My Nephew's Epic Facebook Rant
My nephew posted this yesterday. I've never posted here, but had to share, as it's going viral, apparently.
I am a millennial. I am not soft. And I support Bernie Sanders.
A while back, an acquaintance of mine posted a meme that in addition to likening Bernie Sanders supporters to Nazis, claimed that young people only like Bernie because "the old guy is going to make the government give them free stuff."
I'll leave the Nazi shit alone, it's just stupid, but as for soft young people supporting Bernie cause they want free shit, I'll hit back on that score.
I support Bernie Sanders. I have worked damn near my entire adult life in power plants, hydrogen methane reformers, biomass plants, and waste incinerators. I've made my living by flying pretty much all over the world and venturing into places approaching, and sometimes exceeding, 200 degrees, putting in 70 hour work weeks, and then flying home. I've worked and had prolonged stays on 3 continents, I sweat, I bleed, and I have hands that would make your mechanic uncle look like a Country Crock hand model. I'm a working dude.
I am a millennial. I'm not soft. And I support Bernie Sanders. Not because he'll give me free shit, but because I legitimately believe that he's best for our country, and further, humanity in general.
I support Bernie because in traveling all over the world, I've learned that people are people, I don't care if you're Japanese, German, Czech, or American; Muslim, Christian or agnostic, you're a person; you want a job, security, a meal on your plate, and you probably wanna get laid every now an then. Period. We're all in this together. Jingoism, Nationalism and Racism serve only to smear the fact that we're all HUMAN.
I support Bernie Sanders because I don't feel it's right that damn near everyone my age who went out and got a degree is still paying for it 10 years later. I've also learned 1st hand how important education is. As a 24-year-old working in Rome, Georgia, I was floored when my waitress asked me how many kids I had, not whether or not I had any (shit you not, the next time I went to that little town, I heard that waitress was in jail for possession of meth). Took a while to wrap my mind around the fact that among the less privileged, having kids that young, and single-parenthood in general, is pretty normal. Further, as a younger dude working in heavy industry, I'm always floored, that even now, at 31, I'm almost always the youngest person around. Free, or deeply discounted 2 year degrees, would be the best thing that's happened to our society in years, we are running out of electricians and plumbers and technicians. An accessible 2 year degree would open many doors for many people, and would only help our aging infrastructure.
I support Bernie Sanders because after my time in Europe, it's easy to see how screwed up the American health care system really is. I broke my foot in Europe. A visit to the ER, crutches, a walking boot, and a couple prescriptions set me back $125. 125 bucks, and 3 weeks later I was back at work, no debt, no bullshit.
I support Bernie Sanders because he wants to address health care, the skyrocketing costs of education, and the ridiculous gap between the haves and the have nots. I support Bernie because he acknowledges that climate change is an existential threat, and that muslims in general are anything but.
I'm a millennial, I'm not soft, and I support Bernie Sanders. Not because I want free shit, but because he supports what I believe in.
-Brett
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10153975437239098&set=a.10150305667249098.355720.508124097&type=3&theater
= new reply since forum marked as read
Damned should go viral!!!
he states his case quite well. (Fer a whippersnapper!) 
Bit of a smartass, but there you go! 
I liked the part about people being people, anywhere you go. I grew up and went to school during the early years of the Cold War. We did a unit in geography about Russians, how they lived generations of a family in tiny, falling-apart apartments, and had to stand in line to buy the basics of life -- food, toiletries, everything -- and how often there was very little to buy so they'd get to the front of the line and there wouldn't be anything left. That's the day I lost my fear of Russians.
I don't know if the educational system just misjudged how their lessons were affecting me, but the more I learned about the world, the more I felt sympathy for the average citizens everywhere. I was poor, I got the plight of other poor people, and I came to understand that it wasn't the ordinary people that I should fear, but government.
Of course, I think I was born a rebel, and not one to follow along just because someone said so. Now I grok Bernie. Democratic Socialism for the win. 
