President Obama will speak to the schoolchildren of America today. Well, to most of them at least, but not as many as he had hoped. Many school districts are not participating, or at least making it optional. The furor over the speech has been rising. With all the distress over the speech, he decided not to say anything too controversial. He knows now he wouldn’t get away with urging the students to be part of his political agenda.
Most of the problem revolved around the Dept. of Education’s suggested lesson plans for the event. They smacked of hero worship for the Great Leader. Well, they’ve had to back off of some of that, changing the wording of their learning activities.
My response to this speech also includes the question, “Where in the Constitution does it say that the federal government provides lesson plans for America’s schools?” Most people don’t think about that issue, but for me, it’s important.
My biggest concern, though, is that this event, as originally planned, was Obama-focused. Students were being asked to consider how they could help the president achieve his goals. The whole thing was eerily similar to what takes place in totalitarian countries, where the Leader is revered as the Father of All.
Obama has himself fostered this attitude. I saw it during the campaign, and it has not abated since he took office. He’s had to deal with a little bit of reality since then—for some reason, the peasants have revolted against his healthcare dreams. Yet he still seems to think everything is all about him. If you haven’t noticed that, you’re not watching very closely.
Americans have created personality cults before. The most obvious one was the Camelot myth of the Kennedys. Some referred to them as America’s royal family. Did it occur to you that the funeral of Ted Kennedy last week took on the proportions of a funeral for a deceased president? When was the last time a senator got this much attention at his death? In my lifetime, I don’t recall any senator’s funeral getting the type of round-the-clock news coverage this one did.
Well, it’s because he was the last of the “original” Kennedys. Yet not only was he never president, evidence abounds that his moral degeneration exceeded that of most of his colleagues. But we’re supposed to honor and revere him? I’m sorry, but I couldn’t bring myself to do that.
Now that the Kennedy cult has largely dissipated, we have the Obama cult. If you don’t think so, just try talking to someone who believes he is truly the One who will heal the planet and stop the rise of the oceans (a statement he made about himself, incidentally). We are in dangerous territory.
There is One to whom we owe all allegiance, but that One is not our current president.