I was absolutely mortified by the rumors and false rhetoric over President Obama’s speech to schoolchildren. I read how he was “indoctrinating” the children (to do better in school? That might be a good thing). People threatened to take their children out of school if it were shown. Permission slips were circulated (for a speech from the president of the United States?) to allow children to watch it. What is wrong with people?
Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and many other presidents have addressed schools. No one would have made one ripple if it had been any other president.
The thing is, Obama is the president of the United States. What kind of twisted logic would have parents disrespect the leader of our country? In this country, it is our right as citizens to elect a president (and he won by a very large majority). It is the system.
George W. Bush could say that if you aren’t with him, you are a terrorist. When it comes to Obama, it is not the same call. If George W. Bush had talked to the kids like Obama, permission slips would not have been sent home. We wouldn’t have been keeping our kids home from school.
My question is this: What kind of message are you sending to your kids if you won’t let them listen to a presidential speech? Are you saying that you won’t accept his authority as the president of the United States when he won in a fair election, with a majority of the country behind him?
On Facebook, people were arguing and it wasn’t pretty and friends were getting angry with friends, all because of this speech. I don’t like the GOP spin, the false rumors, the scare tactics we know so well from the right-wing fanatics who have become the voice of the Republican Party.
In Utah, where we have to suffer with archaic and ridiculous laws, there is little separation between church and state. When we don’t agree with the Legislature, when we have laws forced on us that repress our rights as U.S. citizens, it makes it weird to live here sometimes. When we try to oppose this control or stand up for ourselves, we’re told, “If you don’t like it here, then leave.”
The same should be said about people in the United States. If they want to act like spoiled children who won’t accept the president’s authority, I’d like to tell them: “If you don’t like it, then leave.” Many of us had to live for eight long years watching the destruction of this country—the death of thousands of people in an unnecessary war; the destruction of the economy, the education system, and the ecology of the world; the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer and the middle class disappearing. Well, we finally got to change things. So, if you don’t like it here, then leave.
Tamara Wright
Salt Lake City
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