I Was Embarassed and Ashamed but Now I'm Proud

As you may have noticed by now, education and keeping religion out of education is very important to me.

In my post on September 6th, Does Obama's Speech to Student Violate Constitutional Rights? I said,

"...every school and school district in my county are showing the speech with the encouragement of the superintendent and school boards."

Unfortunately, that turned out to be a bit premature. While watching the late news last night, something I rarely do but my wife fell asleep holding the remote, I learned that my daughters school district had called an emergency meeting for 7:45 AM this morning. Apparently, a few parents had called to voice their concern and one board trustee, Dr. David LaRue (also a parent), wrote a letter to the superintendent calling Obama's speech propaganda and compared it to George Orwell's Animal Farm. Dr. LaRue went on to personally threaten any teacher that showed the speech with a formal letter of complaint from himself and any parent he could find. He also accused the superintendent of overstepping her authority by allowing the speech in violation of California Ed Code and Board Policy. However, after review it was determined that California Ed Code was not violated and the Board Policy referenced only applied to pre-recorded video not live events.

There was about a hundred people in attendance and the majority of those who spoke, including my self, and applauded overwhelmingly wanted the speech shown. After a motion and comments by the board they voted 3-2 to allow the speech.

When I first heard about the meeting I was ashamed that my daughter's district had gone this way but I was proud of the civic action the district's parents took.

You can see the news story on the school board meeting here. BTW I'm sitting behind the guy with the flag but you don't get to see me.

Obama's Speech to Students - What's the Big Deal

Image by cometstarmoon via Flickr

The fundies, teabaggers, birthers, and dittoheads have been whining and crying about Obama's speech to students since it was announced. They have claimed that Obama will brainwash or indoctrinate their children with his politics. I can see why the are upset about this because they fee this is their job.

However, after reading the text of Obama's speech I don't see the what big deal is and it appears that these individuals have yet again cried wolf. It's beginning to seem that no matter what Obama, liberals or progressives say they will react with vehement opposition without any facts to back their claims. When did ignorance become a virtue?