Robert Applebaum's blog

While it may have only been one rhetorical step in the right direction with no immediate consequences for the plight of the educated poor in America, let me be clear: last night's State of the Union Address by President Obama was, in fact, a hugely significant moment in the one year history of the student loan forgiveness movement. 

With the Democrats' loss of their 60 seat, filibuster-proof super-majority, the Health Care reform measures that have been the focus of so much fighting over the last year are essentially DOA. As a result, Congress either needs to get back to work to come up with something that everyone can support, or we squander this once-in-a-generation opportunity to usher in the changes that so many agree are desperately needed.

I am honored and humbled to announce that the essay I wrote on January 29, 2009, the one that went viral and gave rise to a true grassroots movement that I honestly never saw coming, has been included in the publication "Should the Federal Government Bail Out Private Industry?" 

As you may have noticed, we've made a few changes of late here at FSLD.  First and foremost, we've significantly upgraded our message board functionality.  As the site has grown, our members' interests have expanded beyond the subject of just student loan debt into all other types of consumer debt.  As a result, rather than stifling any such conversations as "off topic," we decided to create some new forums for those discussions.   We've also updated the format of the message boards for a sleaker look and more functionality.

A friend of mine and I were recently emailing one another and, not surprisingly, we were discussing the topic of student loan forgiveness.  Needless to say, he's a bit of a skeptic.  While he did raise some valid concerns about some of the assumptions I've made about human behavior in order for this proposal to work as predicted, I did my level best to justify and explain why I believe this approach was not only viable, but equitable as well.

Check it out! ForgiveStudentLoanDebt.com now has its own YouTube channel! Now you can post your own video testimonials about your own student loan situations! Keep spreading the word and make everyone aware of this growing crisis and next big bubble about to burst!

http://www.youtube.com/user/ForgiveStudentLoans

President Obama will be appearing this Sunday on This Week with George Stephanopolous and Mr. Stephanopolous is asking the general public to submit questions that you'd like him to ask the President. This is an excellent opportunity to, once again, make our collective voices heard, this time directly by the President of the United States.

Please click on this link to submit your question:

http://abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/question-president-barack-obama-email-geo...

http://www.twitter.com/bobbyapples

I posted the following statement on my Facebook status the other day which generated a LOT of heated discussion. Figured I'd post it here and let the debate continue. . .

Food for thought: If we have a government "of the People, by the People and for the People," as well as a democratically elected President who won a majority of the vote, what does that say about those who constantly smear not only our president, but the entire federal government in general? Isn't *that* elitist and anti-American?

If 2008 was the year of "Hope" and "Change," then 2009 is the year of Action. Since the beginning of the year, people from all walks of life have begun to realize that, for too long, their destinies were being written for them by people and institutions who didn't have their best interests at heart.

The ever-growing Student Loan Forgiveness movement is a perfect example of how the concepts of Hope and Change have translated into real Action by people who have decided to stand up and demand that their voices be heard.