Some Rationality Please on Prez Speech
I voted for George W. Bush for Governor of Texas but not for President. My family are all Republicans and are upset about Obama. As Americans, we dissent without fear. We can speak truth to power freely. Yet when I see citizens come to Obama events with strapped on semi-automatic weapons, I wonder where the leaders of the Republican Party are. A small vocal minority is trying to drown out any voices that are not their own – now including the voice of the President of the United States.
President Obama wishes to address school children on the first day of school. He wants to tell school children to work hard, make good grades, stay in school and to set goals. Yet some have responded to this benign message by demanding of their school boards: Either don’t play the President’s speech or my kid will stay home from school. Does this make sense? The President says stay in school and these dissenting parents are threatening to keep their kids from school. Do they want their children to learn that if their parents scream loud enough, they get what they want? What about the rest of the students whose parents may want to have their children hear what the President has to say? Do these parents have any rights or are just the dissenters the ones who have rights? Many school children will not hear the President of the United States speak because their school districts are choosing not to play the President’s speech. They have caved to a small minority of American citizens. School children have been encouraged to write letters to the President of the United States for decades. It is an apolitical lesson in civics. Why should today’s students not be encouraged to write to this President?
Again, where is the Republican leader who will stand up and say, enough?