Obama’s out to hurt your kids!

More evidence for the need for expanded health care

Insurance and pharmaceutical companies and their GOP lackeys, mentally challenged talk show hosts (read: Glenn, Rush, Michael Savage, and a few others) have been active in stirring the Rabid Right’s patriots; a foul deed is about to take place, our children are about to be exposed to a communicable disease, they will, by next week, be donning their hidden brown shirts, retrieve the secret communication devices provided by the (gasp!) liberals and, after disclosing all of the family’s most secret secrets, rise up and slaughter all good and pure conservatives. All because Barack Obama, that uppity terrorist, Muslim, foreign-born, sneaky SOB told them what to do. Lordy, Lordy, most parents can’t get their kids to clean their room but the President has the power to have them take over the world.

If ever there was demonstrated an urgent need for affordable and universally available mental health facilities in the United States, the hysterical reaction to President Obama’s plan to address school children on the virtues of study, dedication and hard work is such a demonstration.

It’s not that presidents have never spoken inspirational words to school children before. Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, both Republicans of some note, gave back-to-school talks in 1988 and 1991, respectively. The world didn’t come to an end, Democrats didn’t protest and, indeed, felt that presidents had the gravitas to make the point that education and hard work were important. (Bill Clinton didn’t follow the tradition and Bush the Younger would have been laughed out of the classroom if he stressed the importance of study.)

Of course, Mr. Obama is a well-known Muslim, foreign-born usurper, terrorist and all-around-bad guy, a black guy on top of all of this, uppity to a fault.

So, a small number of naïve and frightened parents, goaded by the Rabid Right scare mongers, have objected to the President of the United States talking to school children urging them to stay in school, not to drop out. He will be stressing the point that, with education and the ability to read and think, they will be more financially secure, able to understand current affairs and be in a better position to pick their leaders – Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, whatever.

And the schools have reacted in a number of ways. Some have agreed to have parents decide if little Johnny or Sally’s little ears should be protected from the Satan on the Potomac; some have refused to allow the speech to be broadcast into their school; some have said that a complete civics education has to include an address by the President of the United States, whose office at the very least deserves respect.

The protesters are worried that, immediately following the address, the student bodies of every school will break out in song: Kum Ba Yah. Most of the kids will, more likely, text Twitter and write about next Saturday night’s date.

To public school administrators, I ask whether every class topic, every civics lesson is put to a vote by the parents or can be an individual choice by each parent. To the fearful objectors, what on earth are you frightened about. Kids learn their parents’ values and beliefs. As they grow older, they may accept them, reject them or pick and choose; this is part of becoming an adult. Don’t teach them to be insecure, frightened cowering bigots. Don’t teach them that they may delegate their thinking to demagogues on talk radio.

Tags: far right, GOP policies, healthcare, insurance industry, obama, Rush Limbaugh, speech to children, talk radio, “Healthcare Reform in the United States."