Williams: Let the children hear Obama

Posted by ( SmartGuy ) on September 11, 2009 at 10:27 pm

I find it humorous that so many of you are appalled that the president of the United States DARE to speak to citizens of the country! What nerve! Those of us who saw GW Bush as a bumbling idiot who didn’t know his @ss from his face didn’t openly petition for him to quit holding press conferences, appearing at town hall meetings or visiting elementary schools. We just laughed at the aftermath of it and mocked him for his lunacy.

Besides all that, do you realize that your kids are taught every day by teachers who have political opinions, too? You just don’t know what they are! What if teachers had to declare their political party affiliations. Would you sue the schools if your kid was placed in the class of a teacher with the “wrong” views? Come on people, grow up. The world is not going to end.

And Obama hasn’t made stupid comments? Gimme a break.  How about the Channeling Reagan, Special Olympics and Stupidly comments?  Then there is the denials of knowledge of Wright’s comments and Blago’s corruption.  This guy’s a dope unless he has his trusty teleprompter in front of him.

He can’t give us any meaningfull cost savings on this health care reform and blames Repubs for its current failure which is an outright lie!  He can’t get all the Dems on-board. 

The fact is the speech he made on 9/8 had to be revised from its original form.  The speech that was shown on Tues is not what was originally planned.  I didn’t trust this clown to actually present the speech that was posted on his website several days prior to 9/8.  I’ve seen the speech and have no problem with my kid seeing now.

Regarding your comment on teachers political opinions.  There definitly was a bias (brainwashing) in the classroom prior to the election last year.  My kid came home from 3rd grade last year and said he was the only kid in school who didn’t vote for Obama in the mock election.  My neighbors were shocked to hear their kids voted for Obama.

All I want the school to do is teach my kid math, science, reading/writing and history.  That’s all.

BTW, I was not a real big fan of Bush.  Obama is not the Messiah that everyone was making him out to be.  The message I want my kid to learn is be very carefull and don’t get your hopes up about ANY politician. Don’t let the media make your choice for you.  Read as much as he can about a candidate from MANY different sources before formulating a decision.

Mr. Williams is a commentator. It’s his job to pass along his observation and take on the passing scene and provoke you to thought. His observational style is closely related to Leonard Pitts who could find a way to make a major race issue out of an elementary school kickball game.

It’s important to understand what he does and why he does it. It makes it easier to contend with.

As for listening to the president speak. School kids are exposed to all kinds of ideas and people all the time. Give them some credit, give them your time as a parent and everything will be fine.

There’s lots of battles worth fighting, this ain’t one of them.

I find it humorous that so many of you are appalled that the president of the United States DARE to speak to citizens of the country! What nerve! Those of us who saw GW Bush as a bumbling idiot who didn’t know his @ss from his face didn’t openly petition for him to quit holding press conferences, appearing at town hall meetings or visiting elementary schools. We just laughed at the aftermath of it and mocked him for his lunacy.

But MOST of us respected the fact that he was the president of the United States. There is a deep hatred of Obama as a person that I just don’t understand.

Besides all that, do you realize that your kids are taught every day by teachers who have political opinions, too? You just don’t know what they are! What if teachers had to declare their political party affiliations. Would you sue the schools if your kid was placed in the class of a teacher with the “wrong” views? Come on people, grow up. The world is not going to end.

RichmondDave

Unfortunately, you exhibited the exact tactic that turns legitimate discourse into a “gotcha game:” take a selective quote and run away with it; or, at least in your case, stumble away from it. I’m absolutely positive that you have been asked to provide additional identification when presenting a credit card to a vendor – all of us (including me, and I’m white) have had to, but not nearly as often as people of color, and we’re rarely followed around the store by security as we contemplate our purchase – although that too may happen to others.  The fact that two people undergo the same experience does not mean the experience is the same, nor does it imply that the reason for such an action was the same reason.

Also, I said nothing in my reply to Mr, Williams column about political beliefs.  I never even implied that having an opposing political view to mine makes anyone a racist. You, RichmondDave, were kind enough to do that. I merely stated that racism today is more subtle than it was in the time of lynching and cross-burning, but no less devastating.  I have friends who think Limbaugh is the 21st Century version of Voltaire, a friend who is a Marxist, and many more who are as apolitical as blue-tailed skinks. I don’t really care what your political beliefs, or anyone else’s political beliefs, are - I just want those beliefs to be articulated in a fashion that is comprehensible and conducive to a solution or two.

Finally, you may also want to consider that many folks smarter than I believe that it is virtually impossible for white people to accuse a person of color of racism.  It’s an intriguing notion.  Given our Country’s history and response to discrimination, given the fact that we whites manage the political, financial, and informational structures of the US – how in the name of heaven, except through ignorance or laziness can we claim that we have been discriminated against?  We may be embarrassed, provoked, or inconvenienced – but discriminated against? – Difficult to imagine.

Mr. Williams articulated a fine argument, asked many important questions, and implied that we should all read between the lines of any statement, with the appropriate dose of salt.

RichmondDave, contrary to what you think, I don’t project my beliefs.  I hold them dearly, close to the chest, and check frequently for true-line and squareness, by listening to as many views as the hours in the day will allow me.  I’m old enough to appreciate patience and the advantages of pausing before I make a fool of myself (although, to be honest, I often fail at that) – but really, RichmondDave, I would have preferred reading your thoughts on the President’s address, not your piggy-backing on Randy and 12step.  Maybe next time.

John Wagner

12step: Re: Your post from 2:46 this morning. My opinion is that as a society, we can never be so self satisfied to sit back on our haunches for any given period of time. Homework needs to be done. You can trust certain things, but, you gotta be smart and verify - it’s tiresome, but, hard work is the only way I know to stay ahead of things.

In the military, I was taught in Basic Non-Commissioned Officer’s Course (BNOC)that you inspect what you expect and that you’re only as good as your last inspection. Human nature and history seems to be a never ending cycle of making some of the same basic mistakes over and over again. Peter Drucker astutely pointed out that the vast majoirty of problem are generic, they’ve happened before at some point in history - very rarely will you run across a truly unique problem. Somewhere between ignorance and arrogance you’ll find the source of most human difficulties.

I think the United States is the best country on earth, despite our current leadership. I’ll probably get slapped by my fellow right wingers for saying this, but, I’ll take the United States with Barack Obama as president any day over living in any other country under any one of their leaders. I know that President Obama’s on the clock and that in two years, he could lose his majority in congress and in three years, he could be packing his boxes to go home to Chicago. If we can recover from a Revolution, a Civil War, presidential assassinations, the riots of the 1960’s and the ups and downs of the stock market, these times too shall pass. We have a way of taking care of our own. So, I’m not a pessimist. I believe that we can fix whatever Obama breaks and whatever Bush and Clinton broke before him. We’re Americans dagnabbit - we make it and the Japanese form a company to manufacture its knockoffs!!

Like Eugene Kranz advised his people during the Apollo 13 crisis, “Let’s work the problem, let’s not make things worse by guessing”. I’d love it if all politicians worked the problems and not the symptoms.

In the big picture, we’re going to be just fine - Glenn Beck can sit in his bomb shelter and eat potted meat and Keith Olbermann can explode from rage and constipation like Mr. Creosote in Monty Python’s “The Meaning of Life”. We’re gonna be just fine. It’s just like having teenagers, you gotta go through the pain of dealing with their ups and downs but before you know it, somehow they surprise you turn out far better than you expected.