Freep Columnist - Snowden Not Even A High School Graduate! Quelle Horreur!

In Rochelle Riley's editorial, we see everything that's wrong about the attitude of the credentialed (but not educated) class of bien pensants that run the mainstream media media and for that matter the Democrat party, but I repeat myself.

The Freep: Rochelle Riley: Snowden case begs the question - how does high school dropout have access to classified documents?

You see, to Ms. Riley it's not just that he leaked secret documents and the existence of the spying program, it's not just that he dared do it while Obama was in charge which is bad enough (had he done it under Bush we would have expected her adulation), but it's that he's a member of the great unwashed - By Jove, he didn't even graduate high school, much less college! Tut-tut!

So as much as I want my first questions to deal with policies of domestic spying and to what extent the government should be allowed to intrude into the lives of its citizens to keep the country safe, my first question actually is: How did a high school dropout (who later earned his GED) become a security guard and then an IT officer who had access to the kind of information whose release leads to congressional investigations and allegations of treason?

Here Ms. Riley falls for the bien pensant delusion that one must be credentialed in order to be smart and capable of doing things, not to mention daring to enter into technical areas where he might rub shoulders with his betters.

An awful lot of technical training can be self-taught through hands on experience, taking technical classes, reading and by coaching from capable co-workers and mentors. You don't need a college degree to do an awful lot of very important work with it. While a classical college education (though few colleges now offer such) is indeed a mind-opening experience that can expose you to a great deal of information and how to analyze and problem solve, its not the sole way to receive such skills. Through a solid work ethic and effort you can indeed acquire all the needed skills to have a very nice career in the IT field.

I have no idea if Mr. Snowden is a "genius" or indeed even "smart", but I certainly don't discount his skills nor look down on him due his lack of a couple formal pieces of paper and that he received a GED rather than a regular high school graduation.

Note to Ms. Riley: This bloke with a GED just pulled the lid off of a top secret Obama spy program on the American people. His acts may darn well be wrong, they may indeed be treasonous, but they are not to be discounted just because he lacks a college degree.