Wednesday, September 9, 2009

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Politically speaking, I am somewhere left of of many of you, and somewhere to the right of the rest of you. Now that that is clear as mud, I'm going to enter the dangerous politically-charged, on-my-soapbox arena. I watched with fascination as the warnings began posting on facebook: Obama to implement Hitler-esque youth brigade, etc. I clicked on links that took me to conservative website after conservative website searching for exactly what my son might be exposed to. Yet, I found no evidence that Obama was beginning to grow a funny mustache OR indoctrinate my son, although I was curious as to what exactly the text of the speech might be. I watched and read the speech yesterday, and I found nothing objectionable to me.

I do respect every parent's right to limit what his or her child is exposed to. There is much in this worldly world that I do NOT want my babies exposed to/influenced by, and I respect that each parent has his or her own belief systems. (For example, we do not read/watch the Twilight series. We stress creationism, despite the fact that evolution is taught exclusively in our school system.)

I find it odd that my son's school made the choice to not show the speech at all. We were not given an opt in choice. The speech was simply not shown. It seems that some parents threatened to keep their children home from school if the school showed the speech at all.

I do not always agree with the president. I didn't always agree with the last president, and I think it's safe to say that I will never agree wholeheartedly with any president 100% of the time. Growing up, I remember my parents voicing their disagreement with the president, but it was always done with a note of civility towards the rabbit ears on the tv. I remember a respect for the job that appears absent today.

What (apparently) started as a way for the highest elected official in our country to encourage our youth somehow morphed into an agenda to further criticize one point of view over another, to further split party lines, to disrespect the office of the president. As for me and my house, we WILL serve the LORD. We will also show respect to all people, regardless of their political, religious, cultural, or educational beliefs, including the man elected to lead our country.

That is all. Please feel free to comment. How did your school handle this subject?

2 comments:

Bethany said...

I have read this..just kidding. No really I did read it.

I didn't watch the President's speech. I never do. I probably should but I always get so annoyed for the very thing you posted about. Everytime he (regardless of who he is at the time) says something I can already hear the hysteria. It irks me. I wonder if as a society we are really so devoid of the ability to think through a single sentence clearly. It often seems that most people just wait to be told what to think.
As for how our school handled it, we dont' have a school. My kids are 5 and 3 and I've started homeschooling my oldest this year. I did not show her the speech.

Also, I enjoyed this post. You should do it again sometime.

Wheelie said...

I live in England, UK.

I've followed the debate in the US with some interest. I couldn't say what what my political leanings are - never thought about it.

My disappointments in the debate in the US are is they're quite simplistic. Using people like Steven Hawkins as an example of failure -suggesting he wouldn't have survived under the NHS (National Health Service) while he obviously has, and volubly says so, and personally, knowing I wouldn't be here either if it wasn't for the NHS.

It's the dishonesty of the US far right, the fear they attempt to spread, and that people fall for it that gets me. And that they get away with it.

I'm cool with freedom of speech. I'm not cool with it being abused