Topic Posted by: Suellen
Date Posted: Mon Sep 7 22:03:20 2009
Additional Comments: I read the entire speech that some kids will hear on their first day of school. Many of the school districts in my area refuse the speech to be aired to students without parental OK. I found nothing wrong politically in the wording but what people are opposed to is the teachers' materials that come with the speech to quiz the students after they hear/see it(e.g."Name 3 things you like about the President" etc.)Kind of out of line I think-the kids will say what they hear at home and will cause a lot of disruption-the teachers will be in the middle of this which is not good.
Any decent parents would want their child to KNOW the leader of the country and his opinions.
More generally, any decent parents would want their child to learn to distinguish truth from falsehood.
How will they ever learn not to be taken in by a politician's promises if you don't let them experience the appeal and the disillusionment BEFORE they are eligible to vote?
If you distrust him, isn't that all the more reason to let your child hear his speech and then discuss what's wrong and dishonest about it?
This is a wonderful opportunity for bigots everywhere to help their children identify the enemy and learn to hate his ideas, his manners, his clothes, his accent, his skin colour, his posture... even if those children are home-schooled!
On a hopeful note- a local call in show had this for the topic today- only one person called in to say they would never listen themselves to anything Obama had to say- let alone allow their child to listen. Every other caller called this attitude out for the idiocy it is.
Posted by: maggimae Date posted: Tue Sep 8 11:42:35 2009
Message: I think what these right wing extremists are doing is ridiculous and moderate Republicans need to separate themselves from them. We need a middle of the road political party.
Posted by: dolphina Date posted: Tue Sep 8 8:26:35 2009
Message: This whole controversy is one of the most mortifying reactionary displays of mass idiocy from the right wing I can imagine. When you consider that The Great Republican Savior Ronald Reagan addressed school children in 1988 with an extremely politically-charged speech (warning them of the evils of taxes, which of course just happen to support schools) and the country didn't implode, this mass fear and hysteria about Obama is a huge national embarrassment.
Between this nonsense, and the appalling battle cry comparing the president to Hitler (has everyone forgotten what Fascism and the Holocaust was REALLY all about?) there are a lot of people in this country who evidently should have paid attention to a President's message about education when they were in school, because they don't seem to have gotten any.
