STURBRIDGETIMES

THE CHRONICLE OF STURBRIDGE COUNTRY LIVING

THE

MARCH 2012

MAGAZINE

MUSINGS FROM LONG HILL

THE STUDENT LOAN CRISIS SOLVED

BY RICHARD MURPHY

LEGAL BRIEF
ROBERT A. GEORGE, ESQ.
M THE S
O N T HLY FO R RE ADERS
STURBRIDGE ATTORNEY

E GAL

ADV
OF

IC E AGAZ I N E

TURB R I DGE

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REVISIONS TO CORI LAW

Massachusetts is making changes to the law that sometimes brands innocent defendants as criminals long after theyve proven they didnt do the crime. Under the current law, once youve been charged with a crime, its stamped on your criminal record, called a CORI for Criminal Offender Record Information. Its there even if you are found not guilty. Sure, it might say you were found not guilty, but try explaining that to a prospective employer who wants to know about the shoplifting charge from 10 years ago. The biggest change to the criminal record law is that cases where you are found not guilty will no longer appear on your record when you apply for a job, or volunteer to coach your kids little league team. The changes are also going to help the knuckleheads, our sons and daughters who did something stupid and find themselves standing in front of a judge even though they will probably never do anything so stupid again. Judges are understanding in cases like this, and will usually dismiss a minor charge against a young person who has no prior record. Under the changes that go into effect this year, that young person will no longer have to enter the job market with a CORI that says the vandalism charge against them (say, for stomping on a traffic cone while parading through campus after the big game) was dismissed. Once the charge is dismissed, the record of the charge is unavailable to the general public. The truly guilty also benefit. You can have your misdemeanor convictions sealed in as little as five years, and your minor felonies in as little as ten. Commit murder, however, and its there for life, which wont matter much as youll probably be gone for just as long.

Is there a crisis in education? Im not sure, but someone thinks so. A headline from from USA Today back in October screamed Student loans outstanding will exceed $1 trillion this year beating out credit card debt. That may or may not be reason to panic. It could be that American youth have stopped buying X-boxes on plastic and are making a serious study of Plato and Socrates. Okay, Im worried. It was 1968 and a couple of more politically aware friends were going to speak to the local representative of a candidate for president. I cut a class to go with them. Though still ashamed of my dissolute academic career, what I heard that day has stuck with me. The fellow we spoke with made the point emphatically that his man saw equality and amity between classes and races hinging on education. Everybody says such blather, but the office seeker in question was George Corley Wallace. Yup, the man who had stood in the schoolhouse door to stop integration felt that if we all just got enough schooling, we could sing kumbaya together. One should not try to make windows into others souls, but Im not sure of Wallace was sincere. Certainly, the sentiment is part of the fabric of our nation. Universal education will lead us to the promised land. For some, it has, if that promised land is parts of metropolitan parks taken over by

the Occupy movement. Granted, its not where they thought they were going to end up when they signed those first student loans freshman year. Who would have predicted that an educated population would end up as a surplus supply of workers no one wants? Seymour Harris did some sixty years ago. Harris, a professor of economics at Harvard wrote The Market for College Graduates. His idea was there would be too many grads for too few jobs. He was laughed at, and though you can get many of his books on Amazon, The Market for College Graduates is not among them. To be honest, Harris predicted a collegiate job collapse a few times. Hey, if you foresee disaster long enough, a Katrinas got to hit. In the end it was all too predictable. How many middle managers does America need, especially as business has been squeezing middle management for years? Harris might have been wrong for a time, but education cant be the answer. A national desire for universal sheepskins, if successful would be catastrophic. The day would come when you would hear people say, Call a plumber, the pipes are frozen, only to hear, There arent any, but I can get you a sociologist. Anyone know when the garbage man is going to get here, its getting to be a mess, would be answered with, No, but Im sure we can get a Ph.D candidate studying the Post Modern Novel as soon as you want. Concludes on next page

Markyourcalendars:March13 NationalGridmeetingatTownHall

In the wake of two disappointing responses by National Grid to local natural disasters that occurred in Sturbridge during 2011, executive-level staff from the company will come to Sturbridge on March 13, 2012 to conduct what has been labeled an information seminar with Shaun Suhoski, town administrator, and others. The 6:30 p.m. meeting will be open to the public and televised live from Town Hall via local cable. After the companys presentation, the representatives will take questions by telephone and from members of the assembled audience. The meeting is open to all interested residents. Sturbridge is planning to study the benefits of creating a municipally-based power company, owned by the Town. Towns who have established their own power companies include: Shrewsbury, Wellesley and Hingham. Following last years response performance by National Grid, many Massachusetts cities and towns are studying this option.
THE CHRONICLE OF STURBRIDGE COUNTRY LIVING

22 THE STURBRIDGE TIMES MAGAZINE

I only listen to radio in the car. On one sojurn I heard a program with a recording of an occupier telling how he had been promised a ticket to the middle class with his degree, but had only debt slavery to look forward to. Though one might suspect he could not name the person who had made the promise, we cannot deny that it is or was until recently a common article of faith. So there is an army of post college lads and lasses who bestirred themselves to live in semi-organized squalor* to protest, well, whatever. There was no coherent statement of views. So what next. The last time this happened, young Americans of the college going demographic protested the draft. It was one thing to take kids from trailer parks and projects. Quite another, youth who perceived themselves as the managerial class. They had not done well on the SAT to slog through the jungle. Once the draft ended, the collegiate class went on with their lives, albeit in a world changed a bit by the so called counter-culture. What is happening now is not so simple. There is a war on, but no one is conscripted to fight. The jobs are not there and the student debt looms. Add to that the loans cannot be discharged in bankruptcy. Decades ago, some cute grads declared insolvency shortly after college. They had no assets other than a degree and future earnings. The sharpies should have been thrown out of court, but they ruined it for those who needed it. An army of former students faces payments they will never get ahead of with

burger flipping jobs. In order to help our youth out of eternal debt peonage, the Long Hill Institute of Educational Policy has come up with the only compassionate solution. It is time to reinstitute debtors' prisons. It will take a constitutional amendment, but desperate times call for desperate measures. Instead of dead end

jobs for peanuts, there will be dignity. The youth who could not finish the great American novel because he had to spend so much time on his pizza delivery job will now have more than enough. The theater major who couldn't get a job directing will now be able to do prison musicals. Think Prisoner's of Love from The Producers. Didn't get into

Harvard Law? There's always room in the clink for a jailhouse lawyer. The vistas will open wide as the gates close shut. *Squalor it can only be. Trust me on this. I've had the pleasure of spending time on bivouac. Camping is fun if your credit is good at Eastern Mountain Sports and you can come home soon.

Taste of the Towns

cludes a 16 x 20 photo from 1963 Masters and laser cut 3-D Masters logo, Boston Sports Legends Four, 8 x 10 photos of Bobby Orr, Tom Brady, Larry Bird, and Ted Williams with laser cut, 3-D player numbers and lettering, and Patriot Super Bowl Tickets Photos of Adam Vinatieris snow kick, Bill Belichick with the Lombardi Trophy, Bruschi in the snow, the Super Bowl XXXVI team and Brady in Super Bowl XXXIX. Also includes replica Super Bowl Tickets from XXXVI, XXXVIII, and XXXIX. This event has special meaning as we had to cancel our November Taste of the Towns event due to the snow storm, said Michael Wimberly, a North Brookfield resident who is President of Habitats Board of Directors and Chair of the Local Planning Committee. This event will assist in providing the resources we need over the next few months. The support of individuals, businesses and organizations has been incredible thus far and we need it to finish what we started in SturContinued from page 10

Have your Spring Adventures right here in town at Sturbridge Marketplace!

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