I hope they are in school. My kids are not. And it’s not because they might be exposed to an indoctrinating speech by our sitting President. It’s because they are ages 1 and 3. Believe me, if they were allowed to be in school today, I’d demand they get a front row seat.
Now, I’m not an Obama-mama, thought I did vote for the current President. He and I agree on many issues. We also starkly disagree on several issues that are important to me, so when I say I voted for him, it was not without some reservations. That said, I find all the hullabaloo about the President’s speech to American schoolchildren today utterly ridiculous.
I first heard about this nonsense last week on Facebook. A “friend” of mine was promoting the ditch day on her wall and using her status line to encourage all her friends to keep their kids out of school today. I was appalled.
This “friend” was among the women I often heard cry a patriotic foul when anyone questioned the actions of Bush II when he was in office. Those of us in the more cynical camp at the at the time were often told we should listen to our leader and “respect the office, even when [we] disagree with the man.” And now we have those same folks telling Americans to fear their President and, to borrow a phrase from the X-Files, “Trust no one.” Well, to throw one back to those conservative Scullies, I’d say, “I want to believe.”
I want to believe that our President (regardless of who he, or perhaps one day if we gain some sense, she, is) is at the very least thinking about the interests of the American people when he makes decisions about what he will put forward for their consideration. I want to believe that he takes the responsibility of his office seriously and that he is even more serious about the stewardship of that office when it comes to our kids. I want to believe that all of us, blue, red, green, and plaid, can allow ourselves and our children the opportunity to hear the man out before we brand him a Nazi or a communist (two ideologies that have very little in common, yet are interchangeably used when slamming Obama).
For all these parents worried about what their children are learning today, think about what they are learning from us as we engage in this type of rhetoric. Are they learning about democracy? Are they learning about what true tyranny looks like? No. They are learning that if you yell loud enough, you might make the news. And don’t be mistaken, kids, being who they are, will undoubtedly manipulate the situation. As another friend (absent quotation marks) said on Facebook, “It’s too bad my parents weren’t totally crazy, or I could have been rocking some bonus days off.”
That, my friends, is a valuable lesson. Class dismissed.
Postscript: Read the text of the President’s back to school remarks for yourself. And read it to your kids, just in case they were out sick today [with something other than parental insanity].
2 responses so far ↓
nikki // September 8, 2009 at 4:54 pm |
Great post! Totally puts my little rant to shame, but I shall not hold that against you.
They are learning that if you yell loud enough, you might make the news.
Not that making the news is the goal, but I personally think some kids today COULD benefit from learning a little respectful, thoughtful civil disobedience. But the anti-speech people would rather not engage at all. Don’t challenge, don’t question, don’t think. Don’t show up at all. Lazy thinking.
yes, you can…think and parent at the same time. « a small song // September 12, 2009 at 1:50 am |
[...] back-to-school speech, but a friend of mine over at the new and fabulous Moms in the Lobby posted the best rebuttal I have yet seen to the “indoctrination” parenting crowd. An excerpt: I want to believe [...]