[Vision2020] President Obama's Socialist Mind-Control "Back to School" Speech Released

[Dave]

I think the kids whose parents don't want them to hear the speech should 
be made to write a defense of their opposing viewpoint and explain why 
they should NOT study hard and stay in school.

Dave


Tom Hansen wrote:
> Courtesy of the White House website at:
>
> http://www.whitehouse.gov/MediaResources/PreparedSchoolRemarks/
>
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> Prepared Remarks of President Barack Obama
> Back to School Event
>
> Arlington, Virginia
> September 8, 2009
>
> The President: Hello everyone – how’s everybody doing today? I’m here with
> students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And we’ve got
> students tuning in from all across America, kindergarten through twelfth
> grade. I’m glad you all could join us today.
>
> I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school. And for
> those of you in kindergarten, or starting middle or high school, it’s your
> first day in a new school, so it’s understandable if you’re a little
> nervous. I imagine there are some seniors out there who are feeling pretty
> good right now, with just one more year to go. And no matter what grade
> you’re in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer, and you
> could’ve stayed in bed just a little longer this morning.
>
> I know that feeling. When I was young, my family lived in Indonesia for a
> few years, and my mother didn’t have the money to send me where all the
> American kids went to school. So she decided to teach me extra lessons
> herself, Monday through Friday – at 4:30 in the morning.
> Now I wasn’t too happy about getting up that early. A lot of times, I’d
> fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. But whenever I’d complain,
> my mother would just give me one of those looks and say, "This is no
> picnic for me either, buster."
>
> So I know some of you are still adjusting to being back at school. But I’m
> here today because I have something important to discuss with you. I’m
> here because I want to talk with you about your education and what’s
> expected of all of you in this new school year.
>
> Now I’ve given a lot of speeches about education. And I’ve talked a lot
> about responsibility.
>
> I’ve talked about your teachers’ responsibility for inspiring you, and
> pushing you to learn.
>
> I’ve talked about your parents’ responsibility for making sure you stay on
> track, and get your homework done, and don’t spend every waking hour in
> front of the TV or with that Xbox.
>
> I’ve talked a lot about your government’s responsibility for setting high
> standards, supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools
> that aren’t working where students aren’t getting the opportunities they
> deserve.
>
> But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the
> most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world – and none of
> it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you
> show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your
> parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes
> to succeed.
>
> And that’s what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you
> has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have
> to yourself.
>
> Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of
> you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to
> discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide.
>
> Maybe you could be a good writer – maybe even good enough to write a book
> or articles in a newspaper – but you might not know it until you write a
> paper for your English class. Maybe you could be an innovator or an
> inventor – maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or a new
> medicine or vaccine – but you might not know it until you do a project for
> your science class. Maybe you could be a mayor or a Senator or a Supreme
> Court Justice, but you might not know that until you join student
> government or the debate team.
>
> And no matter what you want to do with your life – I guarantee that you’ll
> need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a
> police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a
> member of our military? You’re going to need a good education for every
> single one of those careers. You can’t drop out of school and just drop
> into a good job. You’ve got to work for it and train for it and learn for
> it.
>
> And 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.
>
> You’ll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science
> and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy
> technologies and protect our environment. You’ll need the insights and
> critical thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight
> poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation
> more fair and more free. You’ll need the creativity and ingenuity you
> develop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new
> jobs and boost our economy.
>
> We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and
> intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems. If you don’t
> do that – if you quit on school – you’re not just quitting on yourself,
> you’re quitting on your country.
>
> Now I know it’s not always easy to do well in school. I know a lot of you
> have challenges in your lives right now that can make it hard to focus on
> your schoolwork.
>
> I get it. I know what that’s like. My father left my family when I was two
> years old, and I was raised by a single mother who struggled at times to
> pay the bills and wasn’t always able to give us things the other kids had.
> There were times when I missed having a father in my life. There were
> times when I was lonely and felt like I didn’t fit in.
>
> So I wasn’t always as focused as I should have been. I did some things I’m
> not proud of, and got in more trouble than I should have. And my life
> could have easily taken a turn for the worse.
>
> But I was fortunate. I got a lot of second chances and had the opportunity
> to go to college, and law school, and follow my dreams. My wife, our First
> Lady Michelle Obama, has a similar story. Neither of her parents had gone
> to college, and they didn’t have much. But they worked hard, and she
> worked hard, so that she could go to the best schools in this country.
>
> Some of you might not have those advantages. Maybe you don’t have adults
> in your life who give you the support that you need. Maybe someone in your
> family has lost their job, and there’s not enough money to go around.
> Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don’t feel safe, or have
> friends who are pressuring you to do things you know aren’t right.
>
> But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life – what you look
> like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going
> on at home – that’s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad
> attitude. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting
> class, or dropping out of school. That’s no excuse for not trying.
>
> Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No
> one’s written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own
> destiny. You make your own future.
>
> That’s what young people like you are doing every day, all across America.
>
> Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas. Jazmin didn’t speak
> English when she first started school. Hardly anyone in her hometown went
> to college, and neither of her parents had gone either. But she worked
> hard, earned good grades, got a scholarship to Brown University, and is
> now in graduate school, studying public health, on her way to being Dr.
> Jazmin Perez.
>
> I’m thinking about Andoni Schultz, from Los Altos, California, who’s
> fought brain cancer since he was three. He’s endured all sorts of
> treatments and surgeries, one of which affected his memory, so it took him
> much longer – hundreds of extra hours – to do his schoolwork. But he never
> fell behind, and he’s headed to college this fall.
>
> And then there’s Shantell Steve, from my hometown of Chicago, Illinois.
> Even when bouncing from foster home to foster home in the toughest
> neighborhoods, she managed to get a job at a local health center; start a
> program to keep young people out of gangs; and she’s on track to graduate
> high school with honors and go on to college.
>
> Jazmin, Andoni and Shantell aren’t any different from any of you. They
> faced challenges in their lives just like you do. But they refused to give
> up. They chose to take responsibility for their education and set goals
> for themselves. And I expect all of you to do the same.
>
> That’s why today, I’m calling on each of you to set your own goals for
> your education – and to do everything you can to meet them. Your goal can
> be something as simple as doing all your homework, paying attention in
> class, or spending time each day reading a book. Maybe you’ll decide to
> get involved in an extracurricular activity, or volunteer in your
> community. Maybe you’ll decide to stand up for kids who are being teased
> or bullied because of who they are or how they look, because you believe,
> like I do, that all kids deserve a safe environment to study and learn.
> Maybe you’ll decide to take better care of yourself so you can be more
> ready to learn. And along those lines, I hope you’ll all wash your hands a
> lot, and stay home from school when you don’t feel well, so we can keep
> people from getting the flu this fall and winter.
> Whatever you resolve to do, I want you to commit to it. I want you to
> really work at it.
>
> I know that sometimes, you get the sense from TV that you can be rich and
> successful without any hard work -- that your ticket to success is through
> rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star, when chances are, you’re
> not going to be any of those things.
>
> But the truth is, being successful is hard. You won’t love every subject
> you study. You won’t click with every teacher. Not every homework
> assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute.
> And you won’t necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try.
> That’s OK.  Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones
> who’ve had the most failures. JK Rowling’s first Harry Potter book was
> rejected twelve times before it was finally published. Michael Jordan was
> cut from his high school basketball team, and he lost hundreds of games
> and missed thousands of shots during his career. But he once said, "I have
> failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I
> succeed."
>
> These people succeeded because they understand that you can’t let your
> failures define you – you have to let them teach you. You have to let them
> show you what to do differently next time. If you get in trouble, that
> doesn’t mean you’re a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to
> behave. If you get a bad grade, that doesn’t mean you’re stupid, it just
> means you need to spend more time studying.
>
> No one’s born being good at things, you become good at things through hard
> work. You’re not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport.
> You don’t hit every note the first time you sing a song. You’ve got to
> practice. It’s the same with your schoolwork. You might have to do a math
> problem a few times before you get it right, or read something a few times
> before you understand it, or do a few drafts of a paper before it’s good
> enough to hand in.
>
> Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you
> need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness,
> it’s a sign of strength. It shows you have the courage to admit when you
> don’t know something, and to learn something new. So find an adult you
> trust – a parent, grandparent or teacher; a coach or counselor – and ask
> them to help you stay on track to meet your goals.
> And even when you’re struggling, even when you’re discouraged, and you
> feel like other people have given up on you – don’t ever give up on
> yourself. Because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your
> country.
>
> The story of America isn’t about people who quit when things got tough.
> It’s about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their
> country too much to do anything less than their best.
>
> It’s the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and went
> on to wage a revolution and found this nation. Students who sat where you
> sit 75 years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world war; who fought
> for civil rights and put a man on the moon. Students who sat where you sit
> 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter and Facebook and changed the way
> we communicate with each other.
>
> So today, I want to ask you, what’s your contribution going to be? What
> problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will
> a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say
> about what all of you did for this country?
>
> Your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make
> sure you have the education you need to answer these questions. I’m
> working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment
> and computers you need to learn. But you’ve got to do your part too. So I
> expect you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort
> into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don’t
> let us down – don’t let your family or your country or yourself down. Make
> us all proud. I know you can do it.
>
> Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.
>
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> " . . . write your own destiny . . . make your own future . . . become
> good at things through hard work . . . you can't let your failures define
> you . . ."
>
> It's all socialist mind-control.  What's next?  Affordable health care?
>
> Seeya round town, comrades.
>
> Tom Hansen
> Moscow, Idaho
>
> "The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to change
> and the Realist adjusts his sails."
>
> - Unknown
>
>
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