Obama addresses America’s schoolchildren

This morning, President Obama will address the next generation of American citizens in a speech that will be shown in classrooms all across the United States. Since it was announced, that speech has ignited yet another ideological flame war between supporters and critics of the President.

When I first heard about the speech, my initial reaction was positive.  I saw nothing wrong with a President addressing the nation’s schoolchildren. Many conservatives, however, pointed out that the lesson plans the White House was suggesting that teachers use to reinforce the lessons of the speech had an ideological slant. The children were to be asked how they could help President Obama as opposed to how they could help their country.

Since President Obama is determined to transform our country in ways that conservatives see as frankly socialistic, it was hardly unreasonable for conservatives to be concerned that children were going to be encouraged, subtly or otherwise, to do whatever they could to advance the President’s transformative political agenda.

The reaction from the left was a mixture of incredulity and derision. Some of that derision comes from New Mexico’s own Jim Baca:

Only republican wing nuts could object to the President of the United States giving a speech that welcomes kids back into the classroom for the year…

I guess since we have a non wingnut President who is a minority and left of center then in the minds of Republicans censorship for all is best.

The imputation of racism every time a conservative is not in lock step with the president is growing rather hackneyed.   Mr. Baca’s argument would appear far stronger if he did not descend to the kind of ad hominem attacks routinely used in lieu of rhetoric by wing nuts on the left like Janeane Garofalo.

When Hollywood celebrities get together to make a video like this, which would bring tears of joy to the eyes of any self-aggrandizing despot, it is understandable that conservatives become vigilant about signs of an impending personality cult.

Presumably in response to conservative ire, the White House changed its recommended lesson plans, abandoning any mention of schoolchildren helping the president.  The White House has also released a full text of the speech to be delivered, and it is one to which no reasonable person is likely to object.

Mr. Obama speaks frankly about his own shortcomings and his opportunities:

I wasn’t always as focused as I should have been. I did some things I’m not proud of, and got in more trouble than I should have. And my life could have easily taken a turn for the worse.

But I was fortunate. I got a lot of second chances and had the opportunity to go to college, and law school, and follow my dreams.

He acknowledges that:

Some of you might not have those advantages. Maybe you don’t have adults in your life who give you the support that you need. Maybe someone in your family has lost their job, and there’s not enough money to go around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don’t feel safe, or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know aren’t right.

But he assures the children that this must not be an excuse for failure:

But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life – what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home – that’s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That’s no excuse for not trying.

Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.

This speech, like President Obama’s election night speech, which I praised on my blog last November, transcends both party and ideology.  I have no idea whether this was the speech he intended to give from the beginning, or whether he abandoned a more ideological address in the face of political opposition.  Whatever his initial plans, the oration he will deliver this morning is in keeping with the promise he made on election night to me and all the other Americans who did not vote for him:

I will be your president, too.

When he appoints people like Van Jones to serve in positions of power, I am inclined to doubt it.  But reading the speech he will deliver this morning, I am almost tempted to hope.