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Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2009 | 2:02 a.m.
What in the world is happening to our country? President Barack Obama wants to give some words of encouragement to schoolchildren to behave, study hard, stay in school, do their best ... and people are protesting? As a former teacher, it is beyond me why anyone would discourage children from getting a “pep talk” from their president.
Nowadays, that is a lot more than they will get from home. And listening to the words of the president, would lead to nice classroom discussions of the need to do well in today’s changing world. It is beyond me what some people are thinking.
Today’s students need all the encouragement they can get from all sources: parents, teachers, coaches, caregivers and, yes, even from President Obama.
Your correct, assuming the President sticks to the encouragement and does not make this a political statement and try to woo young minds into the democratic party. If the President starts with the campaigning retoric, it is wrong and should not be forced upon our students. If this becomes a political statement, do the Republicans get a chance to present their opposing view ???
Obama school speech: worst fears realized. Brainwashing, Bolshevism and blasphemy. Protect your children!
See:
http://notionscapital.wordpress.com/2009...
This country has gone wacko in the past decade. We are politically divided and polarized beyond anything I can ever remember in my life of 72 years.
Is it political correctness gone beserk, or what? Why are we so worried about the president making a political agenda speech to school children? For great goodness if he tells them positive things like it is important to stay in school, turn off the computer games, put away the iPod, stay off the cell phones and do your homework he has told them something worthwhile.
He has continually emphasized the importance of family and education. What in the blue blazes is wrong with that? Some children, in some cultures, especially in our 'rainbow nation' of immigrants needs exactly that!
Now, if he becomes political and says 'become a democrat or socialist' then I will be the first to work as hard as I can to eliminate him at the next election.... I didn't vote for him and I don't particularly like him or support most of his ideas...but, give the man a chance on this one...In a 30 minute speech he is not going to make them socialists, communists,democrats or liberal but he just might make them a little, tiny bit smarter and wiser about how to succeed in life...STAY IN SCHOOL..STUDY HARD...DO YOUR HOMEWORK...TURN OFF THE TV...
Parents don't hesitate to let their students watch wacko, creeps like Michael Jackson simulate masterbation in his musical video 'Beat it'....that evidently is ok. That is really something positive, enlightening and enriching for them to see, hear and emulate? Give me a break please!
Its ok for students to spend Sundays and Monday evenings watching NFL football instead of doing homework...? Its ok to idolize such great stars like Michael Vick, the felon and dog brutalizer...? How many other phony heros are they permitted to worship, idolize by moronic parents?
Parents have become dumber and dumber over recent years...many they want their kids to be 'scholar-athletes' but don't want them to put in the hourse of study and hard work to earn the 'scholar' part of the title. Teach them all they can about sports and ignore the academics needed to survive in life...
Don't let them listen to the president who just might put some common sense into their mushy, empty brains ...
Yes, dummies keep your dumb kids home today, shut off the TV and let them practice their football, basketball or baseball skills or their computer game skills....don't let them hear the president because he just might tell them what it takes to be a student, and to achieve worthwhile life goals and survival skills in a tough, tough world. Make sure you write a nice excuse for them to miss another day of school.
In the words of ventrolquist Jeff Dunham's friend, Walter, "Oh, well...have a nice day...Dumb Asses!"
thus the phrase...
retarded republicans!!!
Come on, brown, you've got to be kidding. You actually think the president is going to go on TV and try to recruit kids to his party?
Having been a teacher for a number of years, I already was aware that this country has gone crazy. Now the rest of you are finding out what we see daily. "You expect my child to do homework? I expect you to give him time to do homework in school." "You expect my child to behave? I expect you not to have any behavior problems in your class. No matter what my kid does, it's your problem and your fault, not mine." "You yelled at my kid? I want an apology or I'm bringing a lawyer in." These attitudes are too big a part of public education here. But the speech would mostly be preaching to the choir, anyway. It would be awfully hard for a little speech by a president to overcome the effects of toxic parents.
Teacher - I went through the public school system when discipline was still allowed and if you got in trouble at school, you got in more trouble once you got home, so don't give me this stuff about homework, behavior and the such. I'm believe you go to school to learn and do your best and thats what I instilled in my children. One of my concerns is what the liberal teachers are going to preach after the speech. If you believe in teaching, teach the math or science but leave the political science course to exactly that. The president's speech would be a good tool in poly sci, and hearing the other side could contribute to a healthy debate, but not in english class.
The opposition is simple, the GOP and the far right need more drop outs to watch FOX and listen to Rush and vote for the party of NO.
(NOT)brownIn4,
What kind of barbaric discipline did you receive and why did you receive it?
The "other side" to a progressive agenda was tried and led directly to the great depression among other things. This is one reason among many why conservatism is a failed outlook and deserves no share in governance. Current adherents to the conservative tripe being pushed on radio and FOX News are unable to recognize this as they are followers in an Authoritarian outlook looking for a 'Daddy' to lead them.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/MediaResources...
ms - you need to take another look at your party of dems looking for, as you put it, "daddy Obama" to lead you to the promised land on the success of other people. I just need to look to Great Britan to see the failures of your so called progressive agenda. Health care broke, taxes sky high with no end in sight and the gov't wondering how they are going to pay for everything. This country was made through the hard work of entrepenuers that were not hog tied by extreme taxes so they could build their successes and provide jobs and income to others. Why do the dems want to restrict success through higher taxes ? Once again, I ask the question, "Have you ever gotten a job from a poor person??
Simple. The Republican party has become the party of the South and the wahoos. They inlame these people through Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck, etc. to meld some of their residual racism with their party politics which are profoundly anti middle and lower class. In this way, they get the manipulated southerners to vote against their own self interests. This is why you see people with two teeth in their heads incredibly agaitated that the government is going to get their hands on their Medicare! It is also why they don't want Obama to promote that fancy book learnin' to their kids.
"One of my concerns is what the liberal teachers are going to preach after the speech". Umm...let me take a shot at it...Stay in school, do your homework, take responsibility for your own behavior and respect the rights of others. Yep, that's about it from a "liberal" teacher.
They say overcrowding by population explosion leads animals,i.e. mice and rats, to go bizerk in behavior. I kind of wonder if all of this paranoia about Obamaism speech is the result of the same problem...too many people in limited city spaces...
For one, the fear of Obama is sheer racism at its simplest and most direct root. Fear of someone of different color, creed etc. led to cross burnings, lynchings and blantant discrimination throughout this nation's history.
Blacks, Jews, Irish, Italians, Polish, Germans, Catholic or whatever all ethnic and racial groups have experienced it and it goes on today with Hispanics and Asians. It goes all the way back to colonial days the racist policies of the English aristocracy... Any immigrant group not white, protestant and Anglo Saxon was suitable material for slavery or blanant prejudicial practices.
The KKK is still active but in a quiet suttle form now ... more visibly civilized ... less blatant...but, violent and cursedly racist still. Their hatred is deep and to the bone.
Locally, in the 1920's and '30's the KKK burned crosses in Goodsprings, Nevada to drive the Italian-Catholics (miners and their families) out, they also did the same in other areas and local communities to intimidate and scare blacks, Jews and other targeted groups from living in the select areas of Las Vegas.
One Senior Housing Complex was named for a former KKK Grand Wizard (whatever the hell the title was) in Clark County. Many seniors that live there today don't know that and if they did they might want the name changed. Some local schools have the names former KKK members engraved on them as supposed pillars of civil affairs in our community. Some were the 'big cat business and policical leaders' of early Las Vegas. Hiding behind white robes and hoods has kept their identiy a secret, but still known to many old timers from the early days.
I just heard that MSNBC is convening a special focus group of Crips and Bloods to evaluate Obama's message!
This issue is more fundamental than many of you make it out to be. A large number of people were paying attention when we were told about Obama's radical associations, his mentoring by a Communist, his real lack of experience, etc.
We don't trust him at all and because of that we don't want him addressing our kids - is that so hard to see?
Your fear is irrational, larry.
Maybe Mr Obama can find out why little Johnny is such a problem, uh I little Juanny
Do you think the President will give the same type of pep talk to Congress tomorrow?
Obama said what needed to be said. Every child in America should hear (if they have not already) Obama's speech...
Obama's message that each and every student should take responsibility for their own education by working hard, lstening to their teachers and parents, and establishing long term goals is a wonderful message....
If that speech had a political message attached to it, I missed it...
Hey El Lobo,
I am sure that you knew that way back in October 1991 when President George H.W. Bush delivered a similar speech to students at a junior high school in Washington, D.C., Democratic critics went much further and investigated the event. Democrats, who controlled Congress at the time, ordered the General Accounting Office to probe the production of the speech and later summoned top Bush administration officials to Capitol Hill for a hearing.
So tell me where I am wrong. I will be waiting for your answer...
Now that Obama has given his talk to American school children I am waiting for the fallout of damning comments by the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Shaun Hannity, and other cable news commentators. What was so dangerous about his comments? How many socialists, communists, radical liberals, new Democrats, Muslim converts did he create? Will American democracy be able to recover from this? Will the flag of the New Socialist/Communist American Republic fly over the capitol dome and White House tomorrow morning?
Frankly, his comments were right on target only how many parents didn't get it? How many actually watched it, heard it or read the commentary in its entirety itself? Did they actually give up their favorite TV athletic event, soap opera or talk show crappola or game show to watch? Did they put down the remote control on the video game to watch, read or listen? Do they even know and care about what he said so as it use it as a teaching moment at home with their own little cherubs?
Obama did one great thing: he told students that their dream for their future is in their own hands and those that dream of athletic careers should realize that that might never be a reality. How many parents relayed that idea to the offspring and told them "You can't eat the football, baseball or baseketball. You need an education for your secure future.'
Have American parents been so brain-washed that they will take the commentary from cable news as the actual summary of when the president said to students? Do they actually care? Hopefully the talk will serve a great purpose for many students in the future. If their parents never show care and concern for their education at least they will realize that someone did care enough to take the time to advise them.
Hillary said that it takes a village to raise a child.
vsestini says that it takes the President to raise a child.
Larry says that it takes parents to raise their children.
Total non-event. Exactly what this presidency is turning into. Reminds me of an old jingle we would recite in the boy scouts: here I sit broken-hearted, paid my dime but only farted.
LarryVegas said...
"So tell me where I am wrong. I will be waiting for your answer..."
Did I say you were wrong? When did I say you were wrong? Care to point out exactly what I said.......
I stand by what I said about Obama's speech, however. Also I never had a problem with George sr. when he gave a speech to school children. Of course, I would not have had a problem with George junior talking to school children...
I would have, however, wondered what his message would be....I guess he could have said that they (school children) should do what he always did when he had a problem or two....they could rely upon a politically powerful father who had rich friends to bail them out. That's what he always did....
El Lobo, you were doing so well until you just had to put in your last paragraph. Just had to. Just couldn't help yourself from taking a few more knocks at Bush...
In 1991 after Bush went before a high school class and gave a speech, the Democrats went nuts.
They had Congressional hearings on why Bush did it.
The frong page of the lib Washington Post slammed Bush for it.
1, 2, 3 ......Now, let's all say the word hipocrisy.
When President George H.W. Bush delivered a similar speech on October 1, 1991, from Alice Deal Junior High School in Washington DC, the controversy was just beginning. Democrats, then the majority party in Congress, not only denounced Bush's speech -- they also ordered the General Accounting Office to investigate its production and later summoned top Bush administration officials to Capitol Hill for an extensive hearing on the issue.
Unlike the Obama speech, in 1991 most of the controversy came after, not before, the president's school appearance. The day after Bush spoke, the Washington Post published a front-page story suggesting the speech was carefully staged for the president's political benefit. "The White House turned a Northwest Washington junior high classroom into a television studio and its students into props," the Post reported.
With the Post article in hand, Democrats pounced. "The Department of Education should not be producing paid political advertising for the president, it should be helping us to produce smarter students," said Richard Gephardt, then the House Majority Leader. "And the president should be doing more about education than saying, 'Lights, camera, action.'"
Democrats did not stop with words. Rep. William Ford, then chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, ordered the General Accounting Office to investigate the cost and legality of Bush's appearance. On October 17, 1991, Ford summoned then-Education Secretary Lamar Alexander and other top Bush administration officials to testify at a hearing devoted to the speech. "The hearing this morning is to really examine the expenditure of $26,750 of the Department of Education funds to produce and televise an appearance by President Bush at Alice Deal Junior High School in Washington, DC," Ford began. "As the chairman of the committee charged with the authorization and implementation of education programs, I am very much interested in the justification, rationale for giving the White House scarce education funds to produce a media event."
Unfortunately for Ford, the General Accounting Office concluded that the Bush administration had not acted improperly. "The speech itself and the use of the department's funds to support it, including the cost of the production contract, appear to be legal," the GAO wrote in a letter to Chairman Ford. "The speech also does not appear to have violated the restrictions on the use of appropriations for publicity and propaganda." That didn't stop Democratic allies from taking their own shots at Bush. The National Education Association denounced the speech, saying it "cannot endorse a president who spends $26,000 of taxpayers' money on a staged media event at Alice Deal Junior High School in Washington, D.C. -- while cutting school lunch funds for our neediest youngsters."
Hey SGTROCK,
I posted the above story so the doubters could read the entire story. I had to cut off the last paragraph or so to fit, but they can read it on another post.
Funny thing... Since I posted the article a while ago, there has been complete silence from those who have been bashing those who dared to criticized the President political motives.
Obama has political motives? Can't be, he's a reformer like Mao and Lenin were. He wants to protect us from ourselves.
Larry, If your post above about the President's speech in 1991 is true and accurate the Democrats in congress did indeed act stupid and ignorant and for political gain. With that the result is also true for the Republicans and the current President's speech including the stupid, ignorant, and for political gain.
However the idea that politicians from any party act in their own best interest and for their own political gain is not news to anyone (or is it?).
castle: No, it should not be news, both political parties are looking out for their self interests. Maybe that is one reason some many voters are moving to the middle and becoming Independents.
LarryVegas....
Are you an independent? From the looks of 99% of your posts I'd say NO you are not an independent....
Of course you can always lie and tell me that you are...
Heck, you wouldn't lie, would you?
Republicans don't lie, do they? Maybe they just avoid all contact with the truth....
That remind me of the Harry Truman story that happened during the 1948 presidential campaign. Harry was giving a speech during one of a hundred or more "Whistle Stops" and he was taking the Republican to task.
A reporter listening to the president speak, shouted to Harry.."Give'em hell Harry."
Harry smiled, looked in the direction of the reporter and said, "I'm not giving the Republicans hell...I'm just telling the truth and they think it's hell."
Some things are always true....somethings never change..
Thank you El Lobo,great post.
El Lobo: More labeling... That's the best you can do? Call me anything you want. I have registered with both parties, but for the last several years, I have been an Independent. I have always voted for the candidate that I think would do the best job. Like I have said before, I am either a conservative liberal or a liberal conservative.
Personally, I have not seen much difference in both major political parties for several years now. Candidates from both parties say whatever it takes to get elected and once in office, they abandon the voters and vote special interest. And I believe many are with me.
Oh, by the way, I think Obama used the middle to get elected by telling us that he would govern from the middle, then once in office he took a sharp left.
Political parties are like churches to me. Belong to any you like, just don't try to cram your indoctrination down my throat.
I beleive twice half as much in his........