Posted: September 06, 2009

I’ve had a few thoughts since learning that not everyone was happy with the idea of President Obama delivering a message to America’s students.

…Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer weighed in on President Obama’s education speech to students before even reading the speech’s text. Many others did the same thing. Instead of worrying about the president’s message, critics should worry about the example they set for our children when they ignore facts and believe hype.

…Lately, we’ve witnessed a complete lack of respect for the Office of the President of the United States. It seems like those who love to claim the mantle of patriotism are being most unpatriotic in their treatment of President Obama’s office. Whether you agree with his policies or not, Barack Obama is the duly-elected President of the United States. He has earned the right to be shown the same respect given to past presidents. Questioning the motives of a simple education speech and vilifying (death panels!) just about everything else he’s attempting to accomplish is not the kind of civics lesson we should be teaching our children. And yes, I believed this during the Bush years.

…Some people are acting like this has never happened before, that the president has never spoken to school children before. Presidents visit schools all the time. One such famous visit was here in the Tampa Bay area on September 11, 2001. We’ve all seen the footage of President George W. Bush reading to a classroom of children when the terrorist attacks occurred. Was he indoctrinating those children to fascism? No. He was reading The Pet Goat, and I trust whatever other message he relayed to those kids before learning of the attacks was a positive one.

…Just who is in charge of our school system? Since when are parents given final say over the content of what is taught in public schools? Why would the superintendent grant an excused absence to a child because their parent doesn’t want them to hear from the President of the United States?

Things are really upside down, folks.