What to make of Sandy Golden's letter [“People are in greater need of help, so count blessings,” April 20] which basically tells Shela Linton to shut up and count her blessings? I have no idea, though her attitude is unfortunately common.
As to Golden's specific claims: I find it hard to believe Sandy Golden “could not qualify” for student loans despite being unable to afford tuition. Student loans are available to almost everyone. Even if she, for some odd reason, did not qualify, how does that make monumental student debt a good thing?
Golden notes that Shela Linton has two children while “there are so many women who are unable to have any.” What in the world does that have to do with anything that Shela Linton wrote? Linton wasn't complaining about having her two children - far from it. She was advocating for a system that values her children.
Golden takes Linton to task for lamenting that her job pays only $23,000 a year when “there are so many people without jobs who need them.”
Golden seems to be saying that “if anyone has it harder than you, you should never complain or try to make things better.”
I find that a very strange attitude. It means that only the one person in the world who has it worse than every single other person has the right to try to make a saner, more effective society.