Retardation as Political Loitering

I had to look up the origin of the word retarded to be sure I wasn't misconceptualizing the latest shameful Republican high jinx.

It's accurate. The latest Republican high jinx are retarded. It's intellectual loitering. Obstruction of civility and common decency. RETARDED.

President Obama will be addressing American school children in a televised event on September 8th. The most intelligent news coverage of this I could find comes from Yahoo News: Obama goes back to school

Last month, in an interview with 11-year-old student reporter Damon Weaver, the president announced his big back-to-school plan:

"I'm going to be making a big speech to young people all across the country about the importance of education; about the importance of staying in school; how we want to improve our education system and why it’s so important for the country. So I hope everybody tunes in."

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan sent a letter to the nation's principals, inviting schools to watch the speech and included suggested classroom activities. But Jim Greer, the chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, came out swinging against the planned speech. An excerpt from his statement:

"The address scheduled for September 8, 2009, does not allow for healthy debate on the President's agenda, but rather obligates the youngest children in our public school system to agree with our President's initiatives or be ostracized by their teachers and classmates."

NBC spoke with Katie Gordon, a spokeswoman for the Florida Republican Party, who said the party's "beef" is with the accompanying lesson plans. The guide for pre-K through grade 6 suggests questions students think about during the speech, such as "What is the President trying to tell me? What is the President asking me to do?"

The plan for grades 7-12 includes a "guided discussion," with suggested topics: "What resonated with you from President Obama's speech? What is President Obama inspiring you to do?"

The Cato Institute, a public-policy research foundation, issued a press release entitled "Hey Obama, Leave Those Kids Alone," criticizing the "troubling buzzwords" in the lesson plans:

"It's one thing for a president to encourage all kids to work hard and stay in school – that's a reasonable use of the bully pulpit. It's another thing entirely, however, to have the U.S. Department of Education send detailed instructions to public schools nationwide on how to glorify the president and the presidency, and push them to drive social change."

Across the blogosphere, comments covered the spectrum, from critical to supportive, and from one student, a little anger:

"I sent my children to school to be educated NOT indoctrinated." — justamom

"The fact that people want to keep their kids from hearing the President of the United States encourage them to do well in school shows a true level of ignorance." — Firefey

"As an [sic] 9th grade student, I'd like to say that 1. I'm not sure why everyone is so scared that we'll all be brainwashed by the President ... 2. My school is one that is not allowing us to watch the speech, and quite frankly, I'm pissed." — Willbw

Both Presidents George Bush and Ronald Reagan both gave speeches aimed specifically at students that were nationally televised. In 1989, Bush delivered a televised anti-drug speech, and Reagan's 1986 commencement speech and Q&A session was "beamed over public television into 171 school districts," according to the L.A. Times.

It's worth noting that schools are, encouraged, not required, to air the speech. The Houston Chronicle reports that one Dallas school district is leaving the decision to individual teachers. Susan Dacus, spokeswoman for the Wylie school district, says parents who don't want their children to see it can opt out.

The original article is much richer than my fair use excerpt, please do read it.

So... it takes a village of idiots to spin this into a conspiracy and because the Florida Republicans have nothing better to do they eagerly accept that challenge.

According to these people, listening to the President of the United States for fifteen minutes is going to turn punch-drunk from testing school populations into card carrying socialists who will demand higher taxes and intelligent conversation at the dinner table.

Easily frightened lemmings will have none of it. No, the Florida Republicans want to edit Obama's remarks before he says them because these mind-readers already know he's going to say the wrong things. The kids might even like somebody in office who doesn't treat them like nobodies.

As far as I can tell, this is just thinly veiled, hate motivated, nonsense. Obstructionist - retarded. We have to stop pandering to this stuff as if there's something to think about. There isn't a nano-spec of fact or even believable fiction in any of these absurd objections - just media noise. A tempest in an intellectual thimble.

Now, if Obama addresses school children after someone whispers that a catastrophe is occurring and Obama does nothing, then I'll be angry.