The president of the United States will speak to the nation's school children on September 8th in a sincere effort to encourage students to set educational goals for themselves, work hard, pursue academic achievement and succeed in attaining the goals they set for themselves. How anti-American! This has caused the right-wing Obama haters to put a call out to their listeners to protest this speech in schools and for parents to pull their kids out of school for a day so they don't have to listen to the president's "brainwashing indoctrination of children with his socialist agenda .The right is so up in arms that the president had to re-word part of his speech which asked kids to "write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president **
All the usual suspects are leading the charge against this speech, especially the rubber room candidate Glenn Beck and his insane spewings encouraging parents to pull their kids out of school for the day so they don't have to be under the influence of Obama's "propaganda . And we have the master hate-speech enthusiast Michael Savage quoting on his radio show: "No American president has ever addressed school children. It is a tradition of Hitler, Raul and Fidel Castro. Every dictator in history has addressed school children. (Read: be afraid"be very afraid.)
All righty then.
These "entertainers trust that their listeners will believe everything they say and not do their due diligence and rely on their memories or on history to recall that their very own "worshipped idol of the right Ronald Regan, spoke to junior high school students on November 14, 1988 where he opened saying this was the first in a series of speeches that he'd be giving before leaving office and then went way beyond extolling the importance of education and the great things children can accomplish by staying in school, but also spoke on politics, economics, drugs, guns, moral and spiritual values and his ideologies of free enterprise, low taxes, and open world trade. (courtesy Ronald Regan Presidential Library website.)
On October 1, 1991, Pres George H.W. Bush, who pledged to be "the education president" and motivate kids to strive for excellence, spoke to students at Alice Deal Junior High School and challenged them to work harder, learn more and revolutionize American education. He wrapped up his speech saying, and I quote: ** "Write me a letter -- and I'm serious about this one -- write me a letter about ways you can help us achieve our goals. (courtesy George Bush Presidential Library and Museum website.) And we have the right-wing hate groups apoplectic because President Obama was going to ask the same thing? Is this not blatant hypocrisy?
Of course, we can't forget George W. Bush, accompanied by his Education Secretary, reading "The Pet Goat to school children on September 11, 2001 at BookerElementary School in Sarasota. So Michael Savage is calling the heroes of the right dictators?
So, instead of ferreting out real propaganda and lies the gullible and ill-informed, including numerous Republican leaders, listen without discernment and do the bidding of their radio and TV masters in protesting the schools and pulling their kids out on Tuesday. This is a very sad commentary on the education of the adults in our society.
