CALL TO ACTION: Write to Ira Glass and This American Life about Applebaum's Movement!

What better way to promote this movement than on This American Life with Ira Glass? I wrote a letter to Mr. Glass and the Executive Producers of TAL a few days ago.

This story about shared debts and dashed hopes is an interesting one. I pitched it as such [truncated version]:

August 14, 2009

Dear Mr. Glass and Executive Producers of This American Life:

I got a great story idea. It's a tale about a guy named Robert Applebaum. You see, he's gotten a whole lot of powerful people and their lobbying friends inside the beltway in a tizzy. (I am proud to say that I'm part of that effort and have been debating heavily with analysts at the College Board over the past few days). But what's this tale all about? It's about the student loan crisis. The College Board was recently written about in an article entitled, "Is Student Loan Debt Really a Problem." That story has not been very popular. The link below will lead you to the outraged public. In that story, two people from the College Board, Patricia Steele and Sandra Baum, argued that the stories circulating around the putative "student loan crisis" are sensationalistic.

http://www.usnews.com/articles/business/paying-for-college/2009/08/12/is-student-debt-really-a-problem/comments/

I was one of the first to alert Robert Applebaum, the Founder and Executive Director of the Forgive Student Loan Debt Movement, and he let his supporters know about this article. This article is not the first to be published on the topic. In fact, if you take a look at Appleabaum's website here (http://www.forgivestudentloandebt.com/), you'll see that he's posted related pieces. The posters have similar things (there are those who are totally against it too) to say. The ones who support this movement tell their stories of what they owe and how they have decided not to have children, how they can't buy homes, cars - simple things. The haters tell those people that they were "irresponsible" for deciding to go to school. The haters call the debtors "brats," "snobs," etc. As you can see, it's a heated topic.

I also have a blog that's related to education here (http://alleducationmatters.blogspot.com/).

So, you're out of ideas for your next show. I'm the FIRST person to ever suggest a show. Whaddya think? Do you want to do a show on the student lending crisis? It's a hot topic, and it keeps getting hotter . . .

Sincerely,

Ms. C. Cryn Johannsen


Here's my CALL TO ACTION. Write something quirky and yet professional (is that possible? I think it is) to Mr. Glass and the Executive Producers of TAL. Ask them to do a story on our movement.

Their email is: web@thislife.org. Send them a note to promote the movement!