On Obama’s speech

So. The text of the speech Obama gave to students today was released yesterday. I read through the speech and found nothing particularly objectionable in the text in and of itself. But here are my concerns and objections:

The “supplemental materials” that have gone by the wayside. They were a bad idea and raise a few very justified red flags for parents. While they’re gone they shouldn’t have been there in the first place. Let the president give his message, ask kids what they think about it, but don’t prompt them to write how they’ll “help” the president achieve his goals (this, to me, implied the speech may have had a different focus before this went nuclear).
The insistence by some on the left that this should be mandatory viewing. Listening to local conservative talk radio this morning, several callers all but said, “Screw parental rights” and force kids to listen to this. No dice. Just as I don’t want my child to have mandatory in-school lessons on sexual behavior without my knowledge and consent, I don’t want someone who politicizes everything talking to them when I’m not around. Not even the President of the United States. And back when George H.W. Bush did the same thing in the early 90s, the then-Democratically controlled Congress ran investigations. Imagine the uproar if Bush had gone on television live, during school hours, to talk to our kids. The same liberals who think this is mandatory would have had a collective coronary.
Personal responsibility is a good message. Too bad Obama’s political views don’t support his words. Like so many other things, what Obama says and what he does are often on opposite ends of the spectrum. What do I mean? Well, for a man who supports government-controlled…well, everything…from health care to the economy to radio and the Internet. Obama is the kind of politician who tells his constituents that all the bad things, the difficulties in their lives come from other, ethereal or sinister sources (like “the Man”) and not the possible bad choices they’ve made; he is also the kind of politician who also tells his constituents that taking personal responsibility to change their circumstances is impossible – only the government can save them. This doesn’t gel with turning around and telling school kids they are the masters of their own destinies and need to take charge of their education. Your words have meaning, Mr. President. Your actions speak louder.
Who will hear this message? As I said above, talking about personal responsibility (especially in education) is wonderful. Fine. But the students that need to hear it are, in all likelihood not going to hear it. Kids in inner city schools, kids with absentee fathers, kids born and raised in cultures that shun education as “acting white” and glorify the violence and dysfunction of the rap/hip-hop/R&B culture…they’re not getting the message. Neither are their parents. How can we address this issue?

And when Obama and his supporters have spent the summer calling citizens who object to Obama’s policies “Nazis” and “terrorists” and “mobs”, you wonder why we’re not keen on having you with our children and without our input or oversight.