The truth is that I'm tired of feeling harassed by debt collectors who claim that they just "bought" my college student loans, and want to "help" me resolve the debt into an agreeable repayment plan. Whatever, man.
I still don't understand how what originated as a $40-$60K debt has ballooned into a $122K debt. Really? I don't accept it. I don't believe it; and if I had $122K just lying around, I'd still want something other than the scripted conversation from a service rep to convince me that I owe all that money.
News flash: You can harass me. You can berate me. You can even threaten me with wage garnishment and witholding tax returns, and whatever else the hell an "involuntary collection measure" is. But you cannot bully me. After a year getting rockets thrown at my head, unable to sleep, eat, or take a shit in peace, a year of my life dealing with the deaths and injuries of my comrades, beat down, burned out, stressed out for months on end, ironically, supporting and defending some random debt collectors' rights to phone thug me in an "attempt" to collect money that I'm not even 100% sure is theirs to collect....I think it's safe to say that bullying tactics do not work on me.
Sure, I borrowed some money. And three degrees later, I don't know anything more about how a petition works now than I did when I was watching the Schoolhouse Rock cartoons on Saturday mornings, watching Bill sing about hoping to become a law. I suppose that the petition, with enough signatures, eventually makes it to Congress. If that's the case, maybe Congress will support a bill that will become a law for the President to sign that will forgive the debt completely. Awesomeness!
It sucks that you can't, at least not without some great level of pain and anguish, file some kind of bankruptcy to discharge such a debt.
ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS seems more than a bit of an exaggeration. Give me a break. Or don't. But leave me the hell alone about it.
So...with all of this recent hubub about petitions, and in light of the fact that any petition can be started and signed and seen, for any number of reasons, I started this one.
Like anyone who starts a petition, I think it's a worthy one. I'm nicknaming it something the military student loan bail-out for combat vets. I think it would be pretty awesome if that would happen. Stimulate the economy, alleviate some stress, and make those bastards leave us alone. Sure would make a difference in my life. And I'm sure I'm not the only one.