Dear Most Honored Faculty of the University of
Pennsylvania,
My name is Larry Swetman. I am an artist,
writer, and revolutionary who is interested in attending your school for a
degree and certificate in secondary education, but have reached somewhat of a
stumbling block. I am writing this letter to you in the hopes that I can make
three things clear: 1) that the very education that is the backbone of an ivy
league pedigree cannot be based on tally marks of a transcript, 2) that
upholding this educational standard should have more to do with wisdom than
rules, and 3) that I am more than qualified and would make a welcome addition
to your program.
Before I begin my thesis, however, I think it
may be best for me to give you a brief background of who I am and how I came to
write you this letter. I will be brief for I am sure that you all have much to
do, but I will continue in the hopes that your desire to change the world is as
symptomatic as mine. (For why else would we all endeavor to teach?)
I grew up very poor, the son of a single mother
in Atlanta, GA. I will spare you the shades of the story, but suffice it to say
it was a long hard road to reach any sort of educational plateau; it's hard to
help your kid with his homework when you both are standing in a breadline.
However, fortune favors the tenacious and I was given the chance to go to
College.
I decided to go to a Christian Liberal Arts
College because I was given a new life when I entered the Church. The life I
lived prior to becoming a Christian was wrought with environments saturated
with the anger that only flows from desperation. When I entered the Church,
though, I heard stories of love and community and thought to myself,
"Yeah, this is the way out of hell." Consequently, I undertook a
journey to obtain a Bachelor of Arts in Biblical and Theological Studies.
Again, I will spare you the minutia of my collegiate story, but suffice to say
it was here that I learned how to think, question, and rebel.
I was never satisfied with the neatly packaged
ideas that were presented to me; I needed to know why things were/are
the way they were/are. Consequently, after obtaining my degree I left the
Church on a somewhat transcendental (some may call it spiritual) quest of
self-discovery. I immersed myself in philosophy, history, quantum theory,
astrophysics, economics, art, sociology, political theory, and a myriad of
other subjects until I realized that everything I had been taught was a
systematic normalization of the individual based on castes of privilege and
oppression. I did not take this knowledge lying down; I took it to the streets.
A few years into College I started to become
radicalized. My Alma Mater is a beacon for the conservative cause to the point that
they would stand by Governmental-Administrative human rights abuses in the name
of divine directive. I started to speak out, write and distribute pamphlets,
and protest. It was Desmond Tutu who said that to see injustice and do nothing
is to side with the oppressor.
Fast forward to 2011. I had done some time in
Seminary before my (self-described) enlightenment and moved to Philadelphia. It
was here that I first started to Occupy.
From September 19th, 2011—2 days into the US
movement—I committed myself to fighting back. I started by going to Zuccotti
Park to set up camp at Occupy Wall Street. I arrived the day that the police
violence started and decided to come home and hopefully help set up the
movement in Philly. I was there from day 1 of Occupy Philly when we were just a
couple of people on a Facebook page trying to kindle a flame. Eventually, it
erupted into a fire. Once again I will save you the time of the entire story,
but suffice it to say that I was intimately involved from organizing rallies
and protests to leading marches; starting a Free university; forming a
communication infrastructure to keep the global movement connected; planning
national gatherings; occupying bank lobbies; meeting with Governors and
Congresspeople to demand certain reforms; speaking on panels from Johns Hopkins
to Villanova Universities; and organizing disaster relief when the American Red
Cross and FEMA could not get their acts together in New Jersey. And that was
just a sampling of the work I did. The papers I have written about my
experiences in the social justice movement since then would take up far too
much space for this particular letter.
Point being: I have learned more about history,
government, economics, geography, sociology, and anthropology in the streets
and in self-study over the past three years than I was ever even exposed to as
another brick in the wall of the education system.
That last comment finally brings me to the
point of my prose: I want to attend your school but do not meet the requirements
as laid out by your admissions process. A few of you have even looked over my
transcripts (thank you) and evaluated what I would need in order to meet those
pre-reqs: basic world history and US; economics; geography; government;
anthropology; and sociology courses. So then, what shall I do? Go to a local
community College and rack up more debt to take these courses so I meet the
prerequisites? Why?
For the last year or so I have been
supplementing my real work—as I have laid out above—with working at a teashop
in South Philly. I work for $9/hr to pay the bills. I have also recently gotten
engaged to a beautiful woman and am trying to start a family. To start that
family I have tried to seek self-betterment by going back to school to teach. I
have always had a passion to teach and if there is anywhere on the East Coast
of the US that needs bright, driven, and inspired teachers who are willing to
sacrifice to make the system better, it's Philadelphia. So, I have come to you
to obtain the learning necessary to teach the next generation, but, again, I
have hit a wall.
I do not have the time or the money to take
these courses. In addition to working and starting a family I also maintain my
own personal work in the form of writing and making art for my online presence,
a necessity in this day and age (www.larryswetman.com). If I were to add to
that workload a full year and a half of superfluous classes I would also be
adding to financial strain and stress of my marriage for what? So, that I meet
requirements on paper? Do I not already meet the requirements? Have I not
passed these courses outside of the context of a traditional classroom?
What can I learn of the method of history when
my presupposition is already to apply a historical exegesis that takes authorial
intent and socio-political context into account? Should I relay the history of
the Mujahedeen and how the unification efforts of what we call
"Afghanistan" are simply tribal conflicts of resistors who do not
want a national government with territorial lines drawn by western oppressors?
Shall I connect this story to the CIA funded rise of the Taliban and how it
relates to rise of "terrorism"? Shall I write you an essay on how
modern terror tactics on derived from early '70s American-backed-and-state-sanctioned
terror in Latin America? What more World or US history should I know before I
am qualified to teach? How about the genocide of the Native peoples of what we
call the "United States?" None of that stuff is taught. I had to
learn it on my own, but since I didn't pay for it to be on my transcripts there
is no way for you to know.
How about economics? Should we talk about John
Locke's theory of private property about how it has inspired the current
hierarchical models of authority based on ownership? Can we talk about
capitalism and how it has failed the global economy? How about how the world
produces more than enough food to feed every person but the supply chain is too
broken to work on such levels? How about climate change and the rise of CO2
levels pre-and post-industrial revolution? We could talk about alternatives
that aren't in the textbooks as well. In my time working in disaster relief in
New Jersey and New York, we developed systems of mutual-aid that brought people
and resources to those in need without the use of capital. How about talking
about such alternatives? What about how unregulated price manipulators are the
reasons for such soaring healthcare costs in the US despite a drop in quality?
These are economic issues not taught in textbooks.
How about government? Though I have taken a
community College class on American government, I was never taught about the actual
political process. How about Citizen's United or McCutcheon? Will the
classes teach me how the political process is manipulated by the richest
individuals, corporations, and unions to pick the winners before the people
ever have a chance to speak? How about the revolving door of staffers to
lobbyists that keeps the Oligarchy in tact? I have learned more about
government sitting in handcuffs in the back of police paddy wagons than I was
ever taught in GOV101.
I could go on from sociology to anthropology
talking about the systematic oppression of people of color in this country and
its historical connection to slavery, but I will come to the end.
Though I grew up poor my mother tried to
instill in me a sense of the so-called "American Dream."
"Larry," she used to say, "if you work hard you can be anything
you want to be." My experience in the world and seeing those around me has
taught that this is a lie. The only reason it is called the American Dream is
because you have to be asleep to believe it. Stumbling blocks and inhibitions
to progress line the road to the Dream like roadside bombs, waiting for you to
slip up and touch them. For then debt can shackle you to normalcy; exhaustion
can pacify your dissent; and you can work, consume, sleep, wake up and do it
all over again for minimum wage your whole life while the elites fly high on
Wall St. and in DC.
However, I am still a fool; I am still a
dreamer. I still believe that academia offers a way out of the mire for
everyone who is given the opportunity. My mother grew up as a poor orphan and
to this day struggles, choosing sometimes between buying her food and getting
her medicine. But I still believe there is a better way. I believe that people
can make wise choices and though those choices may diverge from the norm they
set precedent and consequently slowly change the status quo. How many times has
the road less traveled made the difference?
I think I have made a pretty good case that I
deserve to be in your program. Sure, I could go to those classes, pay those
fees, and get those grades, but for what? I would lose time with my family and
be farther in debt—for what? Basically, to make it easier on you all to know
that I am qualified to be in your program. I can assure I am. I have stood toe
to toe with Governors in their own offices and shamed them into admitting their
historical, sociological, and governmental inadequacies; I have been beaten on
the streets on Philadelphia and New York by Police Departments designed to
maintain systems of oppression at the cost of our communities; and—most
importantly to me—I have risen from depths of poverty to do so.
I think what my mama was trying to tell me when
she tried to instill that Dream in me was that where there is an
opportunity…take it. I need an opportunity. If you all find that I deserve one
I can assure you that not only will I graduate your program, but will shine in
it. Who knows, I might be able to instill the values of an American Dream—truly
believing them—to the next generation and they might change the world.
In all humility I thank you for taking the time
to read my story though it's not done yet; there are several chapters to be
written. I write this in the hopes that the next one will be entitled…
My Years at UPENN.
Sincerely,
Larry Reginald Swetman
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