President Barack Obama will speak to America's schoolkids today. The White House has posted his prepared remarks here.
Highlights:
"No matter what you want to do with your life – I guarantee that you’ll need an education to do it."
My Take:
All presidents--Republican or Democrat--should open up the school year this way.
From top to bottom, it's a great speech.
It's a great message.
It is not partisan in any way, shape, or form.
It's embarrassing that the President of the United States had to "clear" his speech with the media and public beforehand by releasing it early.
I hope that school districts short-sighted enough to give into the pressure from the extreme-right and not show the speech live will rethink their stance and show it to students later.
It's a message all students should hear.
Good for people like former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (R-GA) and former First Lady Laura Bush for supporting the President on this.
For all you knuckle-draggers that screamed at your local school officials about showing the speech or kept your children home so they did not have to watch the speech: you are morons, plain and simple. Absolute morons. Hopefully your children will not be permanently tainted by your ignorance and our country will not suffer from scores of children raised by morons like you.
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4 comments:
Wow, a strong take. I agree with you that it’s silly to remove your children from school to avoid them hearing from someone their parents do not agree with. I did not vote for Obama but my children were not removed from their class. And I am not defending parents who chose to do so. But ignorant morons? Then I’d argue that people who vote solely based on (R) or (D) ignorant morons. People that vote for the President based on one issue such as abortion rights or even how the economy is going (where the President has little if any effect) are ignorant morons. People who say that individual behavior such as John Edwards or Mark Sanford is indicative of an entire political party are ignorant morons. The electorate is full of ignorant morons and no further proof than the content of most campaign ads is necessary.
I agree with Laura Bush and Newt Gingrich – the controversy over the President speaking to school students is absurd. My point is simply that the absurdity of partisan divisiveness creeping its way to something as innocuous as this is not uncommon. And, in my opinion, referring to people who are engaged in this as ignorant morons is a large statement. I didn’t say it was inaccurate, just that it points to a whole lot of people.
msteven--you are right--strong words. But not partisan words--I would make the same argument if George W. Bush was the president making a televised speech to school children.
For some reason this issue has dug under my skin. As someone who respects the American political system and presidency, I find the outrage over his address contrived and absurd. I think it teaches young kids to disrespect the president and presidency and our republic. Disagree with the president over his agenda? Fine. Don't teach your children, however, that he is not even worthy of listening to or respecting.
You are also right that "partisan divisiveness creeping its way to something as innocuous as this is not uncommon." It's time for fair-minded people in both parties to say enough is enough. It's not healthy for the country.
Thanks for commenting & being my only regular reader...
You seem to be a fair-minded person. That is one of the reasons I read you regularly (not to mention being an UA alma mater) and why others are reading either huffington post or national review.
I agree with you about the unhealthiness of this type of divisiveness. The sad thing is that it seems to be the very divisiveness that is entertainment. Apparently, intelligent and fair-minded political discourse isn’t as entertaining as name-calling, finger-pointing or simple rhetoric (i.e. Glenn Beck, Keith Olberman).
The only radio show one I’ve found I can stomach is Michael Medved. He is clearly conservative but he encourages intellectual debate and, in my view, is fair minded toward dissenting views (and I too like to critique movies). Bill Bennett is also good if not almost too philosophical in his intellect (i.e.: boring). Then there are the Hugh Hewitts, Limbaugh or Hannity’s – the us vs. them brigade or what I call “part of the problem”.
As a professor, you have some power to encourage fair-minded political discourse over … disrespect of elected leaders in the name of entertainment. Good luck. I’ll continue to check in.
You are absolutely right--finger-pointing drives up the ratings...it is entertainment. We are a nation of rubber-neckers--we like to see the carnage.
My favorite radio show: Diane Rehm (she's in my links at the right). Hands down. Her guests always are well-behaved & the discussion is always substantive.
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