Actually some good editorials and letters coming about Obama's speech now....

[madfloridian]

in Central Florida. I know they got calls that were about half in half in favor of the speech. But they caved to the militant right wingers as usual here.

Here is an editorial from a nearby paper...they criticize the school superintendent and the GOP chairman, Jim Greer.

Obama's Classroom Speech: Tune In the President

Superintendent of Schools Gail McKinzie has brought disrepute on the Polk County school district, discredited students' ability to put critical thinking to use and has dishonored the highest office in the nation, the presidency. She has done so by making optional the live showing of President Barack Obama's national television speech to students today at noon.

..."If the message of education is not the way forward for students and our nation, what is? Ignorance?

So it would seem.

They go after Jim Greer's many statements as well.

And there are a few great letters, giving me hope again for this fundamentalist area.

Listening to speech is patriotic.

Parents, where is your patriotism? President Obama is speaking to our children - our future leaders. He's talking to them about their education, their hopes and dreams for their future. Do you think for one minute he will talk to the students about health care, the war in Iraq, bipartisan issues? No way.

You people should have lived during World War II when patriotism was of the utmost importance in our lives. War with Germany and Japan was not a passing fancy - we blocked our windows at night so as not to light up the skies for enemy fighters, we had gas-ration stickers, and we could not buy butter, meats, sugar, coffee, and we were allowed one pair of shoes per year. And we all supported President Franklin D. Roosevelt in his efforts toward peace.

President Barack Obama is going to encourage our kids to do their best.

Here is a good one about the school leaders caving in.

School cave-in is bad civics lesson

Let me get this straight: For the past eight years, it has been the official policy of the Republican Party that the president of the United States is a unitary executive" whose powers allow him to violate the fourth, fifth and sixth amendments to the Constitution and decide without judicial review about the application of international law to the (illegal) practice of torture, but apparently does not extend to speaking to public school students about their upcoming school year.

I don't know whether state Florida GOP Chairman Jim Greer is stupid, presumptuously partisan, racist or merely cynical for taking this piece of hypocrisy to the national media. I do know that his goal is to diminish President Barack Obama without any real evidence and in a manner consistent with the assortment of hooligans who confuse disrupting town halls with winning elections.

That the Polk County school district has decided to cave to this partisan putsch and subject President Obama's speech to prior restraint is, to me, one of the worst civics lessons an educational institution can give its students. What it has done is contribute to a generation of eroding what has become pejoratively referred to as civics-class democracy.

And for good measure, one more.

Avoid speech precedent

It's sad state of affairs when the president of our country can not speak to the students of this nation to encourage them to get the best education they can. The precedent is now being set.

If the president can not speak to the children of this country because his speech might be political, then all elected officials will now not be able to speak to the children. So Rep. Adam Putnam , Sen. Bill Nelson and the rest of the legislators will now be unable to speak in the schools because they are elected officials.

Our School Board members are elected officials, so the same applies there. Superintendent of Schools Gail McKinzie is appointed, so she may still speak to the students. Oh, wait a minute, she is appointed by elected officials so she is ineligible also.

People are upset over this, they really are. I found out that many people I knew called them, as did I.

One of the ones who disappointed me the most was assistant superintendent of school-based operations. He listened to the loud voices of the right instead of listening to the equal number of voices from the left.

Tonjes said he fielded a constant flood of calls Friday, from parents adamant that the district not telecast Obama's speech, and just as many parents who felt the president shouldn't be censored. Even though politicians routinely visit Polk classrooms to address children on a variety of issues, Tonjes said the hubbub surrounding Tuesday's speech was reason to formulate a special directive that gives parents the option of not exposing their children to the presidential message.

"If it was a moon shot and he (Obama) were going to be talking about the moon, that would be different," Tonjes said.

So glad to see the local paper come out and print the letters and the editorial.

[NYC_SKP]

1. Nice post, madfloridian. K and R. nt

[opihimoimoi]

2. The GOP picked a bad fight...they are ending up looking like the Party of Stagnation and always

looking for nits to pick on....never to acknowledge positive progress...always Negative

This is what we had for 8 years...and look it the damage and the needless deaths/injuries...our world is fallong apart and for 8 years...the GOP ignored the big picture and remained at the Nit Level...on the ground....

[TxRider]

12. At least they aren't calling for a GAO investigation..

Like congress did when Bush I gave a speech at a school...

[opihimoimoi]

17. GOP is the Party of HATE, DOMINATION, and DIVISION...all of NEGATIVE MODE

with corresponding Traits.

[Mithreal]

3. K&R nt

[karnac]

4. it's a fantastic speech

In fact, the "smart" GOPers have said so publicly without much hesitation after actually reading it.

One can easily wonder though what would have been in it had NOT the Reichwing made such a big stink.

Betcha 10 to 1 that some actually will take credit for forcing obama to take out anything remotely political out if it.

[democracy1st]

5. K & R thanks Mad!

[lovelyrita]

6. Thank you. Now I won't have to eye all my neighbors knowing

that they are all crazy RWingers. Now I have some hope that a few of them are sane.

[madfloridian]

10. I know how you feel.

We don't have a single neighbor now who isn't ultra-conservative. We used to have one who was liberal, but they moved.

[madfloridian]

7. Another VERY interesting letter today. Polk County Bigotry.

Polk County Bigotry

Debbie Turnbull Miller expressed great disappointment in her Aug. 17 letter (second letter under the headline "President Barack Obama") after discovering what she believes is serious bigotry in Polk County's citizens. Many of these folks, she says, claim to be Christians.

Ms. Miller needs to know a lot of other Christians share her disappointment. However, there are several reasons (though not justifications) why many of our citizens think the way they do.

...Many people in Polk County and much of the South never forgave President Lyndon Johnson for pushing landmark civil rights legislation through Congress during the 1960s. I met many of them while growing up in the Florida Panhandle. Many were and still are unrepentant racists, and had little ideological difficulty switching to the Republican Party.

Ms. Miller should not throw out the baby with the bathwater. She and other Polk Countians who think "Jesus would be ashamed of them (racists, birthers, the greedy, etc.)" should blame the disciples, not their teacher.

Professional sports always struggle with the problem of players who don't play by the rules, but the officials insist the rules must be obeyed. Don't blame Jesus just because some of his disciples don't play by the rules.

[AspenRose]

9. "Don't blame Jesus just because some of his disciples don't play by the rules."

:applause:

[Phx_Dem]

8. Here's a column from the Arizona Republic:

Good morning, students!

Before we start our school day, boys and girls, I'd like us all to give a big round of applause for state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne. Thanks to Mr. Horne a valuable lesson can be learned today by those of you who will listen to President Barack Obama's webcast speech as well as those whose parents won't allow them to listen.

<SNIP>

As critical thinkers, boys and girls, we must ask ourselves: Is Superintendent Horne correct?

The Education Department packet suggests that students discuss the speech using the following questions: “What do you think the President wants us to do? Does the speech make you want to do anything? Are we able to do what President Obama is asking of us? What would you like to tell the President?”

Is asking you what you would like to tell the president a request for critical thinking?

If so, then might we then ask why Superintendent Horne and so many others criticized a speech that had yet to be given?

Superintendent Horne is a Republican with political ambitions. Thinking critically, might we ask if he is trying to ingratiate himself to voters by taking a few jabs a Democratic president?

Finally, students, it would be wise to apply critical thinking to all grown-ups, not just politicians. You might ask, for instance, why some grown-ups would condemn a presidential speech that they have not even heard?

You might ask how they expect students to use their critical thinking if they aren't allowed to listen to the speech?

A third-grade teacher sent me an e-mail saying that students in her school are required to bring a permission slip signed by their parents if they want to hear the president. The teacher added: “When I passed out the forms and explained to my students what they were for, several students raised their hands and said, ‘Why do we need permission to listen to the president?' One girl asked if there was a fee involved!”

I'll let you tackle the first question, boys and girls. I doubt you'll get a satisfactory answer.

http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/EJMontini/62194

[onlyadream]

11. Did Obama decide to do this speech

knowing that it would cause such ridiculous controversy? When the smoke clears and everyone sees just how "horrible" this speech was, the repukes are going to look really stupid. I think children are able to see how irrational their parents are acting, and hopefully the children will learn from it. I know I learned how bigotted people could be when my dad emulated Archie Bunker!

[madfloridian]

13. Actually we have neighbors

who are Beck fans and are really into the tea party stuff and the screaming about no health care.

They are proud of themselves and think they have accomplished something big.

I don't know how some of the more moderate Republicans here think about it. I am afraid to ask lest I be disillusioned.

[onlyadream]

18. Your neighbors are a lost cause....

and they aren't the majority (I hope).

[bertman]

14. If anyone who has seen/heard the President's address to the schoolkids thinks it was

in any way political or inappropriate, they are mentally impaired and deserve to have scorn heaped upon them.

[madfloridian]

16. Much agreed.

They just don't see themselves as foolish. How could they not?

[scentopine]

15. I shot off a few letters here in Texas about the "opt out" forms

No response yet. Daughters said they watched the speech - there was zero discussion, though. Very strange.

Rick Perry is simply a disgusting human being.

I don't know what it is about mineral and oil states - Wyoming, Alaska, Texas

Wealth from digging stuff out of the ground somehow makes you an expert on governance and public policy, foreign and domestic.

Been thinking about this. It is really odd. Cheney and Palin and Perry act as if they personally discovered oil or timber or mining or whatever.

Perry and Palin are going to be on a national ticket one day - you heard it here first.

But I digress :-)

[Arugula Latte]

19. This was in Portland's major daily, the Oregonian. "The President and the Chalkboard":

The president and the chalkboard
by The Oregonian Editorial Board
Tuesday September 08, 2009, 8:33 PM

How did poison get injected into the debate on Obama's speech to kids? What was that all about?

President Barack Obama gave a speech Tuesday to America's schoolkids. Perhaps you heard about it. In his remarks delivered at Arlington, Va'.s Wakefield High School and televised nationally, Obama urged his listeners to show up for class, pay attention to their teachers and work hard on their homework.

Most people would describe this as a positive and constructive message, especially coming from somebody besides the usual messengers, e.g., mom, dad, grandma, the teacher.

In this case, the message was delivered by a man hoisted into office in November by a majority of Americans who voted. ...

http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2009/09/the_president_and_the_chalkboa.html