On this morning's news KY3 did a story on Obama's upcoming speech (which aired later today). The interviewed one man who objected to the speech. His problem: Nazis.
Yep.
His grandmother lived through the war and he was concerned about all this Nazi business. Then ... THEN ... he actually read the speech given to him by the news reporter. Seems it wasn't so bad after all. All this hoopla over a president telling the nation's children to take responsibility for their own education and work hard. (I tried to look for the KY3 video link, but couldn't find it on the website. After the site kept crashing, I finally gave up trying.)
KOLR 10 also had a story on a third grade class at Roundtree elementary. Taught by John Walstrand, the students watched the speech and were instructed to use their Com Art skills to write effectively with a specific topic telling us what they understood, an idea which is strongly supported by state guidelines. What did the kids get out of the Nazi propoganda?
Yep.
His grandmother lived through the war and he was concerned about all this Nazi business. Then ... THEN ... he actually read the speech given to him by the news reporter. Seems it wasn't so bad after all. All this hoopla over a president telling the nation's children to take responsibility for their own education and work hard. (I tried to look for the KY3 video link, but couldn't find it on the website. After the site kept crashing, I finally gave up trying.)
KOLR 10 also had a story on a third grade class at Roundtree elementary. Taught by John Walstrand, the students watched the speech and were instructed to use their Com Art skills to write effectively with a specific topic telling us what they understood, an idea which is strongly supported by state guidelines. What did the kids get out of the Nazi propoganda?
- Never give up and always be respectful to your teachers.
- Get a job; don't skip school.
- Be responsible.
- If you fail, it doesn't mean you are stupid.
Keep in mind that other presidents have addressed the nations children. George HW Bush did it in 1991 and Ronald Reagan did it in 1988. Conservative blogger, Larry, at Simple Thoughts of a Complex Mind (who has been MIA for a while due to a new baby boy) posted on all the silliness yesterday. He must have felt strongly to join us again. [Good to read you again, buddy.]
He concludes, rightly so, that we need to act better than our politicians. (I found that to be a funny line.) Good people can disagree on religion and politics, but to call the leader of the free world a Nazi (Musolini, Hitler, Stalin, Antichrist, or whatever) is just plain irrational.
Yes, Jeremy, it is irrational. [wink]
If folks actually care to read the speech before they call it Nazi propaganda, they could go here, here or here. But people have not been doing that. They have fallen prey to the nasty tactics of hardcore right-wing politicos (Rush, Coulter, etc) believing that somehow our president is a Nazi and our local paper is too full of pictures of Black people.
Then there is the guy on this morning's news spouting the same stuff before he's even read the speech. Don't forget, people also think that Obama is the Antichrist, he wants to kill senior citizens, and that people who refuse the H1N1 vaccine will go to a concentration camp. The amount of ignorance is mind boggling and it is not relegated to a few. The crazy has gone pandemic and permeated otherwise rational people's minds like mad cow disease.
If you are buying into any of this I offer this advice: Take a breath. Read Larry's post and consider if, perhaps, you have been led a bit astray. There's no shame as it happens to us all. Even this blogger went through his anti-Bush anger for a while, although I never called him a Nazi.
It's healthy to be angry and be a dissenter. Having your own beliefs is the crux of a democracy. If you really believe our president is a Nazi incogneto, wants to kill seniors, is Satan's cabana boy, or will institute death camps for vaccine deniers, then I respectfully suggest you change your news channel and take a deep breath. None of that is true. It's all crazy talk meant to cultivate irrational hatred.
You are smarter than that. You have to be otherwise our society is doomed, and I don't believe we are doomed. I really think that we are smarter than all of this nonsense. And so, I direct you back to Obama's speech as understood by these third graders.
- Take responsibility for your own knowledge.
- Be respectful.
- If you fail, it doesn't mean you are stupid.
Gee. I think Obama's speech was more apropos than we might have known. I'm not sure he was actually talking to our kids. I think he might have been talking to us.
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4 comments:
I've been at events that KY3 "covers". Sorry, they go straight for the lunatics. The media is crafting your perception. Catanese wants more viewers, so he goes with the headlines and lunacy to continue the circus.
His is not an isolated perception. It is pervasive, widespread. Remember all of the angry mobs at the recent town hall meetings?
Look around you, Jeremy. The people have become fearful to the point if being illogical and radical because some conservative leaders are calling our president a Nazi. You have to admit that will have consequences. Everyone needs to take a deep breath and calm down.
Look around where? You watch TV, and are convinced of this being pervasive. I don't watch TV and attend the events. I was at the April 15th and July 4th Tea Parties.
I met with Claire McCaskill's District Director for the area to discuss the Health Care situation. None of us at that discussion were anything that you claim is pervasive. We were programmers, doctors, lawyers, entrepreneurs, home makers, and more. None of us even raised their voice at this meeting. These are the type of people that work to get this done.
KY3 Coverage of Claire McCaskill's town hall in Springfield was abysmal. They didn't have a crowd mic, so half of the event was silent. I would have been there had work allowed it.
I'm not just hoping for it to not be true, I've watched the difference in coverage (via the Web) between people that I respect such as Chris Brewer, and people that I don't such as KY3 and Dave Catanese.
The KY3 coverage outside McCaskill's town hall was pathetic as well. They managed to find the person that didn't care whether he got in, he just wanted to watch people. They found 3 pro-health care people, and didn't interview anyone holding an opposing sign.
Why do you think this is a leader driven issue? Because it is on the progressive side? The labor unions get their people out and buy professionally made signs for them. The opposition comes out with hand made signs because they want the erosion of our liberty to stop.
Most were uncomfortable about the deficit under Bush, but believed the lies about the war being good for us and were quiet. Now that the deficits have quadrupled, and the war has gone on for 8 years, people have had all they can take.
Are the angry mobs fighting with themselves? Are they coming to fisticuffs with quiet meek poor people that just can't afford health care? No, they're receiving the same kind of hatred right back. Even Fox news acted like it was armageddon because two separate scuffles happened during the hour long monologue of Steny Hoyer.
The media wants to act like the battle is fierce, passionate, and irrational, but the reality is that people are turning out to affect politics, and this is a wonderful thing.
Do you want the masses to go back to sleep and just let the President accumulate power so that when the next Republican takes that power he can abuse it in ways that make you want to move to Cuba?
There are a number of fruit cakes out there. I can't make any excuses for them. I'm just emphatically saying that the media gravitates to them, and the numbers are completely distorted. Plus, the lunatics don't actually influence the people that are working hard to get things done. People that can't think hard enough about whether Obama really is a Nazi, also don't do any work to change anything. So not only are the whackos small in number, they're insignificant in strength as well.
There were probably 800 - 1000 people at the April 15th Tea Party, and I'd say there were only 4-5 signs there that I would have taken down had it been up to me. I don't think any signs should even have the President's name on them. This fight should be about the principles that this nation was founded upon, not about partisanship.
I want people to wake up and get involved.
ANGRY MOB MAULS CROWDER!
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