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September 8, 2009
Unpolitically correct
When I was a kid, the President was a big deal. When he spoke (which seemed rare, but maybe my family just ignored him and I didn't know about it), we listened. If he was going to address students specifically, we watched. The whole school watched. The coveted tv was brought into the classroom so we could hear history being made.
The same was true for space shuttle launches and falling walls. Granted, this was back in the days before we had a space station, and it seemed like those shuttles were more like commuter flights. Because these were the things that would be added to the history books in 10 years for our children to read about.
Granted, the president is now on tv practically daily. The first lady goes on talk shows. The first family's pet got more airtime on the morning new shows than Farrah Fawcett's death.
Still, Barak Obama, The President of the United States of America, wanted to speak to our youth about responsibility and education.
And a bunch of people thought that was a bad thing.
I don't get it. I really don't. That speech was inspiring. It was uplifting. It wasn't all fairy tales and roses in the land of milk and honey. It was about hard work and respecting yourself and your dreams and not making excuses and just doing it anyway.
It was, in my opinion, what a lot of kids these days need.
It's what a lot of adults these days need.
Our school district chose not to "take time away from academic studies to participate in the live speech." Individual teachers are allowed to use all or part of the speech in future lessons, provided it meets the district's curriculum goals, and parents are given advance notice and allowed to opt out.
I call bullshit. Whether you like the current president or not, he's still the leader of our country. As such, he deserves respect. He deserves to be heard. No one is forcing you to agree with what he says. No one is saying you can't have a talk with your kids when they get home and tell them that it's ok to talk smack to their teachers and feel free to drop out. But like it or not, he is the head of our government, elected by a majority vote, and what he says will go down in history no matter if you like it or not.
People keep saying that our Constitution gives us the right not to listen, and that's true, it does. But that's just another excuse to avoid admitting that not everything that comes out of Obama's mouth is liberal crap, that he might be able to inspire our children to be better in spite of his (so-called) terrible leadership.
Stop making excuses, open your hearts and your minds, and listen.
Posted by me at September 8, 2009 7:59 PM
Comments
I'm going to sit my three year old down and make him watch it on You Tube.
Sure he is three, and he won't get most of it, but I think it is important. I can't believe that so many people are in an uproar about this.
I live in a very liberal area, where people love Obama. It's so strange to think that there are places where people don't.
Posted by: Lora at September 9, 2009 2:34 PM
Where's the "like" button? Just kidding.
I was sad how people were even posing the question phrased like "Should President Obama be allowed to address the nation's school children without a response from the opposition?"
The "opposition" makes it sound like he is the ENEMY. He's our president!
I am not saying this as a supporter or not of Obama. Even if I did not agree at all with the political leanings of the president in office I would still want my kid to watch him speak to them. If he said something I disagreed with we could discuss it. I would not want to shield them from even hearing it. Why would you? Are you afraid he might say something your child agrees with that you dont? Then discuss it, be open minded.
Posted by: Bec at September 9, 2009 5:22 PM