On Tuesday, President Barack Obama will address the nation's school children in a speech promoting education, ambition, perseverance and the need to become civic-minded. It's a terrific message designed to challenge and inspire today's youth. But as expected, the issue has been hijacked by the right-wing lunatic fringe that's either gone completely mad or lost all control of its racial bigotry. Either scenario is equal parts frustrating, infuriating, shameful and scary. Wild, unfounded accusations of "indoctrination" are flying at the president, and many children will be kept home from school to avoid the speech. It's "America's Parents Gone Wild."
I try to understand the opposition's concerns -- which have unleashed a torrent of emotion and vitriol from many parents -- but I simply can't. Because there's nothing rooted here in logic or rational thought. To the contrary, it's based on ignorance, fear and, yes, racism. I suspect that a majority of the most fervent protests are originating in those parts of the nation where the black population is the smallest, and where blacks hold few positions of power. Is it possible that these "concerned" parents simply don't want their very conservatively-raised children getting the message that it's okay for a young black man to be so powerful? Maybe the thought of their children being "lectured" by a black man repulses them? Doesn't it seem ironic that, in an effort to prevent their children from being "indoctrinated" by supposedly radical views, these parents are perpetrating the biggest mind-fuck of all on their kids by censoring outside influences and instead heaping on them their own generations of intolerance and prejudice? So who then is doing the actual indoctrinating?
It's just plain moronic, all this talk of indoctrination and of Obama "spreading his socialist views" on school kids. I mean, after all, we're talking about the office of the United States Presidency for crap's sake. This isn't 50-Cent or Pamela Anderson addressing our kids. Have people simply lost their minds?
To be sure, the movement to prevent Obama's speech on the above grounds, and to boycott school Tuesday, is the single most unpatriotic event in modern history, and so disrespectful and offensive to the president and what the office stands for. In fact, on its merits, it's truly unfathomable. The people behind it should be ashamed of themselves.
The people stirring up all this school-speech trouble are no different than the misguided tea baggers, the town-hall goons, the birth-certificate 'truthers' or those who say Obama's a radical, a terrorist, a socialist, a communist and someone who's out to destroy America. Nah...he's just black, people. Get used to it. Because, whether you like it or not, he's gonna be running things for another seven-plus years.
Huff TV: Roy Sekoff Challenges Congressman On GOP's Criticism Of Obama School Speech
HuffPost Editor Roy Sekoff co-hosted an hour on MSNBC this morning with Carlos Watson. Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) was their guest on the phone, discussing...
Obama believes in "LEAD, FOLLOW,or GET OUT OF THE WAY, but DO SOMETHING!!" And he knows that nothing happens unless somebody DOES it.
Children see things differently from adults. They also however pay more attention to what is done, than what is said. They read between the lines. These 'White Christian Conservative -kids' after they would have compared the text of the president's speech, to the hateful furore of their parents, they will begin to question their parents' faith.
also agree w/ you on him being over exposed..... I tend to agree..... of course, this over-exposure comes w/ the 24 hr news cycle.....
Just in case a few of his supporters want to brand me an 'Obama-hater', do note, I like the President and do pray for his success daily; but plain and simple, he is over, over, over-exposed.
To re-quote Norman Thomas (ACLU founder and socialist), “The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism, but under the name of Liberalism, they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program until one day America will be a socialist nation without knowing how it happened.”
The health care debate has already awakened people to the fact that the hope he promised in his campaign is a hope for socialism, beginning with federal takeover of health care. Time is running out. People are already becoming aware of the socialist nature of his agenda. Obama must act aggressively if he is to tale full advantage of his temporary Democrat majorities to dramatically advance social democracy in America before he turns into his real predecessor, Jimmy Stagflation Carter.
Presidents Reagan and Bush I addressed kiddos at school with no paranoiac outrage....hmmmm, I wonder what's the difference now????
racism is alive and well in this country - it's sad but true - we are only seeing what some try to hide.
my prayers are with my president - Lord forgive these people because they know not what they are doing.
we need to stand up to these bullies and call them what they are, tyrants and terrorist. it's time the lies face the truth. i am dissappointed in the media's handling of this, and those democrats who should be shouting from the roof top " foul"
For those parents who believe their children will be harmed by listening to a speech by the President of the United States this is a wonderful opportunity to explain to their children the evils of a democratic society in which the party you vote for might not win.
You're preaching to the choir here, Andy. The question is: how best to marginalize these wingnuts, so that they don't have any more undue influence over the views and opinions of the millions of Americans who are moderate, independent, unaffiliated, uninformed and/or essentially apolitical?
MM
completely agree....
just plain racist.... "oh no, caint let my lil gal or boy take positive reinforcement from a negra...they's all criminals and thugs and hookers and welfare queens and the like.... "
the pic in the article is oh so reminiscent of the pics from the 50's....