Did you know that many of the people of the Great State of Tennessee are narrow minded douchecreatures? You probably did know that, since we as a state have such a great history of fairness and intellectual heights, all the way from the Scopes Monkey Trial to Dr. King being killed here, and progressing forward into giving the nation a Bill Frist & a Lamar Alexander for every Al Gore. We rule. We are awesome, go Volunteers!
We are so awesome, in fact, that many of my fellow Tennesseans, in Sumner and Williamson Counties, specifically, are choosing to opt their children out of President Obama's speech next Tuesday, a speech specifically directed at children, something I cannot remember occurring before in my lifetime, and which would have been more appropriate, perhaps, when we had Presidents with the intellectual and emotional maturities of children; but I stray. This aforementioned conservative clot of useless people would simply shield their kids' precious, precious ears from the words of the President of the United States than risk him saying anything controversial, conversation-starting or anything that the parents of these kids might disagree with. They would rather hide their collective empty fucking heads in the sand (taking their children with them) than discuss the event, its pros and cons, and in so doing, respect the President of the United States in the context of civics and schools, and also risk their kids actually learning something (in a school!) which may or may not contain an oppositional point of view to the one espoused in their homes.
And they are not alone. All over the nation, people - well, not people, conservatives - are rearing their ugly, cowardly heads and shrieking to school boards about how the President is going to do something awful to students, simply by talking next Tuesday. Two things; One, nothing that Obama does next Tuesday (unless he dances around and exposes himself to our nation's children live on television, and let's face it, he's not Clinton) will be anywhere near as damaging to our childrens' education futures as was No Child Left Behind and the ridiculous mandated standards it spawned, and two - Yes, if this were last year, and the speech were being given by the Monkeyface, and directed at America's students during school hours, I would want my kids to hear their President speak.
Comes a time when the artificial gravitas of the office needs to be manifest by We the People, even if it is only for a short time, or it becomes pointless to have elections at all, you embrace the philosophy of English Bob. (You either understand that last bit, or you don't.) If you can't even listen, or allow your children to be exposed to, ideas that counter your own, it's probably best that you stay in your insular little life, shuttling back and forth between only home and church, homeschooling and protecting another generation of people with only the most tenuous of grips on reality and an artificial sense of their own privilege and importance.
Shut the fuck up, America. Let the man speak. He's good at it, and your kids will be okay.