Taking issue with the right things and laughing at myself

Got a couple of thoughts going through my mind right now, and they're all kind of related.

First of all... I got back last night from 5 days living away from the internet. Sometimes it's nice not to be connected. Apparently while I was gone though, the whole Obama speaking to the School Children thing erupted.

Before I get to that, let me touch on the other thing...

Health Care Reform. There are very compelling arguments in favor of health care reform, and then are some excellent comments which have been made on this blog and others about problems with the proposed plan.

With that in mind, I must ask myself... Why are we not debating those issues and figuring them out?

It strikes me as odd that those opposed to the reforms are focused instead on nonsensical issues, like Death Panels and Legalized abortion of 2 year olds.

Well, I guess not completely odd, since those yelling about these issues are trained dogs to their conservative masters - and in so saying those on the left who just want it passed now, without debate are just as bad.

Let's discuss it calmly and rationally and figure out what can be done to remedy the situation - of course that would require both sides to admit they are wrong in some areas, and the drug companies would also have wasted all that bribery money, so I doubt it will happen.

But back to Obama's speech to the school kids...

So I got an email from an ultra conservative acquaintance, advising me to keep my kids home from school today, so they won't be indoctrinated by Obama's unprecedented pro-socialist speech to children.

First of all, I have to wonder if he used the word 'unprecedented' when he protested the speeches given to school children by Bush Sr., and Regan...



I actually read the speech last night on whitehouse.gov, and would encourage you to do the same. I felt inspired to continue my own education, and I'm hoping it will do the same for my kids. I actually printed out the speech so that I can discuss it with my son tonight, since we had a similar conversation last week when he was protesting about doing his homework.

Among the more controversial things the President will be challenging kids to do, in the course of his speech, is to take personal responsibility for their education (I know, it's like right out of the "Communist Play Book".). He's encouraging them to think for themselves, over come peer pressure and set goals.

So in response, conservatives are keeping their kids home for the day. Teaching them that school doesn't matter, and that it's OK to prejudge a person based on what you think they will say. What a great opportunity they are missing to teach their kids to listen to new ideas, and then the opportunity to discuss it with their kids.

I would be offended too, if the president where to share a message of political indoctrination with kids, but seriously - Stay in School and Work Hard, is not political indoctrination!!!

I guess ultimately these conservative freaks want is to keep their children ignorant. That way, a whole new generation can blindly pass along email forwards about the president being a muslim (I'm still not sure why that would be a bad thing either, but after 8 years of Muslims are evil indoctrination from the Government, perhaps it means something to many Americans), and wanting to kill old people without thinking about it.

As a final note, there has been a bit of an outrage going on in a city next to mine about a video being shown to kids as part of the presidents speech.

Now, in line with the horrendously controversial stuff being fed to our kids by the President, this video encourages kids to make a difference. Overall I think the video is excellent. Although, I do take issue with one thing right at the end...

I pledge to serve our President

OK, now while the similar things were said during the early period during the war on terror about Bush, I think it was wrong to say then, and wrong to say now. The President is elected to serve the American people. He serves us, we do not serve him. I don't care if it's Barack Obama, George Washington, or George Bush, they should be respected, yes, but we do not serve them as we would serve a king!

I don't think that was what they meant in the video, but I think it still needs to be said.

Overall though, I think 99% of this video sends the right message.



And because I think that sometimes it's good to laugh at yourself...