There was a time when I would've responded differently.
If this was a time of a national emergency and the President wanted to speak to children and their families about their role in it, that'd be one thing. I'd probably disagree with it from this president, but still....
The problem is that this is a political speech and because education is compulsory, so is listening to the speech. The "opt-out" option is just as coercive against students who wouldn't otherwise listen as the left has long cried about "opting out" of school prayer. In other words, there really is no opting out of it. That is magnified when the president is black and the administration of education is highly liberal, creating an environment where one feels forced to sit still and politely while "hearing" the propositions of the president.
It smells of big-brotherism now. Whereas Reagan wanted to inspire children and families to be better Americans in spite of government power and precisely to supplant government power, Obama seeks to indoctrinate children and families to yield to the wishes of government, to be what he would call "better" Americans because of, by and through the government. Both are indoctrination, of course. One, though, is aimed at empowering people while the other aims at subjecting them to the government.
The speech comes against the backdrop of the most imminent power grab by government in national history. The timing seems diabolical, frankly.
Reagan said:
The United States is the world's oldest democratic government. And at my age, when I tell you something is the oldest in the world, you can take my word for it; I'm probably talking from personal experience. And it's not just that our government is the oldest of its kind, but that it's based on the world's most revolutionary political idea. You can see that concept in the very first line of our Constitution, and it begins with three simple words: ``We the People.'' In other countries, in their constitutions -- they all have constitutions, and I've read a great many of them, those other ones -- and the difference is so small, but it's found in those three words. Because their constitutions are documents by the Governments telling the people what they can do. And in our country, our Constitution is by the people, and it tells the Government what it can do. And only those things listed in the Constitution, and nothing else, can Government do. So, in America, it is the people who are in charge. And one day you'll be those people out there voting and creating the Government.
....
... Ours was that kind of a constitution where, for the first time, it was announced -- what I've told you before already -- that the people were in charge of the Government, not the other way around.
Now, the Revolution may seem like something they say happened a long time ago -- to me 200 years seems just like yesterday -- but I think it'll prove to be America's most important guidepost for the future. I believe that the chief moral task for America in your generation -- a period destined for great change -- will be not so much to chart a new course or launch a new revolution, but to keep faith with the original American Revolution and that remarkable vision of freedom that has brought us two centuries of liberty and is still today transforming the world.
....
But America's world leadership goes well beyond the tide toward democracy. We also find that more countries than ever before are following America's revolutionary economic message of free enterprise, low taxes, and open world trade. These days, whenever I see foreign leaders, they tell me about their plans for reducing taxes and other economic reforms that they're using, copying what we have done here in our country. I wonder if they realize that this vision of economic freedom -- the freedom to work, to create and produce, to own and use property without the interference of the state -- was central to the American Revolution when the American colonists rebelled against a whole web of economic restrictions, taxes, and barriers to free trade. The message at the Boston Tea Party -- have you studied yet in history about the Boston Tea Party, where, because of a tax, they went down and dumped the tea in the harbor? Well, that was America's original tax revolt. And it was the fruits of our labor -- belonged to us, and not to the state. And that truth is fundamental to both liberty and prosperity.
Contrast this with Obama, from the mouth of the President:
"I’m here because I want to talk with you about your education and what’s expected of all of you in this new school year. ....
Okay, kids, listen up. It's the boss!
I’ve talked a lot about your government’s responsibility for setting high standards, supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren’t working where students aren’t getting the opportunities they deserve.
Government schools. See, this is an invitation to work in the co-opted public school.
He continues,
And no matter what you want to do with your life – I guarantee that you’ll need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our military? You’re going to need a good education for every single one of those careers.
Of those occupations, doctor, nurse, teacher, policeman, military .... all of them are government jobs in Obama-world. All of them already are except for nurses and doctors, and that's what he's aiming for and that's one reason why the timing of this is dubious.
What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. What you’re learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.
What a contrast to Reagan's inspiration of individual liberty. Obama's message is "Your public education in a public school will determine the future of America." That is indoctrination, it is ugly and it is evil.
You’ll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy technologies and protect our environment. You’ll need the insights and critical thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free.
In other words, to be a good liberal, you'll need a good government education. He furnishes the goals of civics education --- anti-poverty, fix America's unfairness. That is indoctrination. Not be free so that you can be just, but be more about public/government fueled life so that you can level off the circumstances of every American. How different, how much more dark, is Obama's speech than Reagan's.
Maybe you don’t have adults in your life who give you the support that you need. Maybe someone in your family has lost their job, and there’s not enough money to go around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don’t feel safe, or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know aren’t right.
But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life – what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home – that’s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That’s no excuse for not trying.
Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.
This is the one section where he said something that was right and good. He should've just said this and shut up.
The 3 examples for inspiration he offered: 2 of them are described as having been inspiring through some kind of government program. Indoctrination.
Here's his one nod to the Revolution:
The story of America isn’t about people who quit when things got tough. It’s about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best.
It’s the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and went on to wage a revolution and found this nation. Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world war; who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon. Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other.
He had to water down the founding with Facebook. Great.
So, yeah, I have a problem with it. Is it ideological? Oh, yeah, you bet. Is it left vs. right? Not in my mind, where it is freedom vs. despotism.
To me, the outcry has only been enough to get them to edit the speech to something as palatable as today just enough to make critics the subject of ridicule. The real outcry should've been enough to silence him. No Obama for my kid.
