The text of President Obama's speech scheduled for delivery tomorrow to public school children has been released today; I've read it.
And I asked my both of my kids read it.
With a bored, so-what shrug, the new sophomore said, "It's rather elementary, but I suppose it has to be since it's meant to reach elementary school kids. Like kindergartners."
The new middle-schooler was more forthcoming.
"Yeah, I read this part about Obama and his mom this past year," by which he referred to the portion of the speech in which Obama recalls how mother got him up at 4:30 a.m. to study. "I already knew about that. And the President is telling kids the same thing you already tell us, that we need to go to school and study and work hard."
I asked him about parents being afraid to let kids hear President Obama's speech -- what did he think about this?
"Profiling. They're profiling him."
You could have knocked me over with a feather; I wasn't expecting this for an answer. Really? Profiling? What did he mean?
"Yeah, the parents are like Maxwell Smart in the Get Smart movie. Max says, 'I'm not profiling, I'm not profiling...he looks EVIL! But I'm not profiling...'"
And off he went to go and enjoy the last day of summer vacation; I doubt this includes packing his backpack, though.
* * * * *
I wish I could summon more cogent thoughts in response.
But all I can think at this point in time is Get. The. Hell. Off. It.
You, the conservatives whining about the President's speech to children tomorrow: Get off it.
The smart kids can see right through you. The older kids won't be impacted by his speech because they are already firmly on the road or they are already lost.
The younger ones are more savvy than you give them credit; they already know you are acting out of pure bigotry.
And the youngest of school kids? Well, we can only hope that a message like "Go to school because you need education" isn't going to scar them unduly. Goodness knows what crazy-ass messages you'd rather they heard from the government. We already know you are personally teaching them fear and bigotry instead of critical thinking.
You do realize that in a capitalist, free market society, workers compete against each other, right?
Fear and bigotry are going to make your kids unemployable in an adult work world where they compete for jobs with the rest of the globe -- as if a lack of critical thinking and education won't do that, too.
Over the past week you've managed to label encouragement to be responsible and completely prepared to compete for future jobs as socialist. What are you telling children about capitalism?
You've had your chance for the last decade-plus, between your former majority in Congress and your two terms in the White House. You've bankrupted us by lying us into an illegal war, by allowing greed to eat away at solid legislative protections and eventually eat away our nation's personal savings, too. You've dumbed us down with your ownership stranglehold on media, so that blabber-mouth cry-babies like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh are seen as the benchmark of media success.
And now you want kids to avoid hearing a speech encouraging their personal responsibility to obtain a good education?
Just stop.
And stay the hell away from my kids, you frightened, bigoted, crazy freaks.
[Photo: Crazy bus by bunchofpants, via Flickr.com. Cross-posted at FDL's The Seminal.]
Comments
The excerpt given by the search results to my search terms seemed to indicate you were one of the, um, crazy right-wing people. ("An offended mother," etc.)
So it was a nice surprise to see such a thoughtful and intelligent post. You've got a couple of smart and insightful kids, too.
The right-wing mothers shouldn't have a corner on outrage, you know? Those of us from the center through the left have plenty to be outraged about, too. More than a million homeless kids will be going to school this week - that's an outrage, should be more parents ranting about it. But no, many of them are focusing on Obama's "indoctrination" speech.
[sigh]