Obama Talks About Education and Parents Complain
Here is my message to all Americans – you may not like him as an individual, or the policies that he is trying to put into place, but he is your President, and you damn well should respect him. He’s earned that.
After listening to people like Shanneen Barron, as she talked with CNN Affiliate KMGH-TV in Denver, I was forced to question what America has come to. Barron was quoted as saying, about President Obama’s desire to speak to American school children, that “thinking about my kids in school having to listen to that [President Obama talking about education] just really upsets me. I’m an American. They are Americans, and I don’t feel that’s OK. I feel very scared to be in this country with our leadership right now.”
I’d be willing to bet that Barron considers herself a patriot, while parents like me sit back and wonder, even though I may not agree with what Obama is saying, doesn’t he deserve the right to address and share the ideas he believes will make this country better? If you’re truly scared to be in this country I would encourage you to leave. Maybe you’d be more comfortable in China or Korea? Maybe your kids would value their education more if they had to worry about war and genocide while living in Darfur? No, I suspect that there is a reason you will continue living in your comfortable home in comfortable America where you don’t really have to be afraid that one day you will lose the freedom that you value so much.
Frankly, the US, as a country, has lost many of the things that I value as an American, which includes our integrity, and Barron, I encourage you to sit down and examine what you value in this world and make sure that you’re willing to sacrifice the freedoms that we Americans hold so dear as you continue to press your conservative beliefs on your family while shutting out any ideas that don’t mirror your own.
When people like Barron and Florida Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer start preaching their own conservative agendas I’m forced to ask, what happened to respect and personal dignity – if you don’t like what he’s saying, fine, help your children understand differently or put them in a private school that supports your ideals, but don’t use your 15 minutes on the soapbox as a way to disparage someone that is making an effort to improve a country that needs a lot of improving. America’s education system is lacking and we’re losing our competitive edge at an alarming rate. If that bothers you as much as it does me, take your 15 minutes and talk about ways to improve the system – not why you’re afraid. Your fear, to me, makes you sound stupid, and this talk is about education.
Greer’s comments, especially coming from a party chairman, were so disrespectful that I’m forced to directly question his patriotism, too. He said, “As the father of four children, I am absolutely appalled that taxpayer dollars are being used to spread President Obama’s socialist ideology. The idea that schoolchildren across our nation will be forced to watch the president justify his plans … is not only infuriating but goes against beliefs of the majority of Americans, while bypassing American parents through an invasive abuse of power.” (Didn’t the majority of Americans vote for President Obama and his beliefs?)
First, Mr. Greer, your children are not being forced to watch the President do or say anything – they’re being given the opportunity. They have this opportunity because this is a free country. You obviously know and value that freedom as it is the same freedom that allows you to voice your personal dissent without risk of punishment. If you choose to shelter your children and share with them only your own conservative agenda, (because obviously Bush’s agenda was so successful) you have that right, but you’re not the President, and until you are I encourage you to present your own personal agenda on its merits and not by disparaging Obama. If you have something better, start there, or run for president yourself and then you can say whatever the hell you want. And, you know what, I’m an American, I will listen and be respectful, even if I don’t like it.
Finally, so that it’s not missed, the president of the National Parent Teacher Association (an organization that I normally don’t agree with), Charles Saylors, seems to agree with my view that “The president of the United States, regardless of political affiliation, should be able to have a presentation and have a pep talk, if you will, to America’s students.”
And with Saylors’ thought I will get off my own personal soapbox and ask only that every American consider what they value most in this country. Because, frankly, it is those personal freedoms that make America unique and without them the choice of president and education would be lost completely.
Ranter
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Shanneen Barron is an ignorant bigot. I live in Denver and know this lady in real life, she is not the brightest bulb to say the least. I love the fact that now all of America knows how stupid she really is!!