Dangerous, Subversive Indoctrination...Wait!

Here's the text of the speech by President Obama, the dangerous, subversive indoctrination of our innocent school children, which caused such a flurry of warnings, invective, and instructions to keep your children home lest they be besmirched.

Wait! OMG! The speech sounds pretty inspirational to me. The president's words encourage school children to pay attention, work hard in school, and be diligent about study and homework.

But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world – and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.

And that’s what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself.
Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide.
....

I know that sometimes, you get the sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work -- that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star, when chances are, you’re not going to be any of those things.
But the truth is, being successful is hard. You won’t love every subject you study. You won’t click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. And you won’t necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try.

That’s OK. Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who’ve had the most failures. JK Rowling’s first Harry Potter book was rejected twelve times before it was finally published. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, and he lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his career. But he once said, "I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."
These people succeeded because they understand that you can’t let your failures define you – you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time. If you get in trouble, that doesn’t mean you’re a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to behave. If you get a bad grade, that doesn’t mean you’re stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.

But I must be missing something. What WAS all the fuss about? Obviously, I'm reading the speech wrong.

You know what? I'm not reading the speech wrong. It's an excellent speech to children and parents alike. There are far too many fearful and ignorant people in this country, who think Obama is Satan or the anti-Christ. I'm not kidding, nor am I exaggerating. Others see Obama as perhaps something less than Satan or the anti-Christ, but nevertheless as evil. I've heard and seen these lesser-evil views expressed by people of education and apparent intelligence. Any influence by Obama on their children or grandchildren would be seen as nothing less than contamination.

What are we becoming in this country? Have we always been like this? Are we better, worse, or same? Was I not paying attention?

H/T to Oyster at Your Right Hand Thief.