Student loan forgiveness good for country

A recent letter to The Baltimore Sun (”Student loan bailout a slap in the face,” Sept. 26) has stayed on my mind. I’ve heard the sentiment that was expressed in the letter so many times lately. I understand the writer’s view, and I’m not unsympathetic. My wife and I scrimped and saved to pay college tuitions for our kids just like the writer. But I’m for loan forgiveness. Not because it will benefit me, my wife or my sons, but because I believe that removing the onerous burden of those loans from millions of my fellow citizens will be good for our country.

Believing that something would be good for our country was once the main criteria for whether you were for something. Over the past 50 years, that criteria has been replaced by “What’s in it for me?” or “Hey, somebody’s getting something that I’m not getting!” It’s especially troubling to me when I hear those sentiments coming from my fellow senior citizens. They should know better.

— Jim Dempsey, Edgewood

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