We survived Obama chat with students

This article summed it up quite nicely:

Whew, thank goodness we survived.

From all indications, school children who heard President Obama's speech last Tuesday have made it to the other side.

There haven't been reports of teams of child therapists rushing to schools to help children deal with trauma. I'm happy to announce the kids are OK and appear to be back in the routine of being children.

I can't speak for some parents and grandparents, though.

OK, I admit it. The beginning of this column is a little sarcastic.
Frankly, I'm not sure how to approach this topic any other way because what we saw unfolding in days leading to the president's speech defies logic.

The machine that loves to distort the truth and scare us all to death was running on all cylinders leading up to the speech. It had convinced hundreds or thousands of adults - and I use that term loosely - that the well-being of their children and grandchildren would somehow be compromised if they were allowed to watch the speech.

We saw some on TV crying and yelling about their children being exposed to the speech. They believed Obama was going to brainwash or corrupt their child. I personally answered several calls from people who were just as adamant as those we saw on TV.

I'm trying to understand what they thought was going to happen. Did they think the president was going to tell school children "it's OK to be gay," or "don't worry, Johnny, if your girlfriend gets pregnant, you can always have an abortion."
Or did they think the president was going to turn kids into socialists?

It turned out Obama merely suggested that children work hard in school, do their best and grow up to be good citizens.

Fortunately, most common-thinking people didn't swallow the bull. I include in that group most Republicans as well, even though Democrats would like to link every Republican to the radical nonsense.

It's hard to imagine people really believed the president was going to say something to harm kids. What does that say about those people? Are they racist, ignorant or simply gullible? What are they teaching their child or grandchild?

People should stop and think for themselves just for a brief second. Is there any common sense in what you are hearing or reading on the Internet? If not, dismiss it and move on instead of promoting the lies.

Surely, there are plenty of "real" issues facing our country today without people making things up as they go.

Those "real" issues don't need to be lost in the shuffle of insanity and hatred.

http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20090913/ARTICLES/909135033/1031&tc=email_newsletter

Tags: Obama, education, speech

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Comment by Ed Jones on September 14, 2009 at 6:33am: I was among the people who defended the President in this, and tried to calm the critics, who in this case overstepped their bounds.

Yet you are missing something if you don't understand the wide and deep well from which their concerns spring. There is a vast, vast reservoir of ignorance bound up in previous speeches by the President, particularly during the campaign, but continuing full force with Wednesday's set of half-truths and uninformed platitudes.

It seems to me that Barack Obama the man has studied two subjects well: the roots of systemic poverty among blacks, and Rhetoric. In the former he has some pretty good policies about education, and his speech to the kids reflected a solid grasp of that problem. Convincing urban and African American students that they can do it if they stick to it is a huge step in resolving the divides of our country.

We desperately need those students to take up their full share of the engineering, finance, medical, artistic, technical and business work of the country!

Yet Wednesday be was back among the dividers.

Words like "racist, ignorant or gullible" are used too often these days by people themselves far to uneducated in the deeper issues being discussed here. Saturday I was on the receiving end of similar words from a woefully uninformed individual on the topic of health care. This group of people think that it is enough to "care about the poor". We don't have to actually think about the effects of the solutions proposed. All we have to do is say, "Look. Those people don't have health insurance." The Congress has a bill titled 'health care'. See, Ms. Pelosi has solved the problem. All is well save the obstructionists who don't want it passed."

Some of us are required to actually think deeper about things. About what may happen when a program has cycled through for a few years. About human nature, and what people do in the face of certain choices and policies.

The left is not very good about this type of thinking. They work with emotions, not thought.

I encourage you to move beyond this low level feelings type of political discussion and engage in the business of serious study of the effects of choices. Like chess, the most obvious next move may not lead down a very rewarding path.

Comment by Christina on September 14, 2009 at 12:01pm: I never understood why people were thinking Obama was going to brainwash their children. No one had a fit over Bush, or any other president giving a speech to kids. If parents do not want their kids to see the speech in class, kids could just go to utube and see it there. Some kids do not care and will not listen to the speech even if it was shown in class.
Even if Obama had mentioned some of the political stuff, most kids would not understand the issues or even some of the words used.
People are crazy to get upset about Obama speaking to kids. There are more important things to be concerned about, such as health care reform (which I'm all for) and the economy.