Even as one of the biggest political junkies in the world, sometimes I’m still amazed at what’s going to set off the Roman candles and create a political “debate.”
I wasn’t surprised when some on the right started their effort to silence the President’s talk to schoolchildren, but I have to say, I have been amazed at the comments and, shall we say, fiery discussion, over the topic at this blog and at BlogHer.
While I understand what some are saying, especially by people I truly respect even though there’s not a lot we agree on politically, I still shake my head and wonder if this all wasn’t much ado about nothing. But the bigger question on my mind after this brouhaha is this — How do we get people to harness this energy and passion to work on other things that are the real problems in this country?
The White House released the speech. Some were upset at the questions in the suggested “lesson plan.” And then people were unhappy because the speech was released on a holiday weekend! Not to mention that some people who were behind the effort to brand the speech as socialist indoctrination now contend they were just concerned parents who didn’t want the authority of school districts usurped by the White House.
But with the economy still in the tank and getting worse, regardless of what you read in the papers, two wars, health care hanging by a thread, and children going hungry every night, not to mention things around the world that could use some of our attention, isn’t this a mole hill? It sure doesn’t look like the Grand Tetons to me.
The President’s speech got so much attention, that it was the topic of CNN.com’s Blogger Bunch immediately after the speech. I was excited to be invited, even though my Skype service decided to be finicky toward the end of the discussion (and, yes, I know I need a haircut!).
Because the other point I wanted to make was this — imagine what we all could accomplish if we used the time and energy that was spent over the last few days on a speech to stay in school and we used it to work toward real change on the bigger issues that are dragging this country down.
Maybe I’m naive for thinking that. But there are women I’ve talked to on all sides of politics (including the ones who say they’re not political but I know deep down they are!) who think we could do this.
What do think? Am I being a cockeyed optimist or are we just doomed to stay in our own philosophical boxes until the next generation comes along?
September 8th, 2009 at 3:37 pm
“…isn’t this a mole hill”
No no no no no no! It isn’t a mole hill if *this is what gets people riled up*. To discount and condescend to people’s passion for this past event is to throw away just that momentum of energy, maybe just to prove a sour point.
This was important to people. This got quite a few people who aren’t usually politically active to write to their schools and take other action.
And why? The cynics on the left will focus on the alleged racism and bigotry of the right. But honestly, that’s too simplistic in a lot of ways.
What was at the center of all this was people’s children. It does no good to complain or wonder whether some people don’t really care about their children if they won’t allow them to do something as straightforward as watch the President at school. I think that’s the wrong way of looking at it, and really, just picking a fight for a fight’s sake.
Most parents will run in front of buses and cut off their own arms to save their kids. So why not concentrate in the positives in this latest event? Look what parents were willing to do for their kids – Get up off their butts, for one. That’s a challenge in and of itself. It was a direct event effecting their kids. They moved on it. Same way people who complain about more taxes for health care will take off a weekend to run a beef and beer charity event to help pay for a local child’s medical care, and without asking to see political party affiliation cards, first.
So, how to keep that motivating factor in mind when talking approaching other topics? It’s a sticky wicket because the risk is that when speaking about how the other “bigger” issues affect children, we cross the line into exploitation. But we’re pretty smart. I think there are ways to include what is most important to most people – their devotion and love and worry for children, their neighbors’ children, their grandchildren – in outlining the long term and short term objectives and effects of any policy.
Anyway…I really think its the wrong tact to tell people that what they are passionate about is not as important as what they should be passionate about. Tai Chi. Use the energy that is there instead of applying opposing force.
September 8th, 2009 at 4:36 pm
Fair point, my friend. I know when it comes to our children, there’s more passion involved. But then that makes me wonder why there isn’t more of this sort of passion for health care reform? There are tens of millions of children without health care — can we come together to work toward that? SCHIP is only a band-aid on that problem
September 8th, 2009 at 5:27 pm
Save their children — from WHAT?? From hearing the President of the United States tell them to stay in school, study hard and be successful? From being asked to help the President help the country raise the next generation of innovators?
The fear that harm could be done to our nation’s school children from a speech by the President of the United States is what I cannot fathom. I have disliked plenty of Presidents — but I would NEVER think that I needed to shield them from a speech about the importance of education… or any speech, for that matter.
There is nothing wrong with disagreeing with the President. There is nothing wrong with disliking the President. But disrespecting the office is shameful, as is trying to censor him (which is what this movement tried to do). Advocating a boycott of schools that carried the speech is reprehensible.
Yeah, I’m angry. It’s been a long, hot summer that has been filled with vitriolic, insane distortions and rhetoric instead of intelligent debate over important issues — yes, I’m talking healthcare. And the economy. And the wars we are fighting. The brouhaha and wasted energy over this innocuous speech has sent me completely over the edge.
September 8th, 2009 at 8:27 pm
The craziness surrounding the speech bothers me in the realm of priorities. What’s more important: regulating how students in public schools spend a small part of one day, or making sure all those same students can go to the doctor if they break a bone? Or get H1N1? More than half my class is below or near the poverty line. I want them to hear the president’s advice; even more, I want them to grow up safe and healthy.
September 8th, 2009 at 11:43 pm
If the President’s advice is so very important and schools aren’t going to show it, then people could organize and get kids to a venue where they could see it. It would take hard work and energy to do it, but if it’s so important, then people can take the time and do the hard work. it doesn’t matter that there are bigger issues; if this is about racism (as some say), well, that’s a pretty big issue, too.
There’s a lot of educational micro-issues that I think are a waste of time, but that other people think are very important. It does not good for me to tell them that I think they are being ridiculous. That kind of talk only backs people into corners and keeps them snarling.
The fact is that the White House screwed this up by releasing the ed.gov lesson plans, and those lesson plans were nose-leading at most. There wasn’t even a hint of critical or open discussion being offered. If they would have released the speech instead of pussyfooting around, most of this would actually have been a non issues.
I’d warrant that the people most loudly expressing their fears (via hate speak and what comes across to us as unreasonable) are people who feel otherwise very powerless right now.
“There is nothing wrong with disagreeing with the President. There is nothing wrong with disliking the President.”
This is not what they are hearing. And the close-ended questions in the ed.gov documents solidified it. (See my very picky comments in the post below as to how the questions could have been even slightly changed and allowed for some critical discussion – not even of politics, but in helping kids to dissect messages and how they affect us or don’t effect us. I think Obama’s speech would have held up well, and everyone would have been, well, a little less angry.)
Here’s my main beef, and I feel like I’m getting blue in the face saying it: You, me, others…it’s okay to say that we’re okay with our kids hearing any messages from any political figure (which is, unfortunately, what the President has been boiled down to these days, but okay….) because we have the time and resources to help our kids look at it critically, look at the meta-questions raised, understand the rhetoric and how it effects them, etc. That this was an otherwise benign speech (as most all agree now) is of no consequence. When kids don’t have those resources at home to learn critical thinking or when teachers don’t have time and resources to concentrate on critical thinking skills, well, then any message becomes a threat. Huck Finn becomes a threat. Big Bang becomes a threat. Adam and Eve become a threat.
To think critically, to ask open ended questions, to push your comfort zone to include new information – even objectively good and useful information – really requires putting your known identity on hold and could mean shifting and losing a whole lot of what you believe about yourself and your life circumstances. I think that can be a big deal to someone who is spending much of their energy on basic emotional or physical survival needs. When you’re living in a gray area like that, living on shaky ground already, it’s a tricky thing to risk any new information, to risk a new identity.
I’m not saying that this would describe all who were being loud and boycotting etc. But generally, when people feel “good” about themselves and feel self-empowered and feel as if they have the tools to critically look at and assimilate new info without it being a threat to much of who they are, then they don’t behave in irrational ways that separate themselves from huge swaths of society every time they are presented with new info or contradictory. Or even the same info, but presented by someone new.
All to say what? No. On the surface, I don’t get it the hooplah. But a few layers down, and I begin to understand it in a sort of academic way. And maybe with a bit of empathy and compassion.
At the very extreme (and I don’t for a second believe this is everyone who boycotted) I can’t just tell a racist to stop being a racist. I can’t guilt them or ridicule them or punish them into changing their heart and mind. I can do what I can to stop them from acting on it in illegal ways. But could you imagine someone whose identity from birth, handed down to them by their family and community and soul source of support and survival contains the information “blacks are to be feared/hated”. Can you imagine what risks someone has to be prepared to take to change that piece of themselves? I’ve heard people who are educated and progressive and liberal, etc. etc. and who have worked hard to get beyond their family legacy of bigotry *still* say that it’s something they struggle with at times, something that hits them in subtle ways.
I mean, I don’t have any answers for it. Only that it’s not a belief or fear that can be easily reasoned away, even when a person otherwise agrees with everything the President might say in the speech. But for all my complaints about Obama, I respect him with all my heart and mind for saying that this is an ongoing dialog that we need to work hard at, and one that can’t keep repeating the same dance steps if we’re ever going to get beyond. I hear the hate and the vitriol and it saddens and scares me. But if we keep throwing up our hands and just giving it right back or walking away forever in frustration, well…that’s the same dance.
Hard work. Personal responsibility. Following our dreams.
My dream looks pretty Kumbaya, but I’m a Pollyanna at times. In any event, as a short term activity, doing what I’ve always been doing and giving it back as good as “they” give it just doesn’t fit in with my long term goals. It doesn’t fit the dream. And so, I’m trying something different.