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<DIV><FONT size=2><STRONG><FONT size=5>An A in Overreaction<BR></FONT></STRONG>
<P><FONT size=-1>By Kathleen Parker<BR>Wednesday, September 9, 2009
<BR></FONT></P>
<P></P>
<P>Just when you thought things couldn't get any stupider, schools across the
nation decided <A
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/03/AR2009090300965.html"
target="">to censor</A> <A
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/08/AR2009090801090.html"
target="">President Obama's speech</A> urging kids to work hard because "being
successful is hard." </P>
<P>And that, ladies and gentlemen, was the terribly scary bit of propaganda that
prompted certain Americans to cry "socialism" and "indoctrination" and force
some schools to opt out of hearing the president's <A
href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-the-President-in-a-National-Address-to-Americas-Schoolchildren/"
target="">message</A> Tuesday. </P>
<P>When and how did we become so ridiculous? </P>
<P>As it turns out, we've been this way for a while. Such protests -- a review
of which follows shortly -- aren't new. The difference is that now the masses
are technologically enabled, amplified by a twillion tweets. Everybody's got a
megaphone, bless democracy's heart. </P>
<P>But when a protest of one (or a few) can instantly morph into a babble of
thousands, rabble-rousing becomes a hobby -- and rational debate becomes an
oxymoron. </P>
<P>Granting a super-sized benefit of the doubt to protesters, Obama's speech
originally included classroom instructional materials from the Education
Department that asked students to express how they were inspired by the
president and how they might help him. </P>
<P>Too political, critics said. Indoctrination, charged Florida Republican Party
Chairman Jim Greer. </P>
<P>"As the father of four children, I am absolutely appalled that taxpayer
dollars are being used to spread President Obama's socialist ideology," Greer
said. </P>
<P>Some conservative radio and television hosts latched onto the specter of
youth camps past and encouraged parents to keep their children home from school
in protest. </P>
<P>Okay, benefit-of-the-doubt rescinded. Even asking kids to help the president
improve the nation doesn't justify charges of socialist indoctrination. John F.
Kennedy's famous "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do
for your country" is hardly considered a bugle call to summer camp in the Urals.
</P>
<P>Essentially, Obama's speech, which aired live, focused on encouraging
students to evaluate how they might contribute to making America better. "What
problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make?" </P>
<P>Anyone who heard or read the address will have found little to criticize,
except perhaps that it was a tad boring, too long -- and certifiably schmaltzy.
Then again, he was talking to kids, some of them as young as 5. Even former
first lady Laura Bush and former House speaker Newt Gingrich approved of the
president's talk. </P>
<P>Presidential speeches to students aren't new. The St. Petersburg Times's
indispensable PolitiFact.com "Truth-O-Meter" <A
href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2009/sep/03/arne-duncan/barack-obama-not-first-president-address-school-ch/"
target="">notes</A> that both Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush gave such
addresses while president. And, yes, Democrats protested. Reagan's speech was,
in fact, political, as he went beyond stressing the importance of education to
discuss nuclear disarmament, defense funding and even taxes. Talk about a
snooze. </P>
<P>Gingrich, who at the time of Bush's address was House Republican whip,
defended the president's right to speak directly to students. But Richard
Gephardt, then the House Democratic leader, said the Education Department
shouldn't be producing "paid political advertising for the president. . . . And
the president should be doing more about education than saying, 'Lights, camera,
action.' " </P>
<P>And round and round we go. The hysterics, it would seem, have reached a
detente. Or, one hopes, canceled each other out. Compared to previous
presidential addresses, Obama's was strictly apolitical. It was also
quintessential Obama -- aimed at healing, at soothing the afflicted and making
things all better. The speech was so brimming with pathos, it seemed to have
been concocted around a campfire where kids recalled their worst day in school.
</P>
<P>Addressing all ages of students, from kindergartners to 12th-graders,
presents challenges, but Obama managed to hit every group's vulnerabilities and
insecurities -- from being bullied, to not fitting in, to having a divided
family. Hey, he's been there! </P>
<P>And now he's president. You can be, too, was the subtext. What's so wrong
with that? </P>
<P>One might have wished Obama's remarks cut by half. It also would have been
nice if he had thrown in an Ashley or a Jonah among the students he featured --
Jazmin, Andoni and Shantell. But overall, the president's message was a
conservative hymn, a GOP platform for kiddies: Take personal responsibility,
don't blame others for your failures, listen to your parents and your teachers,
work hard. </P>
<P>"Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future." </P>
<P>The only thing missing from this orgy of conservative orthodoxy was . . . a
Republican president. And <I>that</I> is the lesson of the day. </P>
<P><I><A href="mailto:kathleenparker@washpost.com"
target="">kathleenparker@washpost.com</A></I> </P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>