“I just don’t understand it,” she sobs. “My child should not have to go through this! It’s so unfair that they have to sit through this kind of thing. I’m just so scared that he’s trying to brainwash America’s kids,” a woman screams.
“It just isn’t right! He’s corrupting our youth. This is a political agenda, and I won’t let my child be part of it,” another angry man shouts at a news camera.
These images got my attention last week while I was flipping through the channels on my television.
But why?
What would cause these parents to be so up in arms, even sobbing in tears to local news officials?
Was it that someone was going to try and hurt them in some way?
Had the death panel plan been revised to focus on small children rather than innocent elderly Americans?
Was the government going to reveal their underlying fascists sentiments and put all children in special “I hate children camps?”
The truth was actually far worse; The President of the United States was going to address K-12 students and ask them to stay in school.
Who does that?
Who have we elected that they would do such a thing?
This is an obvious stain on America’s history, promoting education with reckless abandonment like that. President Obama, you have crossed the line!
“We are what we learn.” What kind of fascist propaganda is that? How dare you, sir!
I’d like to say that I hate education, and if my kids were supposed to see something like that, I’d take them out of class for the day and thus missing out on not only the address but valuable class lessons too! Right on Patriots! Right on!
If the founding fathers stood for anything, it was for depriving yourself of as much information as possible in order to spite your enemy.
Thomas Jefferson once stayed out of school for weeks to show his dedication, to show the British, who was boss.
Listen, guys, we cannot descend into the world of baseless fears. What we have gone through in the first months of Obama’s administration is pure madness.
People accuse the man of proposing death panels, of being a socialist fascist (how does that work?) and shouting him down in the Senate.
We have lost ourselves in the black hole of blind fear.
In light of the shenanigans that have gone on recently, I’m wondering how a room full of jittery high schoolers ended up being the group who exercised the most decorum towards the President of the United States?
Why is it that a senator can’t be held to the same standards of behavior as seventeen-year-olds?
We need to do better.
Shouting down people at town hall meetings that are supposed to be about intelligent debate and conversations is not the way.
It impedes progress, and it a pretty big sign that most of these people don’t know what they’re talking about.
When one is asked how to improve health care, replying, “It’s a lie! Fascism! Socialism!” is not a productive or educated response.
By the way, let’s define these terms that people seem to be throwing around.
Fascism is a very right winged party that originated with Mussolini in Italy, and was later adopted by the Nazis.
Its usual characteristics are “a belief in the supremacy of one superior ethnic group and contempt of democracy.”
You can see how the president does not fit into this category at all, especially because president Obama actually promotes education whereas actual fascist did things like burn entire libraries.
I’m not here to tell you what to think of the health care plan, or any other proposals by the government.
I welcome opposing views because that is what helps us explore different perspectives and gets us on the road to a possible compromise.
We cannot prevent this educated conversation from taking place by screaming and forming angry mobs in Town Hall meetings. We owe it to ourselves to try and find the solutions in a civilized manner.
The more that crowds gather to shout down any sort of educated discussion, the more we can be sure that those who are responsible for the chaos have little to no argument against the issues at hand.
Also the suspicion that this battle that people have is more against Obama than anything else starts to shine through. I’m pretty sure that if he came up with a plan to give every child a pony, someone would find the hidden socialist agenda in that action. Let’s chill out, shall we?
In his speech (if you decided to watch it), the president told kids that with education, no one could stop them.
I think the same thing applies to educated debate. When we embrace it, I’m sure no one can stop us on our mission to improve our country.
Nicole Robinson can be reached at nrobinson@ut.edu.
