I couldn't watch more than one minute of that video before I felt nauseated.

There was such an uproar in my youngest sons GRADE school 2 weeks ago that they were left with no alternative but to not air the Obama speech. What did they do? They sent home a second notice two days later encouraging parents to let their children watch it. I had to sign an opt out letter or he would have been herded into a room and brainwashed.

This has Joseph Goebbels written all over it.

I'm not defending Democrats and condemning Republicans in saying that by any means CC. I'm saying there are more important complaints to level IMO.

Hey, this is new. Have you ever seen students instructed to sing praises to the president at any time in this country?
It strikes me as odd at best (but I'm sure it's more than that).
Besides, complaining about Iraq is so 2004.

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Hold my beer and watch this...

Well, fuck. That's just not right.

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mechaphil

Wow!! Crazy brainwashed fascist lyrics!!! "Learning never ever stops! Gonna set my goals high and graduate. You might be looking at the president of 2048!" or this nugget of evil: "Our strength is our diversity! Walking hand in hand we sing, each day a little closer to the dream of Dr. King!"

How dare modern political events like the first black president be used in a history class as an educational tool. I mean what place does something significant like that have in a school? Pssh...dirty left wingers trying to brainwash our children and steal my country!!

Not off hand but for a number of decades students have been instructed to sing the praises of (and give their unwavering devotion to) the country itself in the Pledge of Allegiance. That is by any objective standard an indoctrination. And as a history teacher, I can tell you that most any public school curriculum on US History, Government, and even Economics and World History is just a thinly veiled program of indoctrination as well. Teaching unquestioning loyalty to country and government in public schools is far from new.

You just earned yourself a Sabres(Sperm logo) hat with that retort. PM me your address if you're still looking for free Sabres gear and don't mind my sloppy seconds.

Forget politics, you're seriously good with this, dude? If they transposed Obama with Bush and sang praise to him saving our country and giving it hope would you have been equally comfortable even though you openly detest him? I know one thing: I don't want my kids to be indoctrinated like that even if it's for a political leader I agreed with and voted for. It's simply wrong and conjures up visions of dangerous historical precedents.

Respecting the office is fine, but indoctrinating one political party or leader over all strikes me as being the road to fascism.

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Oh lord, it's hard to be humble, when you're perfect in every way. I can't wait to look in the mirror, 'cause I get better looking each day. To know me is to love me, I must be a hell of a man. Oh lord, it's hard to be humble, but I'm doin' the best that I can.

did you actually even listen to that speech Schony? He covered such "controversial" topics as the importance of hard work, goal-setting, and education.

The fact that so many people made such a fuss over such an innocuous speech is hard for me to accept as anything but evidence of a poisoned and closed-minded political culture.

Sorry CC but a major part of the agreement that gets religious entities their special tax exempt status is keeping politics out of the place. Once you cross that line then by default our tax dollars are doing just that. They don't pay but we do and then they use their tax free soap box to preach politics. And please let's not forget the secular notion of keeping church out of schools but of course that doesn't happen either though when people say anything about that it's anti-American...blah blah blah.

Look, when I was in school we talked about the President, we watched his broadcasts, we were taught about the political process and its players but suddenly when the same lengthy tradition is continued by Obama people flip out. He's the president for goodness sake! Talking to American children is his job as a role model and leader of our country but right wing nuts twist the simple patriotic past time of Presidential addresses into something evil....wonder what is different now then before....hmmm......

I agree with you on this point, Stuuu. I see nothing wrong with an American president addressing schools with general encouragement, even though we all know they have politics on the brain as their true motivation...

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Oh lord, it's hard to be humble, when you're perfect in every way. I can't wait to look in the mirror, 'cause I get better looking each day. To know me is to love me, I must be a hell of a man. Oh lord, it's hard to be humble, but I'm doin' the best that I can.

Did you watch the video that I quoted in my post? Seriously? Indoctrinating? Yeah I think telling kids that our president may lead us in the right direction is a terrible thing. What I liked best about the video were all the cute Hitler mustaches the kiddoes cut out of black paper and glued on while they were heel stepping. My problems with Bush stem from actions over the course of 8 years and when he spoke to school children or was honored in song (like he was after 9/11 being praised as the leader and protector of the USA) I sure didn't flip out and start drawing up my "End is Nigh" signs.

ok...politics in my hockey forum...I'm stepping down because I like you guys and conversations like this don't change anyone's mind anyhow so GO SABRES!!!!!

You are correct, sir!

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Oh lord, it's hard to be humble, when you're perfect in every way. I can't wait to look in the mirror, 'cause I get better looking each day. To know me is to love me, I must be a hell of a man. Oh lord, it's hard to be humble, but I'm doin' the best that I can.

Barrack Barrack He's Our Man. If He Can't Do It No One Can!!


Sorry....had to

Sigh, at least all the political bullshit will be kept in a subforum now.

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mechaphil

I didn't have much of a problem with the second video - what they were saying wasn't exactly political, although somewhat idealistic. It could really be said under any president, although Obama leads some relevance as he is black and that's what the subject of the video was. Saying "Obama is the president" is not exactly a false statement either.

The first video was just disturbing. That teacher should be reprimanded heavily at the least. That was a politically charged video, there's no place for that among public schools at that grade level.

On Obama's speech...my view is that he is the president, after all. Regardless of whether you agree with him or not, he is the president of our country. I think from an objective viewpoint, there's nothing wrong with showing it in schools. I did watch it, on my own, and there were no political viewpoints in it at all.

I'd feel the same way if it was Bush making the speech during his presidency - I may not have agreed with most of his politics, may have not liked him, but he was still the president.

Makes me think of three years ago when Al Gore came to UB. A history teacher at my school took students on an optional field trip to see him. Yes, that's right, optional - you had to sign up to go, there was nothing about it at all that was necessary for a class. However, he was heavily criticized by a particular school board member, who even wrote in to local newspapers to voice her displeasure. Basically she was saying that we should be teaching that global warming is a myth, and that it was completely wrong to give students the opportunity to see a presentation about global warming.

This struck me as extremely hypocritical. So she has no problem teaching that global warming is a myth, yet if someone mentions it as a possibility that's wrong? If anything it should be presented from a neutral viewpoint, or from both viewpoints. Personally, I don't care whether she agrees with global warming or not - but trying to block students from attending an optional event seems a whole lot worse than giving them the opportunity to attend in the first place.

Even more so, Al Gore was a former vice president of the United States. Whether you like him or not, he's a major figure in the (recent) history of our country. This was a history class after all...shouldn't history students be able to see a someday historical figure in person?

The board member had no real power to stop them from going, but she irritated a lot of people.

Then again, she is the same lady that insisted she approve of the AP Government textbooks we had before we were allowed to use them, because she read they "described Democrat and Republican viewpoints" in a review. No shit. How effective could a government textbook be if it didn't describe the different viewpoints at work in the government?

I'm not sure she had the power to do that either...she never said anything else, and we used the textbook.

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"Go out and run 'em."
- Lindy Ruff, 23 Feb. 2007

My post earlier, by the way, is about the hubbub surrounding this. It's no big, but I do see where people are coming from about this.

If it really were about singing praise to Obama, I'd be upset about my kid having to do something like that. I didn't do it for Clinton or Bush (thankfully), and I wouldn't want to see Joshua forced to do it for any president, either. But it really isn't so bad, just the POTUS encouraging kids to work hard and such.

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mechaphil

Really Zilla?
This was "probably" a bad idea only in hindsight?

As we are now, this gets a link on Drudgereport and forgotten along with all the other examples of exactly the same thing.
This isn't an isolated incident.

Does it bother you that the white house and the NEA recently instructed member artists to create Obama propaganda pieces?
http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/pcour ... an-agenda/

Team Obama has a message machine rooted in its core. We get propagandized to death because that's all they have to sell.

EDIT: oh...and Zilla. You know darn well people weren't outraged simply because Obama wanted to speak to school kids. They were outraged because the suggested lesson plan that came from the Department of Education involved things like "What is the President trying to tell me? What is the President asking me to do?" and discussing "what they can do to help the president.".

See a pattern here?

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Hold my beer and watch this...