The Smoke Has Cleared.....and Students Seem to be Unharmed.

     It all began for me around Friday of this past week. I believe that it was my girlfriend who was remarking about one of the discussions which she had in one of her journalism classes that had to do with the coverage of President Obama's planned speech to students on September 8th. This was the first that I knew of Obama's plan to do so, and at first glance it seemed like a reasonable request of the President of the United States. It appeared to me that what he planned to do was encourage students to stay in school, and set goals and work hard to achieve them (and after viewing the speech for myself I have come to realize that I was initially correct). I have never pronounced any sort of partisan affiliation, personally. I have grown to believe that to a degree the way that partisan politics is handled, especially in the case of mass media, does more to harm the democratic process than help it. I believe that there should be opposing opinions among the American population in order for the best results to be achieved by the political process. This certainly would not be the nation that it is if one political ideology reigned supreme. With that said, I want to acknowledge that my opinion on whether President Obama did the right thing by addressing the students of our nation has nothing to do with my personal political affiliation, which favors neither the Right over the Left nor vice versa.
     What I did not expect (and in retrospect I feel as though I was a bit naive in doing so) was the lashing out of so many Americans, from parents to politicians, over the President's proposed speech. This was particularly interesting as I was enjoying some family time over the long weekend and I was discussing this matter with my brother, mother and aunt. My aunt is an elementary school secretary in Walker County, Georgia. To say that her school is out in 'the sticks' is an understatement (no offense meant to anyone from Walker County...I love it up there, it is especially beautiful in the Fall) and I have come to understand that the politics of many rural Georgia areas are not exactly in line with that of our current administration. So when my aunt started going on about how the parents of the students in the schools up there were more or less freaking out and boycotting the President's address to students I was struck with some interesting emotions and internal arguments. To my left was my brother (borderline conspiracy theorist, though extremely well read), opposite of me was my mother and aunt who are both pretty balanced with regard to political affiliation (they represent Republicans who feel burned by the prior administration). Among this crowd was plenty of talk of how Obama planned to inundate the most impressionable minds in the country with his socialist propaganda, and how he was using this speech as an opportunity to skirt another day's worth of health care reform focus. I even read about Florida GOP chairman Jim Greer's comments which echoed the socialist rhetoric accusations.
     Now, as I pour through the news outlets to find coverage of how Americans are responding to Tuesday's speech I see nothing that disturbs me. Actually, after viewing the speech for myself last night, being that I am a student, I felt a small surge of encouragement and could completely see how if I was 12 years old again and heard my president deliver that message that I would take it to heart. I listened very carefully to the speech trying to pinpoint the evil. I even read the proposed lesson plans that the Department of Education suggested be used as supplementary material for the speech and saw no red flags. Granted, Obama said nothing of the national debt, the health care crisis, foreign policy or anything not pertaining to staying in school and setting and achieving goals. I have to say that this was not the forum for the delivering of any political agenda whatsoever. And regardless of where I stand on those issues, I feel that the President's speech was uplifting and pertinent to the start of the school year.