I've pretty much had enough of the idiot syndrome that is running rampant in our country these days. And yes, that same syndrome has come to Georgetown. Or, should I say it's already been here, but people are too scared to put a name behind their musings.
"I don't think any schools should be required to do this. I can imagine the uproar if it were another president," a mother of a Waccamaw Neck kindergarten student said, adding she will not allow her child to watch.
Really? Then home school your child. Keep them home this Tuesday. Let others enjoy the moment without harassment. Obviously, you have no forethought about our educational system. Let me share some of those "presidents" that gave classroom speeches with NO uproar.
While president, George H.W. Bush gave a speech to schoolchildren intended "to motivate America's students to strive for excellence; to increase students' as well as parents' responsibility/accountability; and to promote students' and parents' awareness of the educational challenge we face." According to The Washington Post, the "White House sent letters to schools across the nation to encourage teachers and principals to allow students to tune in the speech, which was also carried live by the Mutual Broadcasting and NBC Radio Network. The live television and radio coverage was arranged at the request of the Education Department." [Washington Post, 10/2/91]
Not enough? How about this...
As Media Matters for America deputy research director Simon Maloy noted, former President George W. Bush posted a "teacher's guide" on the White House website intended to help students understand the "freedom timeline" and encouraged them to "explor[e] the biographies of the President, Mrs. Bush, Vice President, and Mrs. Cheney."
And, here's the kicker...
When shuttle Challenger exploded, President Ronald Reagan was preparing for that evening’s delivery of the 1986 State of the Union Address. In the hours following the tragedy, news anchors met with President Reagan at the White House. They asked for his thoughts about had happened, the future of the space program, and what they should tell American school children, who in their classrooms, had watched the failed launch on live television. Speechwriter Peggy Noonan spoke to these issues in her first draft, which evolved over the next few hours into the moving address President Reagan delivered from the Oval Office. From the president’s meeting with the media, to the original draft, through the intensive line by line examination by staff members who prepared revisions, to typing the final version, the Challenger speech represents an excellent example of the process behind a presidential address.
This is personal. I was in the classroom when this tragic event happened and I listened to my president while he stressed calm in terrible situation. He tried to ease the minds of young children who had just witnessed death right before their eyes. There was no, I repeat, NO revolt afterwards. There was no radical pundit on cable news (Glenn Beck) to stir people into a brainwashed frenzy. No. There was a president that we all had to live with because this country elected him to be such. We stood behind him as children because it was the first person in high command, besides our parents, to comfort us.
You know something? These right-wingers ought to be glad someone cares enough to educate their children. They should be thankful to have a president care enough to speak to all children, not just those whose parents voted for him. But, these right-wingers want it their way. They say it's brainwashing, indoctrinating, etc. I say it's all in their narrow-minded head.
I was in my local barbershop with my wife and heard a gentlemen in his 60's make some disparaging remarks, one being he wished there were dog-shock collars made for women so they can be "zapped" when they say something. And there was a woman proclaiming her love for Beck at another station.
It's that mentality that propels the same thinking that we are dealing with today: The uneducated and the unwillingness to move from that point.
Truth means nothing to them. They could care less. It's their way or no way. They can't stand to see a African-American in office as president. They can't stand to see a person actually show compassion to all people.
It's the right-wing yahoos who are indoctrinating themselves with the lie doctrine. They are imploding and want all others to follow suit. They can't stand being the minority, so they want to poison everything with their smears in efforts to become the majority - dictating to us what is right and wrong.
As far as our children go, I haven't heard a single mention in the news about how our state's U.S. senators are misrepresenting our children. What? Truth? Yes, let me share it.
DeMint cares nothing about your children, people. His score from VoteKids.org is a big fat ZERO! He voted NO to after school programs, would provide $20,000,000 for such programs to 20,000 children. He voted NO on everything that dealt with children before break. FACTS, people. And Graham only scores a little more than a zero.
But, no mention in the media. Only the fear-grab on Obama's proposed speech Tuesday in our nation's schools.
So, I sympathize with those children who'll be forced to follow their parents' misguided logic this Tuesday. It's really sad that we think we moved so far, but the reality is far from that.
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