The President Speaking to Kids is a Good Thing!

Let's see if I can get this straight: Our president wants to speak to school kids about staying in school and working hard. This is getting protests? On how many levels is this wrong? To begin with, he is our president. What happened to showing respect - and respecting the office even if you don't agree with the man (something that was said over and over again about Bush)?

According to Education Secretary, Arne Duncan, noted in the Associated Press:

He said Obama had no intention beyond talking "about personal responsibility and challenging students to take their education very, very seriously."

With the usual paranoia and disrespect, far right conservatives are seeing this as a bad thing and saying they will keep their kids home from school. He isn't going to turn the kids into socialists. He isn't going to influence them on other issues. He is going to give an eighteen minute speech on education. The funniest part of the big deal made out of this by some of the parents: What usually happens when a parent forbids a kid to do something...especially a teenager? They seem to forget about sheer rebellion.

When I was a kid I would have been really honored that the President of the United States would even think to speak to me and other kids. I'm getting really irritated at the fact that no matter what our president does, he is disrespected and looked at in a negative light by these people. Education is important for all kids' futures. To have the leader of our country emphasize that can only be good - and this is true whether you agree with him on other subjects or not.