Students Biggest Lesson from Obama Speech? Republicans Lie - A LOT!

[stevenleser]

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Students-Biggest-Lesson-fr-by-Steven-Leser-090908-645.html
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By Steven Leser

The latest Republican exercise in manufactured outrage may very well cost them for decades. The GOP threw weeks of melodramatic anger at the speech with accusations of indoctrination and socialism. Conservatives ignored the Department of Education's description of what the speech would be about, i.e. stay in school, take responsibility for your education, work hard in school, and went about treating the speech like they have treated the stimulus and health care reform. They ignored the facts and invented their own specifically designed to maximize outrage.

Based on the lies put out there by the Republican Party, parents kept children from school, school boards alternatively decided not to show the speech, or required parents to opt in, or opt out, etc. The lies caused some parents to have visible breakdowns on television, driven to anguish and concern by the fantastic claims of socialist indoctrination.

Now, the speech has been given. What do the students think? The Saint Petersburg Times compiled a list of students comments at http://www.tampabay.com/features/article1034344.ece . Here are some excerpts:

Justin Jones, 16, Chamberlain senior

Obama's speech was just dripping with socialist values, especially when he told kids "I hope you'll all wash your hands a lot, and stay home from school when you don't feel well, so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter."

Rachel Lubitz, 17, Countryside High senior

We have heard about this speech for a long time, way too long in my opinion, and the consensus is in. Yes conservatives, you can come out of your bunkers in Wyoming and send little Jimmy back to school because there are no socialist agenda fist-pounding moments and no brain-sucking Marxist remarks. There is just one man — the President — giving a speech about staying in school.

Tori Creighton, 17, St. Petersburg High senior

Schools sent out permission slips to parents, Pinellas County offered excused absences to students and some schools just flat out refused to show President Barack Obama's speech. After all the hype, I am left wondering just what it was all about.

The speech had no socialist agenda and only the best of intentions: getting students to realize that the circumstances of their life are no excuse for not trying in school.

-------------------------------------------------

Students learned one important lesson from the speech and it is an unintended one as far as politicians on both side are concerned. The dissonance between what the Republicans claimed would be in the speech and the speech that was given will forever have these students questioning whether anything the Republican Party and its politicians and pundits say is true or yet another fantastic lie. In these children's formative years, Republican officials have proven to them that they are liars and like most human beings, once an entity has proven itself to be a liar, it will be hard to trust them ever again.

This will be a serious setback for a Republican Party that depends on twisting or making up facts as a matter of course in debates on the most important issues. An entire generation growing up that has experience with catching the GOP at telling lies will scrutinize everything that Republicans tell them going forward.

What I now wonder is whether adults will take a cue from these students and wake up to the fact that Republican politicians are serial liars. Now, many folks might be reading this and saying to themselves, all politicians lie. I disagree. There is certainly a fair amount of creative framing that goes on, but where Republicans are concerned, they go much farther than that, particularly when we are talking about anything Obama has done or has proposed. Virtually everything that Republicans and conservatives have said regarding the stimulus and health care reform has been a lie. Perhaps this overreach with the GOP's protests regarding Obama's speech to students will be at long last the catalyst for the US public to have more skepticism with regards to Republican assertions.

[FlaDem83]

1. I saw this in the paper this morning and was hoping someone

would call attention to it, thanks. These kids are a lot smarter than some would give them credit for - - - they see right through the Repubbie's lies!!

[Hello_Kitty]

2. It's rather like the way parents lie about the "dangers" of relatively harmless drugs like pot.

In this case, I'll at least give them credit for good intentions. But what happens is that kids try pot and don't fly out the window or become instantly brain damaged so they figure the adults are lying or exaggerating about all the drugs.

[JuniperLea]

5. We're that way about government too...

When what they say doesn't come about, like trickle down economics for example, we suspect they are lying about everything else too.

[Kber]

11. I have made the same argument about drug education for years!

I've told my son that there are some activities, like drinking, smoking any substance, and sex, that you have to have a certain level of maturity to both handle and appreciate fully, so I strongly recommend that he wait until he's at least 18 to start those kinds of things.

I've also told him that I believe that the most dangerous thing about pot is that it's illegal and the consequences of getting caught with an open beer and a joint should be taken into consideration.

Lastly, I've told him to respect what the DARE Nazis have said about cocaine and other drugs.

[Hestia]

15. Exactly Kitty. When I was in school, it was all about how dropping acid would make you stare

at the sun, and damage your chromosones and you'd have a side show baby, and all the other endless crap they told us. I have to admit, after finding out the truth about drugs, I have a very hard time believing anything a politician says about anything. My very first thought is, "who's making money off of this?"

An aside - this guy called, wanting me to donate to some program to keeping kids away from drugs. It was some MSM scam, you could just smell it. Finally I asked him if he had ever heard of Bill Hicks. He said, no. I told him to watch his stand up and his commentary about doing drugs, then come back and talk to me.

[Kerrytravelers]

3. Here is a bright young lady:

Liz Nordlinger, 18, Lakewood senior

Does brainwashing include telling students that, "every single one of you has something you're good at?" If it does, then every child in this world has been brainwashed by their parents and will continue to be for the rest of their lives.

His speech talks to the students on a personal basis, and the country should be proud that we have a competent President who can talk to students without making mistakes and sounding like an idiot.

Do people who think that the President is corrupting students' minds think that living in Indonesia is the end of the world? If they do, then I guess they do have a reason to complain. Should our country never grow and evolve and learn to adapt to different colored presidents and new ideas? Our country wouldn't be where it is today if that had never happened in our history. People would still be riding in horse drawn carriages, owning slaves, and dying from every disease that enters the country including smallpox. People need to get over their dumb nonsense and realize yes, we do have a black president, yes, he is going to be in office for three and a half more years, and yes, he is smart, nice, handsome, and will help our country recover.

This 18 year old kid has put more thought into three simple paragraphs than all those morans running around like idiots have their entire lives.

I'm beginning to really like this younger generation.







(OMG. I can't believe I just wrote "this younger generation." I'm only 33. Where has the time gone...)




ETA: Corrected the spelling. My writing wasn't as eloquent as this young lady's.

[quiet.american]

6. Good stuff. nt

[Cha]

16. Thanks, I missed that one.

It is most eloquently written.

[tosh]

28. K&R this reply.

[JuniperLea]

4. Kids have a built in, God given BS detector...

This is exactly what I expected... the kids who weren't allowed to see it are all going to hit it on the youtubes... and they are going to be pissed. Kids hate being lied to... this is going to backfire big time!

[EmilyAnne]

7. And the three students quoted in the article will be voting in 2012. Good job, repukes. nt

[damntexdem]

8. A very useful education.

Those students will be voting in a few years. And it wasn't Obama who did it -- it was the stupid Rethuglicans themselves.

[BlueIdaho]

9. Republicans are rapidly becoming the party of the past

Insulting the next generation with hyperbolic hate speech is not going to win them many votes in 2010 or 2012.


Keep up the good work gang - at this rate government run single payer may only be a few years away!

[Cha]

18. Can you imagine if the repub/hateradio had

never tried to censor the impending speech on Education by President Obama?!

Wherever there's censorship..it always comes back to bite them.

[Flash Bazbo]

10. My email exchange about thi socia!ist muslin President addressing school children

Yesterday I received a pm in response to a comment I posted on one of those "Obama wants to indoctrinate our kids" YouTube videos.

"Maybe I included this in a prior message,sorry if i did.I think the reason most are skeptical of Obama is because of the people he is associated with.After all it was Obama himself that encouraged us to base our views of him on who he spends time with.
Anybody willing to spend some time investigating his "czar"appointees would come away with a not so comfy feeling in their tummy.From Van Jones to John Holdren to the FCC czar and others you have to ask yourself what plans do they have for America.
I would really like if you took some free time and did some investigating of your own.Go into it open minded,no bias allowed.Let me know what you think when you are done,and if you would leave your kids alone with these guys."


Here is the reply. No big deal. I'd just like to get it on the record. I redacted the names of the YouTubers I visit since they are still relatively private citizens, plus I don't want them to get any more viewers than they already have.



"Actually, i make it a point to listen to the far right talking heads to keep up to date with the outrage du jour. Glenn Beck is particularly entertaining and informative in what boogeymen strike terror in the hearts of "real Americans." In addition, I cruise the channels of various jittery YouTubers such as ************, *********** and *********** (heavy emphasis on the "Tuber" since collectively these guys have the IQ of a potato.) So suffice it to say I'm pretty up to date on the issues that are alarming so many on the far right.

That being said, I remain firm in my observation that the insanity level of this anti-Obama hysteria is ratcheted up beyond all reasonable proportions. There was a clip on my local news this evening showing a mother in tears, wailing about how she can't bear to think of her child being exposed to the horror of the President of the United States addressing her child. The text of Obama's speech was released today. The conservative news outlets are already outraged that he has the gall to refer to himself in the first person when describing the administration's commitment to education.

First and foremost, a fifteen minute speech by the President on the merits of education is not leaving them in his care, let alone some sort of insidious indoctrination. It is simply a mundane pep talk that has been given by every President for decades. Compared to Ronald Reagan's address to students about taxes this one is downright apolitical.

As I said, I have seen the dramatic exposés of Obama's "czars." Personally, I was not fortunate enough to have children of my own. But if I did, would I be comfortable leaving them in the care of any of them? Absolutely. They are not child molesters. They are ordinary people just like you and me who happen to hold an opinion that differs from yours. That does not make them evil or dangerous. There is also no denying that they are smart and successful in their respective fields. I can think of worse role models with which to leave my hypothetical child. Sean Hannity springs to mind.

I grew up in Dallas in the 1960's. Every morning the Monsignor of my Catholic school, a proud member of the John Birch Society, would hold us in after morning Mass and lecture us that the government was rife with Communists, and that the Protestant family next door would purposely tempt us with hot dogs on Fridays. Even as a first grader it was impossible not to notice the shrill hysteria leading up to Kennedy's fateful visit to my hometown. Billboards demanding the U.S. withdraw from the United Nations were a common sight. Representatives of the KKK could often be heard on the radio extolling the virtues of maintaining our segregated schools. My father was a benign segregationist who held no particular animosity toward blacks but felt it was best that they remain in their own neighborhoods. One would think that with my formative decade's immersive exposure to the conservative values of the day I would be on the front line at the Tea Party holding my "Obama = Hitler" sign. Yet here i am, a political independent with relatively liberal views who ruminated on the teachings of my youth and recognized them as being fundamentally flawed.

So it boils down to this. Children are thinking beings who, if they have the slightest critical thinking skills and spark of inquisitiveness, are going to make up their own minds regardless of the influences you as a parent provide. If I had children I would do my best to cultivate said critical thinking skills, and encourage them to not fear being exposed to political opinions that may differ from my own. In the end, the choice is theirs. They can't make an informed decision without hearing the other side.

Of course, Glenn Beck and *********** would vociferously disagree. And ********** dreams of the day he can slit my vile liberal throat. Literally. He's not kidding. This insanity has got to stop.

Best regards,"

[Bjorn Against]

12. I think you are right, kids hate fake controversies

Kids think of themselves as pretty mature and they don't like being told that they can't handle something. When people are telling them that they are too immature to handle listen to a Presidential speech they don't like it, then when they hear the speech and can't figure out any reason why anyone could possibly be offended by it they mock the stupidity of those who tried to hide it from them. Kids don't like being told they can't see something, and they especially don't like it when they can't figure out a reason why someone would want to keep them from seeing something that should not even be controversial.

Do you remember back to the days when you were a kid and you wanted something that your parents would not allow you to have? Remember how you would talk for endless hours about how it was stupid that they didn't think you could handle seeing that R rated movie you wanted to see? Well not only is this not even close to an R rated movie, but this isn't even your parents who are keeping you from seeing it. It is the crazy guy down the street who rides around with the Confederate Flag on his pickup truck that doesn't think you should be able to see it. Kids hate it enough when their parents try to tell them that they can't handle something, but they really hate it when people they don't even know try to "protect" them.

[Control-Z]

21. And we need to keep in mind that

a lot of these kids lived through 911, not to mention 8 years of bush. They are too smart and too well informed to be lied to. It's got to be terribly insulting to them.

[Thrill]

13. Most young people see through the BS. They aren't scared of Obama

like some of their racist folks. Only the ones who are raised by very open racist and dumb parents believe they should be scared of Obama or not listen to him.

[Cha]

14. This is Funny! Yes, I think the kids who got to hear the speech

learned even more than what President Obama was inspiring.

Rachel Lubitz, 17, Countryside High senior

"We have heard about this speech for a long time, way too long in my opinion, and the consensus is in. Yes conservatives, you can come out of your bunkers in Wyoming and send little Jimmy back to school because there are no socialist agenda fist-pounding moments and no brain-sucking Marxist remarks. There is just one man — the President — giving a speech about staying in school."

[Roland99]

17. Repukes don't be wantin' there kids to be doin' no learnin'!

And certainly don't be wantin' them to be doin' none a that there thinkin'!

[EndElectoral]

19. PA School that hosted Bush to speak prohibits Obama speech

A friend of mine at Central Dauphin High School, Harrisburg, PA told me that the same high school that invited Bush in to speak on No Child Left Behind and were strongly advised to wear supportive T-shirts prohibited teachers or students from viewing the Obama speech in a letter sent from the Assistant Superintendent.

To me it illustrated that Carville was right about one thing - PA has Philly and Pittsburgh and in between in Alabama.

[donheld]

20. It's not a lot, it's constantly

[redqueen]

22. "where Republicans are concerned, they go much farther than that"

Will even more people now, finally, start to notice?

It's long past time...

[Rosa Luxemburg]

23. republicans behave like spoilt children

oh but spoilt children may behave better than Republicans.

[Beetwasher]

24. Republicans Jumped The Whale

n/t

[NBachers]

25. But remember- Republicans are NOT assholes, and Cheney had NOTHING to do with 9-11

[Alcibiades]

26. Is this the moment?

Will the public and the media wake up to the fact that the Republican Party has become a ridiculous caricature? A real political party in a democracy campaigns on issue positions, based on fact: since their issues are unpopular and the facts don't support them, they make up their own and run based on lies.

[TankLV]

27. Obama CHANGED THE SPEECH! THAT'S the repuke message that's OUT THERE being played CONSTANTLY!!!

The kids won't "learn" anything!!!

Sure, WE know it, but the WHORE MEDIA has SUCCESSFULLY gotten the message out there - that OBAMA CAVED TO REPUKE JUSTIFIED OUTRAGE - AGAIN - AND CHANGED THE ORIGINAL MESSAGE!!!

Turn on any channel - they're spewing that crap LOUD and OFTEN...

[AlbertCat]

30. Eggzackly

But still, this is something to bring up every time a stupid lie comes out.

Death Panels!

Yeah... like the school speech was a socialist indoctrination.

He's not an American!

Yeah... like that school speech was gonna be so scary.

He's a Muslim!

Yeah.... and your kids were turned into glass-eyed Commie zombies by his school speech.

He changed the speech!

Yeah... like he's a muslim and a socialist who's from Kenya appointing Czars!


The stupid is being piled up so deep, it's gonna become a "ho hum.... what is it NOW? " type of thing. Give 'em enough rope to hang themselves.


Our only worry is when Dems act like the lies are true.... and the MSM reports it like it's a majority.

[Javaman]

33. I think they are using the excuse as the reason they are assholes. nt

[RedCloud]

34. You are insulting assholes the world over. Repugs are the shit!

[Javaman]

35. My apologies to all the assholes in the world.

:rofl:

[grantcart]

29. well said

[bc3000]

32. I concur

K&R

[bbgrunt]

31. anyone who hasn't been aware of the

lies of republicans before this is not capable of understanding it.