Insanity Is Best Viewed From a Distance

I have a theory about reality shows that are everywhere these days. The people in them, when approached to do a show, don't get the basic fact that the producers think their lives are so insane that they will make good, if somewhat bizarre TV. The people in the show have been living in the insanity for so long, they don't realize it's insane any more and even after the show has started, they still don't get that people are watching the car wrecks of their personal lives with amazement.

These past few days, as I have been working from Scotland and England, the 'dispute' about President Obama speaking to school children on their first day of school has unfolded in the distance like a horribly bad reality show gone wrong.

Here, where the leaders of opposition parties are perhaps even stronger enemies than they are in the U.S. because our opposition party doesn't have a single dedicated leader for the person in power to spar with all the time, no one would ever suggest that having the Prime Minister address school kids and exhort them to work hard and make the most of their opportunities would be a bad idea.

In the United States, however, it's time to admit that something has gone horribly wrong, with our country and with our political system when some conservatives are so up in arms over the president saying stuff like (and this is from the prepared text of the speech)

And no matter what you want to do with your life -- I guarantee that you'll need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our military? You're going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You can't drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You've got to work for it and train for it and learn for it.

Or

But I was fortunate. I got a lot of second chances and had the opportunity to go to college, and law school, and follow my dreams. My wife, our first lady Michelle Obama, has a similar story. Neither of her parents had gone to college, and they didn't have much. But they worked hard, and she worked hard, so that she could go to the best schools in this country.

Horrible stuff this, suggesting that you need an education to succeed in life, or that someone who was the child of two people who didn't go to college could actually succeed in life through hard work and dedication.

But with over 5,000 newspaper articles now online via Google, the time has come to do two things.

The first is ask the question, what the hell is going on here? Is this nothing more than simple racism at play? Or is there more? Why are people upset about something that is such a non event?

And second, the time has come for those that have maintained their sanity, to keep pressing forward. We need, and frankly want, our President to speak to school children. We need and want health care reform and many other things. We need to be clear that now is not the time to compromise, it is the time to lead.

The myth of bipartisanship comes down to today in my mind and let it die forever on this first day of school and let us not forget the lesson.

Millions of Americans think it is wrong for President Obama to speak to your nation's children today, the speech is here.

I do not.

I also hope that everyone, either with or without the benefit of travel and distance, can take a moment and look at the issues we are debating and things that are getting attention in our country -- all the while, making sure we support those that make sense.

And call out those that do not.

Follow James Boyce on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jamesboyce

Comments

[bps]

Thank you. It is a sad day in American when the PRESIDENT is considered too subversive, too evil, too "socialistic" to speak to the children of America about working hard, assuming responsibility, and doing the best they can.

I taught grade and high school in Chicago and we had every manner of politician, Republican and Democrat, come into classrooms and assemblies and gyms to speak on any manner of topics. Our students were taught to respect the elected office and respect the person speaking, whether you agreed with them or not.

What tacit lesson did these children learn, whose parents denied them the right to listen to the President today?. To be fearful of open-mindedness, to be fearful of diversity, to be fearful of those that have differing religious and social beliefs. What a sad lesson that is.

[bps]

Ooops. Should read "America", not "American".

[Lemeritus]

When Grover Norquist said he'd like to make government small enough to drown in a bathtub, his first codicil seems to have been to make Americans ignorant enough to lead around with a ring of lies through their noses.