I’m not American, so could you guys please explain this one to me?
Your President, the guy you overwhelmingly elected to the top office of the country (I’ll just take a minute here to say, on behalf of the entire planet, THANK YOU), spoke directly to all the students in your country at the beginning of the school year. His speech to the youth included the following quotes –
"Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That's the opportunity an education can provide."
"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. This isn't just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country."
“What you're learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future."
“You'll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy technologies and protect our environment. You'll need the insights and critical thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free. You'll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy. If you quit on school – you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country."
Before and after this speech, I have read much in the media about how parents were OUTRAGED that the President would have the nerve to speak to their children. One of my ‘facebook’ friends (I went to high school with her and have never seen her since. She moved to America ) had this her status,
“Who does he think he is? Would HE let anyone speak directly to his kids without knowing what they are going to SAY?”
Uhh…..alright. Who does he think he is? Seriously?? What was she worried he was going to do? Start telling the kids some new fart jokes?
And here are some reactions from the right -
“That's Obama-centric. It's not focused on education but on the worship of Barack Obama," Michael Leahy, spokesman for the conservative grassroots Nationwide Tea Party Coalition, told AFP. "This is indoctrination, pure and simple, into the cult of Barack Obama, and we are opposed to that," he said.
And this -
Jim Greer, chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, raged that "Pied Piper Obama" was going "into the American classroom" to spread socialist ideology.
First of all…. Nationwide TEA PARTY Coalition?? Whose running that group, five year-old girls dressed in fairy princess dresses? Lena Chairs a tea party in her room with Mr. Floppy and Yellow Turtle every night, and even she would have the good sense to realize boycotting children from hearing your PRESIDENT speak is really fucking stupid.
(for the record I know that name is probably a reference to the Boston Tea Party brouhaha of seventeen hundred and whatever. Still stupid though)
Not to mention the fact that nothing included in Obama's speech had anything remotely to do with socialism, cults or even politics.
Your democratically elected leader decided he would speak to your children about the importance of education, working for a future, the betterment of the country and being contributing members of a democratic society.
What a bastard.
Please, I’m begging you – can someone explain to me why some Americans think that the President speaking directly to school children about the importance of education and their role in the country makes him an evil, commie-loving narcissist who is just DYING to kill your grandma?
Anyone? Seriously - I'm all ears.
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13 comments:
I can only speak for myself, but as an American I truly believe that much of the population is weird and stupid. We wanted change; Obama is trying to give it to us and now we're freaking out. I wish I had a more insightful explanation, but I don't. I often don't understand America. When we come together (unfortunately after a tragedy, like 9/11), I feel there is camaraderie and national pride, but most often I feel that the 1st amendment has just made us obnoxious whiners. We like to hear ourselves complain.
If a fellow American feels I am slamming my home country, I'm not. I'm just trying to be realistic/exercise some humility. (Hint, hint.) We can't even make our own flags!
That's kind of the whole thing I don't get. What Americas are GREAT at is patriotism and love of their country. It's impressive the way you support your country and have so much pride. So why is Obama addressing your kids bad?? Isn't it exciting for them to hear and be inspired by your President?
Crazy blog ranting aside, I honestly don't understand what the problem is.
Classic case of "you're never satisfied."
They wanted change. They got change.
They wanted leadership. They got leadership.
Piss and moan, bitch and complain. Give people EXACTLY what they ask for, and it's still never enough.
Beats the crap out of me (and for the record I am American and rather proud of it.)
I have no idea if my son watched it or not (he's 7 and I so do not do the pto/pta/pv stuff) but if he did hear - I don't know what the heck people were whining about.
Should be telling our kids to drop out, start a commune and live among the woods or something?
Maybe I should move to Canada. You people seem to know what the heck you're doing...
Yeah, I don't get that either. "Don't let your children listen to the president because you don't agree with his politics" falls into the "don't talk to your children about sex because maybe they'll never have it" mentality. Those people missed a very valuable teaching opportunity - if you don't like the man or his politics, teach your kids to listen to his supposedly socialist-loving speech critically.
I guess some people should check their family tree for Ostrich.
Oh, I am sure I am going to get reamed for this one, but here goes... hardcore conservatives in this country tend to know exactly how to band together, bring on the crazy and then spread the madness like wildfire. In ways that democrats don't know how to and often refuse to anyway.
So this is what you are seeing, scare tactics that trickle down to regular republicans who should know better. But fear is a powerful thing... talk about killing grandmas and taking away your basic rights and people go nuts. Even if it's not true! Dubya mastered this tactic after 9/11 and we all know what happened soon after that. Sigh.
Remember, although obama won with a huge margin, the US is tremendous, and millions of people did not vote for him. These are the people complaining now. Not every one of them, but a lot (and too damn many, IMO.)
Lets face it. Stupidity is rampant. Another reason I am proud to be Canadian. By the way, if I hear of a Canadian being this dense, we will need to b***ch slap them (metaphorically of course). n
My take? American's love a good argument, no matter how flawed the premise may be.
These are the same Americans that had no issue with the Cult of Bush brainwashing their kids and sending them off to die in a senseless war. Go figure.
those people are nutbars. and embarassing.
At the risk of being stoned I will admit to being one of those "right-wing nutjobs" you all are cussing.
Here is the problem. Obama is a way left democrat. I would not want my children exposed to his ideals without knowing what the speech for about before hand. If the speech or a transcript were released before hand I would have let my children participate.
The problem was not the speech that was planned it was the assignment after by the white house that asked "How would you help President Obama?" Um...last I checked he was our president as in for the people (or those that voted for him anyway).
If it was Sarah Palin addressing the children of this nation all of the democrats would be figuring out "how to band together, bring on the crazy and then spread the madness like wildfire."
Just sayin'.
The outcry over the Obama speech was that the lesson plan held a benign sentence about writing to the president to “write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president” – help him achieve the goal of a well-educated nation. This was virtually identical to Bush Sr.’s speech years ago in which he directly encouraged students to “write me a letter about ways you can help us achieve our goals.”
I find it interesting that parents were not threatening to take their children out of school then, or crying on CNN at the thought of the President speaking to children.
And the speech WAS released ahead of time. Read all about the deal here: http://www.factcheck.org/2009/09/obamas-speech-to-schools/
I mean, really, WTH?!
I was confused about the outrage as well. I have family in the states and they certainly didn't have a problem with what he said. I think sometimes we just try to find things to gripe about.
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