that’s fine, i guess to do this, that relationship might have to be ammended…
if the students have half a clue, they will call jerry luguire at the christian coalition to get his support. there is no way our patsy legislators will go against the all powerful cc.
There is no reason, even with these changes, that a Georgia student can’t get an education if they want one. Regroup, get a job and stay in school.
Hi Martha. I listen to you often. You are right, there is no reason….
Let’s give the shouters a “bonus” cause modeled off BYU:
(discloser – I’d be out my B.A. & be ahead all my kids costs)
BYU’s honor code instructs students to live a virtuous and chaste life, be honest, attend church regularly and refrain from smoking and drinking alcohol, coffee or tea.
The No. 3-ranked Cougars suspended their starting center for the rest of the season after he admitted having sex with his girlfriend, a violation of the school’s honor code, The Salt Lake Tribune is reporting.
http://www.ajc.com/sports/byu-loses-center-due-859427.html?cxtype=ynews_rss
SHAME!!!!
well something needs to be done and quick so that we can use the money we are saving for our kid’s college tuition, and do something useful and important like buy a boat!!!
I was one of those students by which you passed. You related nothing to us of your history, this is fabrication in the attempt to make you appear more “humble” and concerned for the future of Georgia students. 90% means nothing in the face of rising tuition. More students will drop out of school, with no skills and no job market. I don’t even have HOPE, as I am out-of-state, with no chance of making in-state (I wonder why?) $60,000 in student loan debt, and I work 30+ hours a week to pay rent and bills. What I am also concerned about is the resegrating effect this will have on our schools, as lower-income families tend to be African-American. Not only this, but there are also two bills in the senate which will effectively demonize undocumented residents of Georgia. Georgia has a history my humble law-maker, of which I am sure you are fully aware. Do you want to be a part of recreating that?
Don’t know your specific situation, but it seems crazy to go $60,000 in debt paying out-of-state tuition.
Hi Tom, thanks for joining us.
I “hope” whatever you’ve decided to major in, you’ve done an ROI analysis. If you’ve borrowed $60K to come to an out of state school, then surely you’ve determined this will enable to to gain employment sufficient to amortize this debt, plus provide suitable standard of living for your post-college self.
Once you’re in that mode, you’ll be like the rest of us: Taxpayers.
One thing taxpayers hate is listenting to whiney entitlement minded folks complaining to us producers how much more we’re supposed to pony up for those who have determined themselves priviledged enough that we will support your every want and need at increasing shares of our income.
Have you, by any chance, organized a protest at your college that has been increasing tuition far faster than inflation for decades? I’ll bet you haven’t.
Did you protest your student government who keeps voting to increase your student fees because you need a really bitchin new rec or student center? Or perhaps a mediocre football team? Maybe you did, but your peers voted you down.
I hope you’re learning lots while borrowing money to be in college, but I hope you’ll also soon begin to learn about life. Expecting other people to pay for your decisions isn’t how the non-academic part of life generally works.
Best wishes, and please be sure to shoot me a resume when you graduate.
“…90% means nothing in the face of rising tuition.” Congratulations! You’ve touched on the problem, now here’s the rest of it: 100% means nothing in the face of rising tuition, either. The problem is who pays the tuition. That used to be parents -or the students themselves- then in Georgia it became the people who buy lottery tickets. Now there’s not enough money to pay full tuition for all the students who want to have someone else pay for their college education, because there are more students than lottery revenue.
If your thinking is representative of Georgia college students, they should raise admissions standards, too.
90% means alot more than 100%. 100% means you are spending someone else’s money and not your own. That 10% might make people stop and think if it is worth it. In reality, it should probably be 75%. If you can’t work to support payment of 25% of your education costs, you are likely spending too much.
Also, if you want to swith to in state, it’s easy. Drop out for a year, get a job, pay taxes, then re-apply. You’re welcome.
Tom,
I did say what I posted. Perhaps the shouting of a number of the students prevented you from hearing what I said.
I understand tuition, fees, and the cost of books has risen dramatically. However, continuing to fund all of that will make HOPE broke next year and nobody will get anything.
What Governor Deal proposed was a good solution to this problem and I was proud to vote for it.
Maybe if he listend more, he could have earned a real scholarship.
Oh, I listen well. I speak French, English and Turkish. I can understand (with varying degrees of accuracy) spoken German, Spanish, and Italian. You? The truth is, nobody has money to give away scholarships anymore, and students are being blamed and scapegoated for that. Otherwise, I’d have some good ones
No. I’m pretty sure they’re being blamed for whining about their free education vein crimped because there is no money.
Tom, You want to go to school for free? Do like so many before you have done and join the military. Serve your conutry for a few years and you will get to go to school for free.
Just an idea….
Hi Charlie and Buzz,
I’ve been a tax-payer for quite a while now. I would say, 14 years? I’ve held a job (sometimes 2) consistently since I was 16. I only initially took out loans for out of state tuition because I was told that within a year, I would have in-state tuition, and then HOPE (I have a 3.9 GPA, I speak French, English and Turkish). No problem paying back $10-15k. I have been denied in-state tuition 2 years in a row, for not paying “meaningful” taxes, even though I’ve shelled out more in out-of-state tuition than most tax payers pay taxes in their life. I have no idea what I am going to do. And a lot of other students across the country have no idea as well, with the student loan bubble rising and rising ($800 billion, something like that? More than credit card debt that’s for sure.) I believe most politicians to be horribly distant and out of touch from what’s happening around them. The truth is there aren’t a lot of options for students.
We have actually organized protests on GSU campus. Many. Organizing petitions, panels and hosts of other events in our cause. Most of it has fallen on deaf ears. Except now, after the HOPE crisis. I am in fact learning lots, the events of yesterday taught me a lot about the way society is run.
It is interesting that nobody has addressed the fact that this will resegregate our schools? Or can we not talk about that?
Best wishes to you as well,
Tom
how exactly will this “resegregate” our schools?
Nobody has addressed the “fact” that this will ‘resegregate our schools’ because that is not a fact, it’s a lie, and not even a very good one.
It won’t re-segregate our schools because poverty does not take people in because of the color of their skin.
My family is very poor. I’m white. I also managed to make it through undergrad and into professional school. And it was not an easy task.
Same here Ron, except for the professional school part, but Chemical Engineering is not easy.
I am white and my family is very poor as well. However, the overwhelming majority of impoverished people in the Atlanta metro area are black. That is what I mean by resegregation.
I don’t think you have an understanding of segregation if you believe HOPE disappearing will cause it to reemerge.
You are talking about people having to chose what schools they attend because of cost, meaning how much purchasing power they have to use for college, rather than on a race basis.
you do know there is more to the state than metro–right–and are you the least bit familiar with the demographics of college students and of the various colleges in the state–and frankly of hope recipients? based on this response my guess is no, no no and no…
OK Tom, you’re measuring inputs, yet getting no desired outputs. So perhaps it’s a question of your strategies and tactics.
Buzz Brockway has been a blogger here and elsewhere for years, and remains quite accessable after now becoming a legislator. Have you ever contacted him or any other legislator directly to have a discussion? Did you make any attempt to understand his point of view so you could frame your argument in a way that he would understand where you’re coming from? Have you proposed a solution that in any way meets the goals you desire within the framework the state has to work with?
Or, did you just decide to show up at the Capitol one day and shout “Shame!” so you can feel you made a point?
Exactly, as I point out in my post above.
Tom, scroll up and read my reply, there are much better ways to gain influence.
I know two students on student loans. Both of them refuse to work, even during the summer.
One of them goes to GSU, primarily a commuter school, lives 1/2 hour away, but rents an apartment. What is not covered by student loans is handled by credit card debt. The apartment is equipped with a flat screen TV and beautiful furnishings. I expect, someday, I will have to endure a bunch of whining from college graduates about the need to forgive student loans. We’ll hear charming stories about kids rising out of poverty to get a college education. Yet, we’ll never actually hear if any of them had jobs, chose to live in apartments, etc…
Why not go to a commuter school for a couple of years, while working, then go to the big university for the final degree instead of reaching into my back pocket to pay for low interest loans and forgiveness of debt.
I have a lot of opinions on this:
1. The students are being litTle whiners.
2. The high school students are absolutely indignant that they are not “grandfathered in”, which makes them a bunch of whiners, too.
3. I think the whole thing should go away.
HOWEVER
1. The parents of students who are saving for college won’t know exactly how much to save because the government gets to discuss the revenue from the lottery every year and make a “decision” as to the percentage of HOPE (it will probably be 2% by the time my kids are at university, so I began saving for them at birth).
2. Originally 35% of revenue was supposed to begoing to HOPE, and now it is less than 25% (I want to say 21.8%, but that could be wrong).
3. The whole thing is so complicated as to percentages and costs, that the legislature has created more administration for this than they have now.
4. Had the boys and girls on the hill made it a reimbursement plan, a lot of this foolishness could have been prevented.
5. The reimbursement plan saves on grade inflation, administrative costs, and keeps deserving students where they need to be: in school; however, the boys and girls on the hill had to go and get all crazy technical and put together a ridiculously complicated method that could have easily been avoided by simply making the HOPE a REIMBURSEMENT PLAN!
that about sums it up libertarian chick…couldn’t agree more that the program should end within a set number of years.
but if it and the government run gambling monopoly continues, then revenue should be distributed to other needs as well, i.e. transportation. cut scholarships to 50% or less with the savings moved to critical road projects. i know the lottery was initially setup only as a source for education funding, but just like every other government entitlement program, it can be changed.
I belong to the “I walked 5 miles barefoot in snow” to school club! Not only that, I was the first female in my family to attain a college degree. And guess what? My parents had no money to send me. So I worked summers and used every dime for college; worked at the college bussing tables and washing dishes that the rich kids got up and walked away from; and borrowed money that took me ten years to pay back. When I see college kids on spring break on TV, lightening bolts sprout from my eyes. HOPE is generous, but cannot be sustained. Be thankful for what you get, and work your asses off to pay for the rest. College is a privilege not a right.
i’m beginning to think you people don’t want me to buy a boat!!!
The problem is not with HOPE or the Lottery. The problem is with the people who set tuition. Insomuch as a figure head is needed for blame, I’d look to the Reagents.
We saw last year how they play silly political games with our legislature. You give them a budget and they try and cut programs like 4-H. Yet we pay a certain University President 400k. We also have many of our two-year schools trying to become four-year schools – and why? We’ve been letting all of our Universities get away with raising tuition and holding all of these projects but we haven’t kept our eyes on them.
We have some good schools in this state that get overlooked because of where they are. You can get a darn good degree from Georgia Southwestern in Americus for a deal of a price. But GSW is in Americus. So no one wants to go there. President Carter went there. Griffin Bell went there. Mrs. Carter went there.
I can understand picking a school based on a major; for instance if you wanted to major in Engineering I would understand going to Tech. But folks a Childhood Education degree from UGA is no different than one from GSW. Except the cost is a lot less. Living within your means is a big deal and a lot of college students don’t appreciate the concept.
The blame falls partially on Reagents for allowing tuition to skyrocket. They should also be shamed for allowing Universities to hold programs hostage if their budget gets cut. Students should also make smarter decisions about where they go to school. And we should likely truncate any plans to make all of these Junior Colleges full four-year schools.
My .02.
Exactly, this Board is composed of some people that didn’t even go to college(like my neighbor, liquor mogul, Donny Leeburn), but still have a lifetime appointment to control the entire USG. There needs to be more control from the legislature to reign in this group of renegades. Buzz, Can you address this issue?
I was part of this crowd to, but that was 30 years ago. I also wasn’t told for the past 15 years that if I made a certain GPA I would be given the Hope Scholarship. Besides what the students have mentioned, the bill, if passed in it’s current form would be retroactive and mean that the students going to school now who don’t have the GPA requirements for the new legislation would have their tuition reduced. Maybe even taken away I’m not sure. In the business world that’s called bait and switch. The real elephant in the room that no one wants to discuss is the fact that Hope was intended to assist lower income students regardless of race. So of course if you allow more students than it was intended to assist get it, then you’re going to run out of money faster. Put the original cap or a somewhat higher one on it could keep the program solvent a lot longer. So why won’t some legislators entertain that idea?
I lived off of Hope in college:
I Hope to graduate from UGA
and then
I Hope I can pay for my loans
During my 6 years in Athens with my 2 bicycles and a car that was made a year before I was born I had a lot of Hope:
When I get to Athens I Hope I can find a job
I Hope I don’t get shot working at the convenience store
I Hope I don’t get shot delivering pizzas
I Hope I don’t get lung disease from the chlorine at the pool company
I Hope I don’t break my neck by falling off this roof I’m repairing
I Hope I can pay my rent
I Hope they don’t steal my bike, car stereo and trumpet again
I Hope the AJC doesn’t really send me a bill this time
I Hope I can buy a new pair of high top reeboks – who didn’t want a pair in ’86!
I Hope that red Beamer doesn’t run me over while I’m riding my bike on Baxter Street – Pass those Biker Bills this year!!!!
I Hope I have $5 left over this paycheck for Saturday night
I hope to get, well, I had lot’s of Hope every weekend
and then the resultant – I Hope I didn’t get her pregnant or the crabs.
What’s wrong with these dim witted kids today that think if it’s not silver plattered for them they have no Hope?? Have their parents failed to instill a sense of personal responsibility, self-reliance and determination? My dad would have kicked my tail if I just gave up before I even got started in life. America is all about Hope and if you want something bad enough, you’ll do what it takes to get it.
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