So I know this blog is typically about family goings-on, the weather, or what I’m cooking for dinner.  But I can’t ignore the media hubbub about tomorrow’s Presidential Address.  Obama is giving this speech to students, and (mostly) Republicans are up in arms, declaring that Obama is brainwashing chidlren and that this is more fascist, Communist, Socialist, whatever and parents shouldn’t send their kids to school tomorrow.  In fact, a recent article says that 61% think a Presidential address to students is “inappropriate.”  The reaction is akin to what I’d expect if a religious leader were planning an address to students of all faiths.  People seem to be forgetting: Public schools are government schools.  The president is the head of the government.  Its actually about time he took some action to help solve our education crisis. ((In fact, maybe the most controversial line from the speech is “God bless you, and God bless America.”  I mean, hey, what about the students who don’t believe in God?))

I have a child, so I can understand the fear that parents might have about their children being exposed to America’s intensely partisan politics without their presence as a buffer.  Some say the talk should have been scheduled for evenings, so parents can sit with their children and answer any questions they have after the talk.  I say what better setting than schools for the President to drill in the importance of education?  As a child, I didn’t understand “democrat” and “republican” (and I’m thankful my parents didn’t try to make me hate one or the other), but I would have considered it a privilege for the President himself to address children like me.  I would have been encouraged by his talk, and I can imagine how much more it would mean to children who struggle more than I did.

I want to teach my daughter that the President is the President, and that position alone is worthy of some level of respect and reverence.  I want her to listen, if critically, when he speaks, and to learn early that the things he says are important (whether or not we agree with him).  We pledge our allegiance to our country no matter who is in charge at the time.  I want to live in an America where our politics don’t divide us, but make us stronger through thoughtful political dialogue, not dissension. 

I’ve read the talk, and I don’t find anything to disagree with it. (In fact, in 1991, H.W. Bush gave an incredibly similar talk to school children, which also drew criticism from Dems about brainwashing).  But the biggest critics aren’t criticizing the content of the talk, but rather that its adding to a “cult of personality” around Obama that is itself threatening to democratic life.  Before the media backlash against the address, the White House had prepared a lesson plan to accompany the speech, which included the suggestion to have students write a journal entry describing what they “can do to help the president.”  Is that dictatorial?  Or good leadership?  Frankly, I want to do what I can to help get our country back on its feet, don’t you?  And isn’t doing so “helping the president”?  Whether or not we agree with Obama’s politics and policies, our country is in a lot of trouble right now, and fostering fear, anger, or cynical hatred toward him seems counterproductive.  Building faith in America and her potential is the only way to get us on our feet again.

The division in our country is palpable.  I close with some words from Lincoln’s First Inaugural, at the start of the Civil War:
“We are not enemies, but friends.  We must not be enemies.  Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection.  The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”