Presidents visit schools all the time. George Bush was in one on 9/11/2001.
So why would upping the ante and visiting all schools via a speech directly to all US school children ages K-6 bug me? Is it just that Obama is doing it? Would I have felt better about Bush doing it?
Well… yes I would have felt better about Bush doing it. We can never know, but I doubt Bush would have had associated materials for teachers having the kids write essays on how they can help President Bush.
The second is that I don’t trust Obama. I disagreed often with Bush but felt that he made decisions based on what was best for ALL of us. Obama has failed that test. He does what is best for him, his party and his party’s voter blocks. The rest of us be damned.
I’m sure that the speech Obama had in mind has been changed to a “stay away from drugs, try hard" speech. Something bland to make all of us concerned look silly.
Part of me wishes that we had just remained quiet and let him dig his hole.
Our school is taping it to show the next day. Smart move. They can look at it and see if it is something they want to show the kids. And even then, we have opt-out slips we can send back to school.
September 4th, 2009 at 2:34 pm
Better he should read this aloud to all who work for him and leave the kids alone.
“The colored people of this country have, I think, made a great mistake, of late, in saying so much of race and color as a basis of their claims to justice, and as the chief motive of their efforts and action. I have always attached more importance to manhood than to mere identity with any variety of the human family…” “We should never forget that the ablest and most eloquent voices ever raised in behalf of the black man’s cause were the voices of white men. Not for race, not for color, but for men and for manhood they labored, fought, and died. Away, then, with the nonsense that a man must be black to be true to the rights of black men.” _ Frederick Douglass, June 22, 1894