On a rather strange note, we’ve seen two presidential firsts this past week. Both of these incidents raise some interesting questions, and underscore some of the paranoia that now grips our country.
The first was the uproar and outrage over the fact that Obama had the unmitigated gall to want to speak to America’s school children, in an attempt to brainwash them with his “socialist agenda.” Other presidents have been taken to task for their attempts to indoctrinate school kids with their philosophies in the past; this is, however, the first situation that I’ve been able to find in which a significant number of schools actually did refuse to allow the presidential speech to be heard by students.
The second incident occurred when Obama addressed a joint session of Congress this week to clarify his healthcare reform proposals. I won’t speak to that clarification – or rather, the lack thereof – that’s not the point in this post. What completely appalled me was the fact that when Obama stated that there is no provision in his healthcare proposal that provides for the coverage of illegal immigrants, South Carolina Republican Congressman Joe Wilson shouted out, “You lie!” while jabbing his finger at Obama.
So, I wanted to look at the two incidents and kind of run my mouth about both. Not unusual, really. I’m nothing if not a mouthy SOB…
For a couple of weeks prior to Obama’s address to the schoolchildren of American, the Rush Limbaughs, Sean Hannitys, and Michael Savages of the country had a blast. They whipped up the conservative fringe of the country, calling Obama a socialist, telling them that he was trying to brainwash the children of the United States with a socialist agenda and doctrine, and calling on them to make it known that they didn’t want their children to be listening to this “comm-uh-nist.”
In the end, the speech that Obama gave turned out to be just about as completely country, Mom and apple-pie as it is possible to be. He talked about the value of education, of staying in school. He talked about the personal responsibility that each student has to work hard in order to make sure that they obtain a decent education. He talked about how each student has an obligation to their parents, to their country, and most of all to themselves to be the very best that they can be.
If this is socialism, then sign me up, and give me an identification card to carry around with me, please. I want in…
The next evening, Obama addressed a joint session of Congress to talk about healthcare reform. During that speech, as I stated above, Congressman Joe Wilson of South Carolina called the president a liar. What’s more, he did this in a public venue, with the cameras rolling. When I saw this, my mouth literally dropped open in shock.
Let me explain why, please. During the Bush administration, I believed about one percent of what I heard come out of Dubyah’s mouth. That’s all well and good; and while I called him a liar, I did so within the confines of private conversation. There is no way in hell that I ever would have stood up and pointed at the president of the United States, and called him a liar. Why?
There is a concept that I learned when I was in the Army. You can have little or no respect for the man, but you are required to hold respect for his rank. When you salute a superior officer, you are not just saluting him; you are also saluting his rank. It is perfectly acceptable to address a female officer as “Sir,” because you are, in effect, addressing the rank, not the person.
No matter what I thought of Dubyah as a man, he was also the president of the United States. He held the highest elected office of this nation, and he was the leader of my country. As a citizen of this country, I have an obligation to give my respect to that office. For an elected member of the Congress of the United States to stand and call the president a liar in a public venue is inexcusable.
I would wager that this is a man who goes home at night and bemoans the behavior of today’s “younger generation.” A man who cries about the lack of respect that kids seem to have for adults and for authority; who shakes his head at the way our young people seem to be losing any sense of dignity and propriety. Kind of ironic, when you think about it. Even John McCain has spoken out against what happened…
My advice – not that I’ll be listened to – would be for the Democrats to completely drop both of these incidents. They shouldn’t even bring them up, and they should refuse to answer questions about them. By leaving it alone, they’ll make the other side look even more ridiculous than they already seem.
In terms of the liar incident, I don’t have a lot more to say. Joe Wilson should get some lessons in etiquette, but beyond that, there’s not a lot to say.
As for the school speech, there is a troublesome aspect to this one. There is a significant segment of this country’s population who are quite terrified of Obama. That fear is manifested in various ways, usually concerning his political ideologies. But underlying all of the other objections that people may have to Obama, there is the matter of his skin color.
When the president addressed the country’s schoolchildren, he represented something extremely significant. By the very fact that he is a mixed race man who now holds the office of president of the United States, he is now a role model. He presented a no BS message to these kids – to all kids, black, white, red, yellow; rich, poor, middle class or homeless. No matter who you are, no matter where you come from, in this country, if you’re willing to work hard, do your very best and then do just a little bit more, you can become anything that you want to become. Indeed, he told them that you have an obligation to yourselves to be the very best that you can be.
There are people who view this message as a threat. There are people who believe that this message is true, but that it should only be true if your skin is a certain color, or if your income meets certain standards. There are people who, for whatever reason, cling to the view that true racial and ethnic equality is a threat to the very fabric of the American way of life. They don’t seem to understand that the more that each individual prospers, the more that we as a whole population will prosper. The reverse is true, as well – the more that we as a nation can prosper, the more that each individual will prosper.
This is, I believe, the underlying message of Obama’s speech to the schools. To simply let the entire matter of the outrage that was so rampant before the speech was delivered drop, to not mention it, is the best course for Obama’s supporters to follow. After all – can they really argue with one word that he said to our children?
