The letters to the editor, the man-on-the-street interviews and the talk going around in the upper East Tennessee news media, has been that President Obama would try to bend the minds of little children, to his "political agenda."
What he DID was encourage our young people to study hard, report bullies, excell in school, and continue to try and achieve success.That's all he did.
I pity the people who took their children out of school, and I also pity school systems like Scott County, Virginia, who refused to air the speech. Did they also block out Reppublican speeches by both Presidents Bush, and Reagan when they spoke to school children about the same thing as President Obama? Did parents take their children out of school then, fearful of their young ones hearing "political propaganda?"
No folks... they did not.
Maybe it was different this time.. the presidential speechmaker is a Black Man. Is it so different this time, hearing the same speech from a Black Man? Read the letters to the editor, listen to the rhetoric.. those who would disagree with President Obama on an educational message to schoolchildren that was absolutely no threat at all, will continue to disagree with President Obama on anything and EVERYTHING.
We STILL have a long way to go in this country in terms of racial relations, and our little corner of the world simply continues to amaze.
No, not eye-opening, jaw-dropping amazement.
I'm talking, wake-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night, 70-mile-per-hour brickwall-slamming, 6.0-on-the-Richter-Scale, Category-5, earth-shattering amazement.
My fear is.. while the rest of the country adjusts and accepts change, this little corner of the world will, and may always be... out of step with the rest of America.
---Calvin
