The President of theUnited States, Barack Hussein Obama II is going to address the nation’sstudents on September 8^th, 2009.   The President indicated his intent to do this some timeago.  When the President wasinterviewed by student reporter Damon Weaver, he talked about reading,studying, doing well in school, and getting involved in the community byhelping others.  I’m fairly certainthe President intends to expand on this message, one I fully agree with. 

I think seeing andhearing from our President is inspiring. He was a man of modest means. He wasn’t born with a silver spoon in his mouth.  He didn’t come from a wealthyfamily.   However, he valued educationand knowledge.  He knew what he hadto do in order to achieve critical success.  He worked hard. Then, he worked harder.  Heachieved critical success, and today he is the President of the UnitedStates.  This is a powerful story,one worth hearing again, and again.

So, my wife and I werefrustrated, but not surprised, to hear the so-called Right talking aboutObama’s indoctrination speech, and how he is trying to get to the nation’schildren to further his political agenda, and separate the youth from theirparents.  We were disgusted to hearleaders, members of the GOP echo this nonsense.  We discussed it, as we are wont to do in our home.  We considered it critically.  We had a personal perspective on the issue.  However, the hallmark of the criticalthinker is the sincere consideration of someone else’s perspective, especiallywhen they are completely and diametrically opposed to your own.   

So, to that end I putmy own perspective to the side and considered critically why people might notwant to have the President speak to their children.  I thought about it. I considered the sincere damage to someone’s child, the awful damagethat might occur by listening to the President’s speech.  I couldn’t imagine it. I couldn’t seeit, or hear it in my mind’s eye. Damage?  What damage?  I took a mental pause.  Well, there are those that are callinghim a fascist.  Okay, I certainlywouldn’t want my daughter to listen to a fascist.  Or is he a communist? I shook my head at the consideration and had to swiftly dismiss it.  The train of thought, which hascaptured the minds of so many weak-willed non-critical thinking American’s wasspoonish in the extreme, and trying to walk that mental path was causing me anguish,such was the level of sincere stupidity.

I switched gears, andtried again. I saw the video of Florida GOP Chairman Jim Greer on CNN withAnderson Cooper, and Roland Martin. I saw Anderson Cooper visibly work on hiding his disgust at theChairman’s sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.  I saw Roland smile, and exerciserestraint as he waded into ignorance. What was Chairman Greer’s supposition?  He stated that based on the curriculum disseminated by theadministration there was cause for concern, that it led one to believe that thePresident was going to speak to America’s children about his policies, theCHANGE he wants to make, and that this is unacceptable. 

You know what?  A critical thinker would view this asan exercise for his or her child. If the family stance is diametrically opposed to the President’sposition, it would be worthwhile to have the child listen, come home anddiscuss the critical points of what was said, to have an intellectual familydebate and perhaps discuss actions the family should take in order to furthertheir political position, peacefully, amicably, leaning into positive conflictwith those they ideologically oppose, trying mightily to define solutions thateveryone can live with.  Alas,that’s my family, that’s other like-minded families, critical thinkingfamilies.  The people out there talkingabout keeping their kids out of school and shutting down school districts arenot critical thinkers at all.  Theyare the spoon-mass, the mindless on legs, with feet for brains, and brains forfeet, consistently stepping, stomping, mashing down their critical cognitionwith ignorance, stupidity, and mass-fear, engendered by their ideologicalmongers, men and women of immense wealth who take perverse pleasure in incitingignorance and making money at the expense of the minds of the people they catertoo.

Sorry about the rant.

This is simplydisgusting.  As I continued mycritical consideration I had to work to push back my disgust, my knowing andunderstanding innately the whys of this situation.  Images of the newly political crept into my head.  I’ve always exercised the franchise,and made it my business to know who I voted for.  However, I’ve been more active now than I ever havebefore.  I recognize this activityin those that make me increasingly ill. Many of them are the newly political.  They’ve never been so engaged.  What’s so different now?  Where was this righteous indignation in theyesteryears?  Why do they cry,wail, and beat their breast, lamenting change, talking about their lostAmerica, the America that has seemingly vanished over the last six months.  Where did their America go?  I mean, I would hate to lose anAmerica?  I fear such a loss aswell.  Maybe we should form ahunting posse, or maybe a classical quest?  … do I need to even say it?  Do I need to even mention the conscientious stupidityevident in this train of thought? 

Oh, there are theCommittee on Foreign Relation theorists, the anti-tax crowd, and those thathated Bush as much as Clinton who are coming to the fore, but I’m not talkingto them.  They are the CHANGE theyseek and always have been, I’m talking about the massive motivated everydaymiddle-of-the-road masses that have popped out of the wood work of late,standing side-by-side with hate mongers, killers, anti-this that and the otheractivists, calling others sheeple, when they are happily motivated and moved bymoney interests and cigar-chomping ideologues who say plainly stupid thingslike I want this country’s leader to fail so our country can be saved.

Sorry, I’m rantingagain. 

Okay, I continued downthe path of a differing perspective. I looked at the curriculum, which was surrounded by a diatribe by somewriter on the Portland Parenting Examiner.  I saw quotes from FOX, a definition of indoctrination, astatement this woman made about high-schoolers rebelling against their parentsand most notably a sentence about these huge time-consuming projects duringlayoffs and reduction in school days. Huge time consuming projects? She is clearly not a critical-thinker, and strikes me as the kind ofperson that might have voted for that spoon-bag Senator from Oklahoma, Inhofe,a man who merrily states, “I’ don’t have to read it, I know what’s in it.  I’m going to oppose it anyways.”  People, READING IS FUNDAMENTAL!  And our kids need to be doing MOREwork, and they definitely don’t need parents complaining about the amount ofschool work they have, HUGE PROJECTS?!?! No wonder so many of us are so woefully ignorant. 

Okay, if you have notdone so, I encourage you to please go read the curriculum that wasproposed.  I’m not putting any ofit in here.  I’ve written too muchas it is.  Go read it foryourself.  Google it.  Really read it, lowering your filters,and consider it critically.  As itis written, if your child is diametrically opposed to the President and hispolicies, even though he does not intend to discuss policy I’ve been told, yourchild could use these exercises to build an opposing position, write about it,discuss it, make a video, and a poster. Those opposed to this activity are most certainly non-criticalthinkers. 

Here are what somepeople are thinking regarding the President’s speech:

Mark Steven, aCanadian author and political commentator, speaking on the Rush Limbaugh showon Wednesday, accused Mr. Obama of trying to create a cult of personality,comparing him to Saddam Hussein and Kim Jong-il, the North Korean leader. 

The Republican Partychairman in Florida, Jim Greer, said he “was appalled that taxpayer dollars arebeing used to spread President Obama’s socialist ideology.”

And Chris Stigall, aKansas City talk show host, said, “I wouldn’t let my next-door neighbor talk tomy kid alone; I’m sure as hell not letting Barack Obama talk to him alone.”

These are the peoplewho feel they are losing our America, and it’s happening in record time.  That’s where I stopped.  I had considered enough.  It was very, very difficult, becausethis reaction to the President was asinine in the extreme, just my personalopinion.  However, I tried, I wentdown the path.  I considered.  It changed nothing. Just so we can beclear,  I WANT MILLIONS OF AMERICANCHILDREN TO HEAR THE PRESIDENT AND FOLLOW HIS EXAMPLE. 

Listening to Jim Greertalk about how most American parents are concerned about the President’s agendaindoctrinating their youth is like listening to the sound of mucous flying fromJim Belushi’s nose as he spoke into his hands in the student court scene ofAnimal House.  Go check it out ifyou don’t know the reference.

Most Americans MOST,have kids that need to be exercising their mental muscles.  They need to be writing how they canhelp the President, whether they agree or disagree.  They should be reading, writing, and thinking.  They should be engaged in dealing withthe President.  It is disgusting,idiotic, stupid, racist, disrespectful of the office, the President, and BarackObama the man to raise a total uproar against him speaking to this nation’sstudents, and threatening to keep them out of school.  If you don’t want the President to speak to your child,simply keep them out of school, don’t disgust the air with this mendacity andasinine political agenda which is rooted in exploiting any and all differencesin order to reacquire power for your party, or no party at all.  I have voted Republican and was proudto do so.  I have voted Democratand seen my candidate do that which I believe and support.  The GOP needs to undergo a paradigmshift.  At this moment, they are theparty of no, the party of hate, the party of theocratic dominance, the party ofdivisiveness, the party that will never again have my vote, unless they undergoa fundamental transformation.

Let me say that I oncebelieved we had come so far. Understand, we really have, but I had shifted myperspective, my focus and intent. When I heard people talk about race stillbeing the core issue in America, I felt wise when I corrected them. I agreedwith W.E.B. DuBois’s statement that the critical question of the 20th centurywas the color line. However, I posited that the critical question of the 21stcentury was the economic line, the struggle between the haves and have-nots. Iwas woefully ignorant and naive, bolstered by the kids at the Mall of Georgia,the integrated couples here in Suwanee, and all the great race relations herein Atlanta, and just about everywhere else I looked. Oh, I knew, and stillacknowledged the struggle, but I let my hope and desire to tackle that 21stcentury challenge cloud my vision, dimming the stench of the 20th centurylegacy, that still roiled our nation's social fabric, an undercurrent that isincredibly slow to recede. Obama's elevation to the White House blasted away myignorance, and re-focused my vision, as so much of what was hidden kept jumpingout of the dark. 

Racism is a componentin this issue. Power politics is an even larger component.  Ideology and fear are powerfulcomponents. Human emotion takes hold of these factors and we see the mess thatnow predominates as our politics.  Ifyou're being a good parent, then whatever subliminal (?) message some man isbeaming into your child's head through the television should not matter. Iguess there are those New World Order, Bilderberger, Illuminati powers toconsider, but I don't get into that. In fact, if you're teaching your child tobe a critical thinker, listening to the President's message should be a goodexercise, don't cha think? If you don't like what he's saying, see how hiswords come across to your child. Or, are you afraid that your child will not bewhat YOU want them to be instead of what they are destined to be, growing fromyour sincere efforts? THAT ... is a very critical question.

Honestly, it wasill-advised to send out the lesson-plan info. Someone over-reached. The onlyreason I say this is because someone forgot the President is black, and thatstigma from the 20th century is still an undercurrent. As I tell black men from5 to 50 the eyes of scrutiny are on you. No matter how successful you are thereis no magical door you can walk through where success is not questioned by someone,scrutinized by someone, despised by someone, because of the color of your skin,no matter its shade, origin, or ethnicity. If your last name is Hernandez andyou are the divisional director someone is going to wonder how you got there,was it a favor, did you deserve it, and did you take that position from someonemore deserving, but your elevation satisfied a quota. You will spend your lifeshowing and proving. The best of us don't dwell on this. We simply DO. Ipersonally despise petty power politics, but I do it well in my corporateenvironment because I must. Focusing on achieving critical success makes iteasier. Doing anything else, thinking you are privileged leads to disaster, askMarion Barry, or Bill Campbell. Being of color means you strive for perfection,knowing it will never be achieved, but it is your goal until the day you die.The best of us know that we must live to make no mistakes, even though we will,that we must stand up after each failure, and acknowledge that as black men weare considered the least of men, even by our African brethren. As the kids say,please believe it. Acknowledging this, means that someone in the administrationmust always stay on guard for those that will attack the President for everyconceivable little thing, looking for the cracks in the armor, waiting topounce, while at the same time throwing everything at him in the hopes thatsomething will stick, even that which evokes a sense of racism.

Where is the respectfor the office? Where is the respect for the President? Where is the respectfor the man? I need not answer this. I won't. In a country where the youth needto see a man who has achieved critical success from modest means, who found abootstrap, put on, laced up, and launched out, it is a shame that we have aportion of the population that calls themselves real Americans wanting to denytheir children the opportunity to see and listen to such an accomplished man.It is sad that they are so apparently weak in mental critical cognition thatthey don't see value in having their children engage the President's words evenfrom the standpoint of disagreement. It's a shame to see people talking aboutindoctrination, socio-communistic-fascism, the destruction of America, and thedoom of us all. It's shameful to see so much hate, so much vitriol, so muchnonsense. It's a shame to see this expressed by the elected, by the leaders, bythe people who should be at the forefront of change, even if it's change thatis ideologically different. They should be leaning into positive conflict,instead of spreading stupidity and ignorance, seeding their followers with ODS,Obama Derangement Syndrome, and pushing them further and further from simplecommon sense.

I will be listeningnext week. I will be watching. I will be writing. I will be vlogging. I willremain ever critical of the President, moreso than any other, because I ampersonally invested in his success, and his ethnicity. I make no excuses onthis score. There are those just waiting to say he was never fit for theposition. I am invested in America. I am no longer naive. I'm not blatantlystupid enough to try and explain how I want my leader to fail so my nation cansucceed. I am truly re-invested in the capital markets, in several American companies.If Obama succeeds, I see these companies succeeding (non critical-thinkersfabricate an agenda where free-market stagnation is Obama's goal, despite hisown words otherwise). If these companies succeed, and the initiatives hesupports succeed, America will be vastly incredibly different, far better in myopinion, an America I will be proud to live in, just as proud I was yesterday,last year, and just as proud as I am today.

Oh, and just in caseyou didn't know, SUPPORT THE KENNEDY PUBLIC OPTION, AND OBAMACARE IN '09!!!

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