In order to quiet those protesting his scheduled address to America’s school children tomorrow, Barack Obama has released the text of his speech. I just read it, and it’s a terrific piece that encourages kids to take responsibility for themselves and do something meaningful with their lives. He doesn’t mention the current fight over healthcare, or, for that matter, say anything even remotely partisan. He essentially plans to tell kids that he knows many of them are going through difficult times, but that’s no excuse not to try. He plans to tell them that they can accomplish anything, and, given his personal story, I think it’s possible that some kids, who otherwise wouldn’t, might actually listen. None of this, of course, matters to those who still do not view him as a legitimate President.
They claim that it’s not about him, that they just object to the idea of the President reaching into the schools and addressing their children when they’re alone and vulnerable, but I’d bet that not a one of the people now complaining raised an eyebrow when Ronald Reagan did the same damned thing. The fact is, every President addresses the youth of the country. The only thing different in this case is that said President is a Hitler-worshiping, Black Nationalist thug terrorist from Kenya, who is, at this very moment, raising a private army in order to convert our nation to Socialism.
So, it looks like the nuts will be keeping their kids home from school tomorrow, fearful that all of their parenting can be negated by four minutes in front of a flickering image of Barack Obama telling them to stay in school and make something of themselves.
Things may have changed over the past day or two, but, the last I heard, several area schools were planning not to show the “controversial” speech. Among those were schools in Rochester, Walled Lake and Brighton. Others, I think, are making sure that it’s OK with parents before offering their succulent offspring to The Obama.
Following, because I think they add some context, are a few comments left by angry conservatives around the web:
chrissybayby:
Widespread racism doesn’t exist anymore. The only time racism is a problem, is when those in power (i.e. Democrats) use it to try and divide people from different backgrounds for their OWN GAIN. The modern Democrat party doesn’t give a sh*t about unifying people from different backgrounds; nor do they care about the poor. Conservatives don’t play the race card, because they truly care about people. The reason people don’t want Barack Obama broadcasting to their children, is for the content and message He wanted to send. Barack Obama lied His way to the Presidency and now His true self is revealed. He is a true Marxist who wants to destroy the United States, and He has surrounded Himself with people who also hate the United States. It doesn’t matter what His skin color is. I can say what I do about race and racism, because I am a conservative, who for the last 15 years, has CHOSEN to work downtown, in a multi-ethnic setting. So take your charges of “racism,” and stick ’em where the sun don’t shine.qwerty10:
What is Obama going to preach? “Yes kids, get your education and a good paying job. That way, you can pay the government’s ridiculous taxes in order to pay my infinate debt down, and in order to help Lakisha, who is too lazy to work but still needs to feed her 8 kids.”active_parent:
This is not about race! However, if you want to play that card then let’s discuss why Obama continues to surround himself with racists such as Rev. Wright and now Mr Van Jones who can easily be found to say that it is the white man who intentionally pollutes the black man’s neighborhoods and sprays toxic chemicals on immigrants. Time and time again Obama has surrounded himself with these types of people. So if you want to play the race card then please explain to us why this should be of no concern to us. Birds of a feather flock together!Now on to the issue at hand here which is not race related at all! Looking at the United States Constitution, no provision is made for education, but the Constitution does instruct that… “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” (Tenth Amendment) In other words, education is reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. Then why do we have a cabinet level United States Department of Education (US DOE)? Does this not violate the U.S. Constitution? IMHO, “yes.” The DOE was established under the Carter Administration as a political payoff to the teacher unions for their support of Jimmy Carter for president. I submit that just as I was against the Federal Gov’t and Bush for the No Student Left Behind Act which actually began “dumbing” down our education system I am also against the Federal Gov’t intervening in the classroom with “ANY” speeches! Once you allow them to kick open a door that door only opens farther until the “REAL” perpretrator enters. The fact of the matter is that schools are to be runned at the “LOCAL” level and by it’s “LOCAL” citizens. I also would like to dispel the myths that other presidents have done this. This answer is yes and no. Yes that spoke to our kids but thru national television and parents then had the abilty to “choose” and also to immediately have a discussion with their children in regards to what the yhave heard. Obama has chosen to cut parents out of this loop entirely. This is what the outrage is over, NOT what is in the speech at all. The NEA documents are nefarious to many when you just look at the word cound of the proposed discussion material. The original supporting study documentation sent out to teachers contains these words followed by the number of times used in the documentation:
Success, Succeeding, Succeed – 0 (zero)
Persist, Persisting, Persistence – 0 (zero)
Academic, Academics – 0 (zero)
Education – 2 times (plus once used in Dept of Education!)But the following do appear, some numerous times:
President or Obama – 18 times
Do (in the sense of “doing” something) – 8 times
Community – 3 times
Duty – 1 time
Civic – 1 timeScore?
Community and “duty” Propaganda/Obama personality worship – 31
Education and Success – 2So what do you think the message is really about?
This entire issue is ABOUT A MAN who has chosen to surround himself with so many radicals and the list seems to grow daily that I do not blame any parents for being very concerned about the precendece this speech is setting but the motives behind it. I personally applaud the parents for taking action in this matter. The initial and apparent circumvention of cutting the parents out of the loop in any government address to our children is just plain creepy!
And if you think this isn’t to a very large extent about race, and the unwillingness of some to accept the fact that we have a black President, you’re out of your fucking mind.
30 Comments
lol
What’s the worst thing that could happen anyway?
Of course, I guess it could take an unexpected turn.
Students should be able to listen to the President’s speech
Nice piece by Mike Lupica that ends with:
The Detroit Free Press had a brief, uplifting, perfectly facetious and reasonable editorial on Saturday, “A Lesson in Overreacting,” worth reading:
http://freep.com/article/20090905/OPINION01/909050328/1069/opinion01/A-lesson-in-overreacting
Armies of red and blue strawmen have at it, while China not only reduces its holdings of t-bills, but actually starts selling them.
Prepare to have thy rug pulled out from under thee.
Since you included me and my website in your description of “nuts”, though it might be of interest to you that now that I have seen the entire text of the speech, I have posted the following:
http://ibloga.blogspot.com/2009/09/barack-im-ok-with-it-good-job.html
I am such a friggin’ nut, aren’t I?
Refreshing post, Pastorius. (The comments that follow get me a little crazy, but sticking with the main post, nice.)
Life’s tricky enough without all the hyperventilating and bullying and other things that harm our health while taking away our brightness (mainly lack of oxygen!). Reasonable relating nowadays is like a godsend. May it quickly be instead an imperative.
It isn’t as if the world ever changes that much: think the Scopes evolution trial, prayer in schools, “segregation forever. . . ” Plus ca change, plus ca la meme chose.
I’m stuck on why the first post has pronouns capitalized when referring to Obama (ie, He, Himself). That sort of creeps me out.
It’s worth noting that Obama has yet to submit his penis for inspection. And, while he has gone on record saying that he will not kill the elderly, he has yet to issues a formal statement saying that he is not evil incarnate. I for one find this incredibly troubling.
It’s a revised speech with a revised lesson plan to go along with it. The objections were to the original.
Tuesday morn, they’re showing Reagan’s speech and Q&A to students (East Room, White House, 1988 Speech at start of American Education Week) on TV (CSpan), and there’s not a nonpolitical word thus far. A sampling:
Line item veto, America the greatest nation, antitax, federal deficit not so concerning, say no to drugs, cut tax, “taxes can be such a penalty that there’s no incentive for them to work more,” “I studied economics in college,” “education has always been in the province of the state and the local governments, but we’ve increased the amount of federal money,” “with regard to any hint of discrimination, we have done more than any other administration to punish those who would discriminate,” “Negro private colleges and universities–in fact, we bailed one of them out–it was facing bankruptcy.”
Q: “What do you and Mrs. Reagan think about the new gun ban law?”
A: “In California, we had a system that was probably the best. . . . I have to wait a week and come back and get the gun . . . ”
Q: “Do you think the Saturday night special should be banned?”
A: “I don’t have very much of a quarrel with the very small weapon . . . ”
Q: “When do you think we’ll have our first woman president?”
A: “I don’t know, but, believe me, I’m certainly not against it. I think the first thing that will happen is we’ll have a woman vice president. . . . I’d welcome . . .”
“One last thing. There’s a letter I received not too long ago from a man. It said, You can go to live in France, but you cannot become a Frenchman . . . But the one place in the world you can come . . . come to America and become an American . . . this great country put here because it had to be found . . .”
* * *
George H. W. Bush’s 1991 Address to Students, Alice Deal Jr. High School, Washington, DC (not nearly so polemical address as Reagan’s, actually not offensive at all, kind of nice actually if a little dorky):
“I’m not here to teach a lesson . . . I’m not here to tell you what to think . . . Today I’m here to talk to you and challenge you. Education matters. . . . Report shows that nationwide 5 of 6 eighth-graders don’t know the math they need to move up to ninth grade. . . . Education means the difference between a good future and a lousy one. . . . We don’t hear enough about the success stories. . . . Unless things change between now and 1996, as many as 1 in 4 of today’s eight-graders will not graduate with their classmates . . . an army of almost a half-million dropouts. . . . No one dreams about becoming a dropout, but far too many do. . . . Let’s make a pact then, right here–let’s work to see that in five years you and your friends will be more than sad statistics . . . Each student should ask himself, ‘Where will I be in five years?’ . . . I’m asking you to put two and two together, make the connection between the homework you’ll do tonight . . . and where you’ll be in five years. . . . The real world starts right here–it’ll have consequences for your whole life. . . . You’re in control–you’re thinking, ‘How can the president say this to us?’ . . . . It’s up to you. It takes guts to take control. Sound body and sound mind, they go together. . . . No drugs . . . violence . . . Fear should never follow you into the classroom . . . You must take control–go to your teacher, your parents, the school board if you have to . . . together we can drive the guns and violence out of our schools . . . Block out the kids who think it’s not cool to be smart . . . I for the life of me can’t think about what’s cool about being stupid . . . Don’t let peer pressure stand between you and your dreams . . .”
EOS, the part that was changed matched what Bush Sr. asked of the kids he addressed, re. writing the prez to suggest ways in which students can help the prez.
Most people who opposed this, it would appear, have now changed direction. They’re no longer shocked by him addressing children. Now they taking credit for forcing him to change his address so as not to indoctrinate their children into socialism. There’s a lot of “we won this one” on the web.
I am *thrilled* my children got to hear Obama’s speech at school today. Of course, our school is full of a bunch of evil, liberal socialists who love to indoctrinate the young with left-wing hoodoo voodoo.
(For what it’s worth, I can remember snoozing through Reagan’s speech at school, back in the day…)
Yes, we win some. The children won’t be pledging allegiance to Obama, Van Jones has resigned, and the public option won’t be included in the Health Bill.
Plus, at the end of it, Obama forces His religion on everyone. IN SCHOOL!!!
Very inspirational speech I loved how he aimed for our kids of today to plan for tomorrow, its not giving them political empowerment or guiding them in the wrong direction as the media portrayed but its giving them hope that through all the struggles and storms you may cross you will come out the hero In the end way to go Mr. President.
Maybe Obama can just ask the kids to keep the windows open, so he can fly in and drink our blood as we sleep.
Thank you, Mike, for your good post. Today (following Mr. Nice Guy Durbin, whom I like a lot, beseeching Blue Dogs and Repubs to join a bipartisan reform bill–argh) DeMint, McCain, and other angry Repubs are on the Senate floor trumpeting the hate-filled town halls, saying that people who never before were involved in national politics showed up–to prove that health care reform is unwanted and a bad idea. Where were those two senators when thousands and thousands (official estimate 100,000) of informed citizens walked all over DC several years back to oppose the war in Iraq? It was hard even to find a newspaper piece about it, no TV coverage to speak of. And what about several years before that, in Feb. 2003, when all over the country and the war, millions of people took to the streets to oppose the impending war? We weren’t being idiots, weren’t scary and loud, weren’t threatening violence–so they don’t have to pay attention? I know–they couldn’t care less about the town hall people either, but they embrace the opportune talking points these spooked people provide.
DeMint and McCain’s talking points are as washed-up as this soggy day in Ypsilanti. They are really senators? We’re paying them? We’re providing their health insurance? Ugh.
That was supposed to say: “when all over the country and the world,” not “and the war.”
My take as I watched my ninth graders watch the speech in class today was that a lecture by any adult does very little good. Amanda said above that she remembers snoozing through Reagan’s speech, and that pretty much nails what I think most students thought about the experience. I heard one kid say that Obama looks white. I heard a bunch of kids mocking the audience for cheering so loud for some stupid speech by a boring president. Sorry to be cynical, but the last thing kids who are struggling with school need is a lecture from a guy on tv.
Damn, Dan. What a way to end the thread.
Oh what interesting times we live in…
I heard a most inspired report from a ten-year-old friend of mine, who paid special attention to certain ideas, actually spoken toward the end of the president’s speech, about not being afraid to ask for help and also about mistakes and failing but then becoming really good at doing the thing. She considered her struggles with math and looked ahead to a time when she’s excellent at math and also was inspired to think up starting a school magazine.
Not bad for one president, one student, on the first day of school. It worked.
On the faking it front, and what Mike was saying:
I personally want to be killed by my children. When I saw the news about Nancy Karrigan’s dad, I was envious. I want to be killed in bed though, while I am sleeping, in a flannel work shirt, and I want them to use an lawnmower blade.
I do not know if I’m in agreement with you here. Sure, I’d like to be killed by my kids, but with a lawnmower blade?
Dad, is that you?