I had a quick read of this speech and feel it's not only good for just high-school students, but any students in general who need some encouragement. Why the hell would anyone believe this speech would lead to anything less than something great.
I can imagine some important character in the future remarking about hearing this speech and really setting off to go towards their goals.
I know this is quite a long speech, but please consider reading it.
President Obama's speech in Arlington, Virginia
The President: Hello everyone – how’s everybody doing today? I’m here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And we’ve got students tuning in from all across America, kindergarten through twelfth grade. I’m glad you all could join us today.
I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school. And for those of you in kindergarten, or starting middle or high school, it’s your first day in a new school, so it’s understandable if you’re a little nervous. I imagine there are some seniors out there who are feeling pretty good right now, with just one more year to go. And no matter what grade you’re in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer, and you could’ve stayed in bed just a little longer this morning. I know that feeling. When I was young, my family lived in Indonesia for a few years, and my mother didn’t have the money to send me where all the American kids went to school. So she decided to teach me extra lessons herself, Monday through Friday – at 4:30 in the morning. Now I wasn’t too happy about getting up that early. A lot of times, I’d fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. But whenever I’d complain, my mother would just give me one of those looks and say, \"This is no picnic for me either, buster.\"
So I know some of you are still adjusting to being back at school. But I’m here today because I have something important to discuss with you. I’m here because I want to talk with you about your education and what’s expected of all of you in this new school year.
Now I’ve given a lot of speeches about education. And I’ve talked a lot about responsibility. I’ve talked about your teachers’ responsibility for inspiring you, and pushing you to learn. I’ve talked about your parents’ responsibility for making sure you stay on track, and get your homework done, and don’t spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with that Xbox. I’ve talked a lot about your government’s responsibility for setting high standards, supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren’t working where students aren’t getting the opportunities they deserve.
But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world – and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed. And that’s what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself.
Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide.
Maybe you could be a good writer – maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in a newspaper – but you might not know it until you write a paper for your English class. Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor – maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or a new medicine or vaccine – but you might not know it until you do a project for your science class. Maybe you could be a mayor or a Senator or a Supreme Court Justice, but you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team.
And no matter what you want to do with your life – I guarantee that you’ll need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our military? You’re going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You can’t drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You’ve got to work for it and train for it and learn for it.
And this isn’t just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. What you’re learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future. You’ll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy technologies and protect our environment. You’ll need the insights and critical thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free. You’ll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy.
We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems. If you don’t do that – if you quit on school – you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country.
Now I know it’s not always easy to do well in school. I know a lot of you have challenges in your lives right now that can make it hard to focus on your schoolwork.
I get it. I know what that’s like. My father left my family when I was two years old, and I was raised by a single mother who struggled at times to pay the bills and wasn’t always able to give us things the other kids had. There were times when I missed having a father in my life. There were times when I was lonely and felt like I didn’t fit in.
So 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. My wife, our First Lady Michelle Obama, has a similar story. Neither of her parents had gone to college, and they didn’t have much. But they worked hard, and she worked hard, so that she could go to the best schools in this country.
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 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. That’s what young people like you are doing every day, all across America.
Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas. Jazmin didn’t speak English when she first started school. Hardly anyone in her hometown went to college, and neither of her parents had gone either. But she worked hard, earned good grades, got a scholarship to Brown University, and is now in graduate school, studying public health, on her way to being Dr. Jazmin Perez. I’m thinking about Andoni Schultz, from Los Altos, California, who’s fought brain cancer since he was three. He’s endured all sorts of treatments and surgeries, one of which affected his memory, so it took him much longer – hundreds of extra hours – to do his schoolwork. But he never fell behind, and he’s headed to college this fall.
And then there’s Shantell Steve, from my hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Even when bouncing from foster home to foster home in the toughest neighborhoods, she managed to get a job at a local health center; start a program to keep young people out of gangs; and she’s on track to graduate high school with honors and go on to college.
Jazmin, Andoni and Shantell aren’t any different from any of you. They faced challenges in their lives just like you do. But they refused to give up. They chose to take responsibility for their education and set goals for themselves. And I expect all of you to do the same.
That’s why today, I’m calling on each of you to set your own goals for your education – and to do everything you can to meet them. Your goal can be something as simple as doing all your homework, paying attention in class, or spending time each day reading a book. Maybe you’ll decide to get involved in an extracurricular activity, or volunteer in your community. Maybe you’ll decide to stand up for kids who are being teased or bullied because of who they are or how they look, because you believe, like I do, that all kids deserve a safe environment to study and learn. Maybe you’ll decide to take better care of yourself so you can be more ready to learn. And along those lines, I hope you’ll all wash your hands a lot, and stay home from school when you don’t feel well, so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter.
Whatever you resolve to do, I want you to commit to it. I want you to really work at it. I know that sometimes, you get the sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work -- that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star, when chances are, you’re not going to be any of those things.
But the truth is, being successful is hard. You won’t love every subject you study. You won’t click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. And you won’t necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try. That’s OK. Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who’ve had the most failures. JK Rowling’s first Harry Potter book was rejected twelve times before it was finally published. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, and he lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his career. But he once said, \"I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.\"
These people succeeded because they understand that you can’t let your failures define you – you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time. If you get in trouble, that doesn’t mean you’re a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to behave. If you get a bad grade, that doesn’t mean you’re stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.
No one’s born being good at things, you become good at things through hard work. You’re not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport. You don’t hit every note the first time you sing a song. You’ve got to practice. It’s the same with your schoolwork. You might have to do a math problem a few times before you get it right, or read something a few times before you understand it, or do a few drafts of a paper before it’s good enough to hand in.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of strength. It shows you have the courage to admit when you don’t know something, and to learn something new. So find an adult you trust – a parent, grandparent or teacher; a coach or counselor – and ask them to help you stay on track to meet your goals.
And even when you’re struggling, even when you’re discouraged, and you feel like other people have given up on you – don’t ever give up on yourself. Because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country.
The story of America isn’t about people who quit when things got tough. It’s about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best. It’s the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and went on to wage a revolution and found this nation. Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world war; who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon. Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other.
So today, I want to ask you, what’s your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country?
Your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions. I’m working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn. But you’ve got to do your part too. So I expect you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don’t let us down – don’t let your family or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud. I know you can do it.
Yeah I watched this in school today. It's actually a pretty good speech, but I doubt it will make too much of a difference. Most of the people it is trying to affect will probably brush it off as another one of those lame motivational lines.
I was listening to NPR on my way back down to college for the year and heard that parents were pulling their kids out of school because they didn't want their kids listening to a speech from the president. That made me so angry. I mean, he is the president. have some respect.
Thanks for posting this. Even though I'm not in grade school anymore its nice to know what's going on.
while i agree that the nonsense over his speech is pretty fucking retarded/ridiculous/nah mostly retarded, i also think that he's not really inspiring anybody to do these sorts of things.
I personally prefer the "GTO" approach: get way in over your head and just fuck with people until they get it into their heads that their bullshit is not appreciated. Like, if Obama had like driven some punk ass kids off a bridge on his motorcycle, to teach them not to be harassing people, then I would give him my full support, even if he destroys America somehow.
On September 09 2009 13:12 fusionsdf wrote: OH MY GOD OBAMA IS GOING TO MAKE AMERICA SOCIALIST + Show Spoiler +
it already is. Socialism works pretty well. Socialism != Communism
Its nice to think that some of his speeches we listen to live will someday be in history books.
lol, as Marx wrote, there is no such thing as "communism" we just know that it is the thing that comes after Socialism. Other thinkers defined communism as being everybody owns everything, but I'm pretty sure Marx criticized them for being wrong. He said that since there hasn't been a communism, nobody knows wtf it looks like. And they still don't, because there has never been any real movement past the idea of Socialism. Germany was militaristically-socialist, the Soviet Union was just totalitarian, Cuba follows pretty much the same lines as the Soviet Union, and China was mostly a cult of personality followed by a Chiang Kai-shek esque pseudo socialist into free market capitalist area. I actually don't criticize communism, because I dunno what it is. I, however, do criticize socialism, for many reasons that I'm not going to discuss in this otherwise civil thread. Mostly because I want to keep this thread civil.
most people who aren't trying hard to earn an education just don't care about getting one. then when they grow up and become poor they'll look at the people who worked hard in school and wonder why they get to have a lot of money. it's too bad too. that's one reason why imo we'll never see a utopia without wars or poverty, because you can force kids to go to school till they're 16 but you can't force them to care about it.
anyways, not an obama fan but at least he tried. i dont see any partisan crap in here, which is refreshing once in a while (from obama and presidents in general, governments in general really)
It's not the President's job to be addressing students. It's not even part of the Governments powers to even have public schools, but alas....
Personally principle aside on the roles of Government, especially the Federal Government vice Executive Branch, the speech was pretty lame. It's nothing these kids haven't heard before. He could have talked about other pressing matters. I however, do see the reason for opposition, at least prior to the speech. When you have a President telling the nations students to write how they can help him and all this other stuff, yes sounds a bit like indoctrination to me. They only pulled that, when the outcry started, without that it would have been severely indoctrinational.
That's ok, the youth of America are moving more and more Libertarian (At least, the one's with money and who work....lol.). As you can see with the massive money bombs going to the likes of Rand Paul, Peter Schiff, Ron Paul, etc. And the fact that C4L (Campaign for Liberty) is an organization that is mostly made up of younger people.
Fusion is right, we are all ready socialist, and more accurately, Fascist. Corporate Statism (Welfare) is Fascism; economically, anyways. However, it's not working, and doesn't work, just like Fiat monetary systems don't work and why the nations economic outlook is catatasrophe. You can't have half the country leeching off the other half and expect to be prosperous and free. Totally absurd.
On September 09 2009 13:22 Aegraen wrote: It's not the President's job to be addressing students. It's not even part of the Governments powers to even have public schools, but alas....
Personally principle aside on the roles of Government, especially the Federal Government vice Executive Branch, the speech was pretty lame. It's nothing these kids haven't heard before. He could have talked about other pressing matters. I however, do see the reason for opposition, at least prior to the speech. When you have a President telling the nations students to write how they can help him and all this other stuff, yes sounds a bit like indoctrination to me. They only pulled that, when the outcry started, without that it would have been severely indoctrinational.
That's ok, the youth of America are moving more and more Libertarian (Out least, the one's with money and work....lol.). As you can see with the massive money bombs going to the likes of Rand Paul, Peter Schiff, Ron Paul, etc. And the fact that C4L (Campaign for Liberty) is an organization that is mostly made up of younger people.
Fusion is right, we are all ready socialist, and more accurately, Fascist. Corporate Statism (Welfare) is Fascism; economically, anyways. However, it's not working, and doesn't work, just like Fiat monetary systems don't work and why the nations economic outlook is catatasrophe. You can't have half the country leeching off the other half and expect to be prosperous and free. Totally absurd.
You know what? The president could call up every kid and tell them to stick their dick in a blender if he wanted to do. Cuz he's the president. Its not partisanship, its looking out for the well being of every kid. Well maybe not the blender thing but you know.
On September 09 2009 13:23 cgrinker wrote: You know what? The president could call up every kid and tell them to stick their dick in a blender if he wanted to do. Cuz he's the president. Its not partisanship, its looking out for the well being of every kid. Well maybe not the blender thing but you know.
well that may be looking out for the well being of America these whippersnappers these days, listening to that damn hip hop and sputtering off all their curse words and talking on their tiny phones and watching all that tv and playing their brain-splattering video games!
On September 09 2009 13:10 cgrinker wrote: I was listening to NPR on my way back down to college for the year and heard that parents were pulling their kids out of school because they didn't want their kids listening to a speech from the president. That made me so angry. I mean, he is the president. have some respect.
Thanks for posting this. Even though I'm not in grade school anymore its nice to know what's going on.
where was the uproar about presidential respect when bush was in office? im not even a bush fan but i remember we made fun of him for being stupid, even though he obviously isn't. but just because some parents don't want their kids listening to a speech given by a man whose ideas they don't agree with, and whose speeches heretofore have contained nothing but political rhetoric makes them disrespectful? they had no idea what he was going to say, in hindsight the speech isn't very political at all but they didn't know that. nothing to get angry over
On September 09 2009 13:23 cgrinker wrote: You know what? The president could call up every kid and tell them to stick their dick in a blender if he wanted to do. Cuz he's the president. Its not partisanship, its looking out for the well being of every kid. Well maybe not the blender thing but you know.
And looking out for the well-being of every kid is the President's job how? Seems to me that's the Parents job....
Remember, the President is a public servant, he serves us the People as our Representative. Not the other way around.
On September 09 2009 13:12 fusionsdf wrote: OH MY GOD OBAMA IS GOING TO MAKE AMERICA SOCIALIST + Show Spoiler +
it already is. Socialism works pretty well. Socialism != Communism
Its nice to think that some of his speeches we listen to live will someday be in history books.
lol, as Marx wrote, there is no such thing as "communism" we just know that it is the thing that comes after Socialism. Other thinkers defined communism as being everybody owns everything, but I'm pretty sure Marx criticized them for being wrong. He said that since there hasn't been a communism, nobody knows wtf it looks like. And they still don't, because there has never been any real movement past the idea of Socialism. Germany was militaristically-socialist, the Soviet Union was just totalitarian, Cuba follows pretty much the same lines as the Soviet Union, and China was mostly a cult of personality followed by a Chiang Kai-shek esque pseudo socialist into free market capitalist area. I actually don't criticize communism, because I dunno what it is. I, however, do criticize socialism, for many reasons that I'm not going to discuss in this otherwise civil thread. Mostly because I want to keep this thread civil.
yeah because if someone gets sick they shouldnt count on any help. And if you're working poor without enough to make rent? fuck you! SURVIVAL OF THE FITTTTTEST YEAH
On September 09 2009 13:27 AzureEye wrote: I want to read it but it was seriously too long..so TL;DR
can someone summarize the "controversial" parts of his speech please?
I don't see whats so bad about a president telling kids to stay in school and try best in education
controversial parts: none idiots of america: 75% percentage of americans that believe they are smarter than the average american: 75% statistics caller makes up on the spot: 92.5% relevance: anyways
On September 09 2009 13:27 AzureEye wrote: I want to read it but it was seriously too long..so TL;DR
can someone summarize the "controversial" parts of his speech please?
I don't see whats so bad about a president telling kids to stay in school and try best in education
There was no controversial parts of the speech it all started with nut jobs like Glenn Beck, who thinks the President is building a secret army and is a communist/fascist etc., who said he was trying to indoctrinate school children and the idiots agreed.
On September 09 2009 13:12 fusionsdf wrote: OH MY GOD OBAMA IS GOING TO MAKE AMERICA SOCIALIST + Show Spoiler +
it already is. Socialism works pretty well. Socialism != Communism
Its nice to think that some of his speeches we listen to live will someday be in history books.
lol, as Marx wrote, there is no such thing as "communism" we just know that it is the thing that comes after Socialism. Other thinkers defined communism as being everybody owns everything, but I'm pretty sure Marx criticized them for being wrong. He said that since there hasn't been a communism, nobody knows wtf it looks like. And they still don't, because there has never been any real movement past the idea of Socialism. Germany was militaristically-socialist, the Soviet Union was just totalitarian, Cuba follows pretty much the same lines as the Soviet Union, and China was mostly a cult of personality followed by a Chiang Kai-shek esque pseudo socialist into free market capitalist area. I actually don't criticize communism, because I dunno what it is. I, however, do criticize socialism, for many reasons that I'm not going to discuss in this otherwise civil thread. Mostly because I want to keep this thread civil.
yeah because if someone gets sick they shouldnt count on any help. And if you're working poor without enough to make rent? fuck you! SURVIVAL OF THE FITTTTTEST YEAH
point to the part where i advocate anything about the free market in that speech and i'll point to the part where i want to keep the thread civil and avoid discussion. I said only that I'd criticize socialism.
On September 09 2009 13:12 fusionsdf wrote: OH MY GOD OBAMA IS GOING TO MAKE AMERICA SOCIALIST + Show Spoiler +
it already is. Socialism works pretty well. Socialism != Communism
Its nice to think that some of his speeches we listen to live will someday be in history books.
lol, as Marx wrote, there is no such thing as "communism" we just know that it is the thing that comes after Socialism. Other thinkers defined communism as being everybody owns everything, but I'm pretty sure Marx criticized them for being wrong. He said that since there hasn't been a communism, nobody knows wtf it looks like. And they still don't, because there has never been any real movement past the idea of Socialism. Germany was militaristically-socialist, the Soviet Union was just totalitarian, Cuba follows pretty much the same lines as the Soviet Union, and China was mostly a cult of personality followed by a Chiang Kai-shek esque pseudo socialist into free market capitalist area. I actually don't criticize communism, because I dunno what it is. I, however, do criticize socialism, for many reasons that I'm not going to discuss in this otherwise civil thread. Mostly because I want to keep this thread civil.
yeah because if someone gets sick they shouldnt count on any help. And if you're working poor without enough to make rent? fuck you! SURVIVAL OF THE FITTTTTEST YEAH
I never understood this arguement. If people want to help the poor, they can, and they do. That is what Charity and Non-profit Organizations do, have done, and will do long into the future. There is no need, nor mandate for Government to ever get involved. What ends up happening is you create a whole class of people dependant on the Government dole-outs, in essence becoming the puppet of the State. Those people will always vote for whoever gives them something, which in order to do so you have to steal from another. The moral arguement is on the side of no Government involvement.
If you feel these people need assistance, then donate your time and money, do not use force and coercion to make everyone do so. Abridgement of fundamental right to keep the fruit of your labor without threat of force or coercion. Government out right steals. America under the Progressive movement has been transformed into the nation we fought to rid ourselves of (Britain). Oh the progress we have made... /sarc.
wtf that dumb bitch had no specific information whatsoever and is clearly doing it just because of her personal political stance. And kthnx fox reporter not even listening to her nonsensically vague answers and just asking questions on her paper so she can get it over with. AND GOSH SHE HAS KIDS?!? holy crap.
why would you rob ur kid the opportunity to claim later in life that "i once sat in a classroom and listened to the first black president talk! even tho i had no fuckclue what was going on, but it was awesome!" If the kid is five he wont remember jack shit anyways. Why rob him/her of the bragging rights/experiance. and its clearly not a decision that she made together with her kid. What the fuck decision is a 5 yr old gonna make.
i have urges to throttle that woman.
(gee lol this sounds more hostile than i meant it to XD)
Edit: left out quote lol and fix bunch of stuff i missed in hurry rant XD damn you TL lurking correction nazis.
to clarify my mind vomit mess: i mean a 5 year old might be able to decide/choose, but when that decision involves a parent, he/she would immediately be swayed because, well mom said so! So it would have went from "oh cool lets go to school and have speech day instead of boring math class" to "mom wont let me go to school because of pol-la-ticks"
On September 09 2009 13:27 AzureEye wrote: I want to read it but it was seriously too long..so TL;DR
can someone summarize the "controversial" parts of his speech please?
I don't see whats so bad about a president telling kids to stay in school and try best in education
controversial parts: none idiots of america: 75% percentage of americans that believe they are smarter than the average american: 75% statistics caller makes up on the spot: 92.5% relevance: anyways
wtf caller? lol , i always loved the % of people that think they are smarter than average (i think that applies to everyone though not just americans)
but yeah, there weren't really any controversial points, but since some parents didn't know what was going to be said and didn't like his politics they apparently kept their children home from school. actually pretty boring if you ask me
and its clearly not a decision that she made together with her kid. What the fuck decision is a 5 yr old gonna make.
so in the first sentence you say the kid didn't have any say in the decision, then you say that the kid can't make decisions? therefore the kid should have been able to decide to go?
wtf that dumb bitch had no specific information whatsoever and is clearly doing it just because of her personal political stance. And kthnx fox reporter not even listening to her nonsensically vague answers and just asking questions on her paper so she can get it over with. AND GOSH SHE HAS KIDS?!? holy crap.
why would you rob ur kid the opportunity to claim later in life that "i once sat in a classroom and listened to the first president talk! even tho i had no fuckclue what was going on, but it was awesome!" If the kid is five he wont remember jack shit anyways. Why rob him/her of the bragging rights/experiance. and its clearly not a decision that she made together with her kid. What the fuck decision is a 5 yr old gonna make.
i have urges to throttle that woman.
(gee lol this sounds more hostile than i meant it to XD)
Edit: left out quote lol
Damn, how old are these kids? Did they get to touch ol' Washingtons wood teeth on the TV screen too?
On September 09 2009 13:23 cgrinker wrote: You know what? The president could call up every kid and tell them to stick their dick in a blender if he wanted to do. Cuz he's the president. Its not partisanship, its looking out for the well being of every kid. Well maybe not the blender thing but you know.
hey man, that's sexist, only 50% of students have dicks
On September 09 2009 13:38 7mk wrote: Haha when I read the thread title I was wondering how long it would take Aegrean to tear it apart. Didn't take long.
Where's my EASY button? Who has my damn big red button!
Political discourse is healthy. Don't listen to caller.
man this kind of shit just makes me so pissed off at half of america god damn it, stop being so ignorant and maybe we can get this country back on track
On September 09 2009 13:40 Superiorwolf wrote: man this kind of shit just makes me so pissed off at half of america god damn it, stop being so ignorant and maybe we can get this country back on track
I liked how the reasoning for that mom about why she didnt want her kid to listen was because "she wanted her daughter to have a choice for her life, not to listen to what the president says to do"
Are Southerns this dumb or do they not realize that president is just trying to encourage them? And plus, you don't have to take his advice, and even if you did, its her daughter thats making the final decision...
On September 09 2009 13:40 Superiorwolf wrote: man this kind of shit just makes me so pissed off at half of america god damn it, stop being so ignorant and maybe we can get this country back on track
On September 09 2009 13:40 Superiorwolf wrote: man this kind of shit just makes me so pissed off at half of america god damn it, stop being so ignorant and maybe we can get this country back on track
Obama is giving the speech about Health Care tommorow, most likely talking about getting rid of having it be government-run. Obama probably wants to use this to get support from the younger generation who don't understand this as well as other people do, because there's obviously no reason to address the kids of America talking about Harry Potter and Facebook.
On September 09 2009 13:23 cgrinker wrote: You know what? The president could call up every kid and tell them to stick their dick in a blender if he wanted to do. Cuz he's the president. Its not partisanship, its looking out for the well being of every kid. Well maybe not the blender thing but you know.
And looking out for the well-being of every kid is the President's job how? Seems to me that's the Parents job....
Remember, the President is a public servant, he serves us the People as our Representative. Not the other way around.
I think the president, no matter what his place on the political spectrum should be looking out for the well being of every American, children included. Things like getting an education or preventing sickness are not partisan ideas anyways, they are universal.
I disagreed with pretty much most of the things that president Bush pushed while he was in office. However I would still be honored to meet him or to have him tell me that he wanted me to succeed.
I remember a few months ago I watched Frost/Nixon and there a scene in there where one of Frost's researchers is like, "Nixon betrayed us, we honored him and he let us down." And now? People openly talk shit about the President and say its not our country anymore. A lot of people said they wanted Bush dead. Where's the respect?
On September 09 2009 13:23 cgrinker wrote: You know what? The president could call up every kid and tell them to stick their dick in a blender if he wanted to do. Cuz he's the president. Its not partisanship, its looking out for the well being of every kid. Well maybe not the blender thing but you know.
And looking out for the well-being of every kid is the President's job how? Seems to me that's the Parents job....
Remember, the President is a public servant, he serves us the People as our Representative. Not the other way around.
I think the president, no matter what his place on the political spectrum should be looking out for the well being of every American, children included. Things like getting an education or preventing sickness are not partisan ideas anyways, they are universal.
I disagreed with pretty much most of the things that president Bush pushed while he was in office. However I would still be honored to meet him or to have him tell me that he wanted me to succeed.
I remember a few months ago I watched Frost/Nixon and there a scene in there where one of Frost's researchers is like, "Nixon betrayed us, we honored him and he let us down." And now? People openly talk shit about the President and say its not our country anymore. A lot of people said they wanted Bush dead. Where's the respect?
People have always openly talked "shit" about the President aka disagreeing. Our country has never had a tradition of homogenous respect. You can see this from the foundation of the nation where Aaron Burr killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel, to fights erupting in Congress throughout the 1840s, 50s, 60s, etc.
While you disagree with their feelings, we still have a lovely thing called Freedom of Speech. While I understand your position, I feel that the people who do that in today's world just marginalize themselves, so I say let them. No one is going to listen to someone like that.
I'm not even going to go into how wrong you are about the function of the Executive Branch according to the US Constitution on which the President/VP take an oath to uphold. If he wants to talk about Educational issues, thats why there is a weekly Presidential radio address, in which you are free to listen or not listen. Forcing kids to listen to the President, is bad any way you go about it.
If a right winged political figure were to give a speech to kids tomorrow.. would the GOP make such a big deal of it? I view this as a battle of conflicting ideologies. I'm staying out of this one though
On September 09 2009 13:38 7mk wrote: Haha when I read the thread title I was wondering how long it would take Aegrean to tear it apart. Didn't take long.
Where's my EASY button? Who has my damn big red button!
Political discourse is healthy. Don't listen to caller.
Aegraen, you are the biggest disruptor of political discourse on this entire website. I wish you would stop posting. You make TeamLiquid a worse community.
Holy shit, I just came in my pants when I refreshed and saw his new icon.
Caller, if the President took time to speak to your age group when you were in school, you wouldn't have been inspired in any way? I find that difficult to believe. Like you said, there's not really anything controversial or related to politics in the speech. It's just a motivational speech, and I'm sure it's served its purpose. I do a lot of volunteering with kids and I have a feeling in 10-15 years, there's going to be scores of young adults who were particularly motivated by Obama's victory, especially black and from inner cities.
On September 09 2009 13:38 7mk wrote: Haha when I read the thread title I was wondering how long it would take Aegrean to tear it apart. Didn't take long.
Where's my EASY button? Who has my damn big red button!
Political discourse is healthy. Don't listen to caller.
Aegraen, you are the biggest disruptor of political discourse on this entire website. I wish you would stop posting. You make TeamLiquid a worse community.
Holy shit, I just came in my pants when I refreshed and saw his new icon.
Caller, if the President took time to speak to your age group when you were in school, you wouldn't have been inspired in any way? I find that difficult to believe. Like you said, there's not really anything controversial or related to politics in the speech. It's just a motivational speech, and I'm sure it's served its purpose. I do a lot of volunteering with kids and I have a feeling in 10-15 years, there's going to be scores of young adults who were particularly motivated by Obama's victory, especially black and from inner cities.
ooh, ninja edit
but what's the point of political discourse if everyone agrees? that's not discourse at all. if nobody gets anything else out of it at least he makes them consider their beliefs and why they think a certain way. i haven't seen him call people names and he's pretty civil in his arguments, uses logic fine. nothing wrong there, just different views from what seems to be the average on TL
On September 09 2009 13:38 7mk wrote: Haha when I read the thread title I was wondering how long it would take Aegrean to tear it apart. Didn't take long.
Where's my EASY button? Who has my damn big red button!
Political discourse is healthy. Don't listen to caller.
Aegraen, you are the biggest disruptor of political discourse on this entire website. I wish you would stop posting. You make TeamLiquid a worse community.
Holy shit, I just came in my pants when I refreshed and saw his new icon.
Caller, if the President took time to speak to your age group when you were in school, you wouldn't have been inspired in any way? I find that difficult to believe. Like you said, there's not really anything controversial or related to politics in the speech. It's just a motivational speech, and I'm sure it's served its purpose. I do a lot of volunteering with kids and I have a feeling in 10-15 years, there's going to be scores of young adults who were particularly motivated by Obama's victory, especially black and from inner cities.
ooh, ninja edit
but what's the point of political discourse if everyone agrees? that's not discourse at all. if nobody gets anything else out of it at least he makes them consider their beliefs and why they think a certain way. i haven't seen him call people names and he's pretty civil in his arguments, uses logic fine. nothing wrong there, just different views from what seems to be the average on TL
He's not civil at all, and he just makes stuff up on the spot or cites garbage ideology from New Republic. What logic are you talking about? When he talks about death panels, or how we live in a fascist society? There's nothing logical in any of that. The government has no role in providing public schools?
For a boy who claims to revere FA Hayek so much, I don't believe Aegraen has ever read anything beyond a summary of Serfdom and certainly not CoL. I don't think he's actually read most of the material he cites, because when he's called out on being wrong, he simply starts ignoring those posts. The problem is most people don't know enough to check what he says, but the people who do are so turned off by his posting that was just steer away from anything with his name in it. I would spend hours having real discourse with someone like Savio or Funchucks, but Aegraen isn't worth the effort.
What is forgotten in this hoopla about the speech is many other presidents made similar ones. Take Bush senior in 1991 if you want a conservative example. This sort of thing is not exactly unprecedented, and does not deserve nearly as much scrutiny as it seems to be getting.
The other day on the radio there was this lady calling in and saying that as soon as she heard about the speech she marched into the principal's office and demanded she get the right to a rebuttal speech following Obama's address. This sort of reaction pretty much sums the "debate" for me.... How can you KNOW you want to rebut something when you haven't even heard the damn speech? I can see it now - "no kids, DON'T study hard, its what the commies want you to do. We gotta' keep OUR country strong."
On September 09 2009 13:38 7mk wrote: Haha when I read the thread title I was wondering how long it would take Aegrean to tear it apart. Didn't take long.
Where's my EASY button? Who has my damn big red button!
Political discourse is healthy. Don't listen to caller.
Aegraen, you are the biggest disruptor of political discourse on this entire website. I wish you would stop posting. You make TeamLiquid a worse community.
Holy shit, I just came in my pants when I refreshed and saw his new icon.
Caller, if the President took time to speak to your age group when you were in school, you wouldn't have been inspired in any way? I find that difficult to believe. Like you said, there's not really anything controversial or related to politics in the speech. It's just a motivational speech, and I'm sure it's served its purpose. I do a lot of volunteering with kids and I have a feeling in 10-15 years, there's going to be scores of young adults who were particularly motivated by Obama's victory, especially black and from inner cities.
lol at icon thing If the president spoke to my age group when I was in school, I most likely wouldn't have cared. This is most likely because people have already spoon-fed me that motivation crap for the past like 5 years or w/e. The president isn't even just speaking to my class this time, he's speaking to the United States, as well. So why should I care, when he doesn't even know my name?
On the other hand, if the president were to come up to me, and tell me those things, at that time, I most likely would have gotten that motivational boost. But he didn't , did he?
I will use the GTO argument again here, because I believe it's the best way to motivate kids to change. Kids listen best to people that they can relate to-I work with many kids, and I've learned that by going to their level (and not taking the "omg im mature mode") that they begin to listen to you there. For the president to speak all high and mighty really just gives me a cynical look on his speech.
The problem with the speech is that it isn't supposed to be your president saying this, it's supposed to be your parents. He's bypassing the parents, and condescending to children who may be doing fine in school.
If he really wants to talk to anybody, he can talk to the parents. If anyone actually thinks that this pep talk will change ANYTHING, even if it was given to parents, you are delusional.
As I mentioned above, this sort of speech is not unprecedented, many presidents did it. They are always pretty blah (nobody wants to be accused of transparently indoctrinating young minds, the US ain't Venezuela), so they all say the same sort of bland motivational stuff. The part I don't get is the outrage from the right. Why so much rage towards it, if it won't change anything?? Why not... ignore it as we do with so many irrelevant things in life?
On September 10 2009 05:02 Vedic wrote: The problem with the speech is that it isn't supposed to be your president saying this, it's supposed to be your parents. He's bypassing the parents, and condescending to children who may be doing fine in school.
If he really wants to talk to anybody, he can talk to the parents. If anyone actually thinks that this pep talk will change ANYTHING, even if it was given to parents, you are delusional.
I would feel a lot more motivated if I'm some poor kid in a ghetto if the president is telling me to stay and school than if my abusive father / drugged up mother told me to "get yo self to a school or we'll beat yo ass'. Like they would say that anyways...
On September 10 2009 05:02 Vedic wrote: The problem with the speech is that it isn't supposed to be your president saying this, it's supposed to be your parents. He's bypassing the parents, and condescending to children who may be doing fine in school.
If he really wants to talk to anybody, he can talk to the parents. If anyone actually thinks that this pep talk will change ANYTHING, even if it was given to parents, you are delusional.
I would feel a lot more motivated if I'm some poor kid in a ghetto if the president is telling me to stay and school than if my abusive father / drugged up mother told me to "get yo self to a school or we'll beat yo ass'. Like they would say that anyways...
So your president needs to talk to them and have THEM shape up, so they are fit to raise you to begin with.
The school district here declined to show the speech live. They were going to watch it, decide if it was political and if not, then show it to all the students. I'm not sure what they've decided. They might have shown it already for all I know.
Of course some people are going to find that course of action ridiculous, but at least they will see it, realize it's not political, and show all the kids. Probably.
On September 11 2009 06:15 Jibba wrote: How many people here know what happened to China's healthcare system when they changed to a market system in the early 90s?
You have a good point. Healthcare is probably the best thing in the communist countries. The drop in life expectancy of Russian people after the fall of USSR could be another example.
This is why the rest of the world laughs at America. Obama does a great thing by reaching out to the youth and offering encouragement, and is in turn mocked and feared by part of the adult community? Ridiculous.