The purpose of this post, though, is to report back to you all on something I saw when I went over to the petition site earlier today to read some of the brief stories that the signers are posting. I read the blurb below and my jaw hit the floor.

Mr. Obama: I first would like to command you on job well done for past 2 months into your presidency. Most importantly, I would like to urge you to seriously look into this important issue that contributed to greater debt of our nation. Please, consider a relief package for student loan debtors. This will forgive student loan debt and therefore, will enable us to invest in our future and save the economy in the long run.

Seriously? You would like to “command” the President “on job well done for past 2 months into your presidency?” Really? Is that what you want to do? You want the President to seriously look into canceling student loan debt “that contributed to greater debt of our nation?” Yeah?

Are you serious?

If I was President of the United States and a letter like this mess came in (which, by the way, was written in support of an idea!), I’d first laugh out loud and then I’d personally write back to this individual and suggest they engage a lawyer to press charges against their alma mater! How can anyone on the planet take such a disgrace of a letter seriously?

Look, I love the passion that people have regarding student loan cancellation and I agree wholeheartedly with the economic principles behind the concept, but if you can’t write a decent paragraph in favor of the idea, then don’t write anything at all! Sometimes it is okay to shut up!

All I know is that if the student loan cancellation crowd wants to gain any traction, they need to do better than the blurb posted above.

Imagine that! The cellphone industry is publishing a report that suggests the education industry – one of the largest in the United States – should invest in smartphones for its students. Brilliant.

This reminds me of a situation that came up at my job last year. We were engaging in a contract with a lobbyist to advocate for more dollars to be spent on education facilities. One of the ideas that our boss at the time had was to generate an in-house report showing the need for more facility dollars and how our organization was well positioned to use those dollars most efficiently.

I almost jumped out of my skin.

Can you imagine being a legislator and having ABC Company come up to you and say, “We need more money for Project X. Here is a report showing the need for more money for Project X. Please note that ABC Company is the best organization to utilize extra dollars allocated to Project X.”

Talk about self-serving! Any legislator that is worth their skin would laugh off that report and – if they are really interested in whatever “Project X” happens to be – would commission an independent report. Luckily, through some arguments and some luck, my company partnered with a highly regarded university to create an independent report on the idea of more money for school facilities. It was a much better option than having us do a report in house that essentially says, “Give us money.”

Anyway, you can read the full text of the New York Times article, but trust me – it’s slightly ridiculous.