Why is Obama pushing hard work? I thought Democrats were supposed to be lazy people who expected everything in life to be handed to them.
The first part is a legitimate, reasonable question to ask. How does he intend to make the country more fair and more free? What does he mean by fairness and freedom? These are nice buzzwords, but they mean different things to people with different political/philosophical leanings. Children that hear the president's words may take it at face value that what he's calling for is a good thing. But there is, I think, room for legitimate debate on this topic. I'm not saying that I'd side with the pastor on that debate (almost certainly not, in fact), but that doesn't make it wrong to bring up the question. Ok. I don't consider this a petty semantic distinction. If I say I expect something from someone, the implication is that they owe it to me to fulfill those expectations. Understandable if its a parent or guardian of some sort. From a political leader, less so. I understand why some would be uncomfortable with the President playing the role of father figure to children.
Many of those children dont have father figures/ role models to go off of. So having a president take that role isnt bad. It could be the dealer around the corner. People wanted to hold their children out b/c of this. See this is when people's dislike whether it is racial or political interferes and blinds them from something that can benefit and influence them. You should expect children to do well. Their future boss, client, daughter/son, students will expect things of them and its not because they owe them anything. Too many people complain about Obama and dont try to bring anything to the table to help. They complain about healthcare but dont take time to read it and come up with solutions/alternatives. Just a bunch of complaining b/c deep down you dont really like seeing an Oba.......I mean a democrat in office. Why cant we get past that and try to work together? Probably b/c you dont want to work with him or with democrats or with Republicans or Independents. You want to work with......your own kind. Too many people in America arent really Americans. They are just black, white, hispanic, democrat, republican. Then they want to call themselves Americans.
Yes, the Nazi's were fascists - we all know that. But fascists and socialists aren't the same thing. Calling someone fascist and then a socialist is like calling some cheap and then calling them spendthrift. Fascists are extremely nationalistic and believe in centralized power. They admire success of the individual, and thus then to be industrialists. Socialists don't believe in private property, put the group ahead of the individual, and believe in equality for all people, with the "people' owning everything. Of course, the gov't represents the people's interest. Both can be democratic, and both can be tyranical. But to say that Obama is both a fascist and a socialist is just calling him names for the sake of calling him names. Which one is it???? And by the way, many of the tactics currently being used by conservatives like Glen Beck were the very same tactics used by Hitler to gain support.
the bushies with gitmo, no bid contracting, "you're either with us or with the turrists" are lot closer to fascism
I actually read this speech like Obama was giving it to the people who would look up to him most: disadvantaged minorities. AGAIN, Obama has told the people of this country, the children of this country, to work hard to make the best of themselves. He reminded the students in America that they need to put forth their best effort in order to reap the rewards that America puts in front of them. This speech was about personal responsibility and could have been given by any conservative out there.
I love this series of quotes in the CNN story: "There is no excuse for not trying," he told students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. "This isn't just important for your own life and your own future. 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." ... "Thinking about my kids in school having to listen to that just really upsets me," suburban Colorado mother Shanneen Barron told CNN Denver affiliate KMGH last week, before the text of the speech was released. "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." If it wasn't for the bolded section, she would look like a complete fool. Now she just sorta looks like one.
Watched it, thought it was excellent, glad my daughter got to see it, just as I'm glad I got to see several speeches made by Jack Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. Just as I'm glad I got to watch the Kennedy/Nixon debate on TV during the 1960 campaign. You remember these things. It is the President. It doesn't matter whether you agree with the politics. I certainly didn't agree with Reagan's, and I wasn't a school kid, to be fair, but if I'd had kids going to school back then, I wouldn't have minded them seeing him in a similar setting one bit. My job as a parent is to give my children the best, broadest education they can get. My wife and I influence them, because that's what parents do, but you can't bring them up in a bubble. Much ado about nothing.
So has anyone seen any headlines of proletariat seven year olds wresting classrooms from the grimy Bourgeois fingernails of their teacher overlords?
So Michael Vick talked to a bunch of kids in Philly today about avoiding peer pressure. I wonder how many parents pulled their kids out of school because they didn't want them listening to an ex-con.
I don't understand this whole issue. The level of indoctrination from schools, the books they assign, the history that is left out or included in text books, the internet, television, music. It is like dumping ten bushels of hay on a car and worrying about the one stray straw that's stuck in the windshield. It is plain ignorant. Regardless your kids are seeing images everyday that influence them.
My wife and I talked about that. Schools bring in "scared straight" groups of ex-cons and no one bats an eye. Such hypocrisy. Such racism. I've left my TV's off during this whole thing and my kids will see the speech, even if I have to show them myself. I cannot stand from a pulpit in public and ask people to pray for the leadership of this country, whom I believe God has allowed to be put into authority as His Word teaches, then deliberately undermine the President by not supporting a good message to the youth of today. I want my kids to be encouraged by other voices to do the things I'm teaching them to do. It reinforces my efforts. Thank you, Mr. President, for supporting the sound teaching that we have taught in our home... I believe it will better our nation. Stay in school, kids!
first he tries to emphasize Obama's stature as the most powerful position in the world to point out that he's an ingrate then he complains about him about expecting and not just encouraging?
