By Beth Quinn

For the American Far Right, being nuts is clearly a pre-existing condition (and one that’s apparently not covered under the current health-insurance system).

I was reminded of this Tuesday when the nuts came completely unglued and kept their kids home from school rather than allow them to hear Barack Obama’s speech on the importance of … going to school.

The speech was broadcast in our nation’s schools, directly to the American children. As it was optional (this being America and all), some entire school districts in the more addled sectors of the country chose not to show it.

Good Lord, we wouldn’t want THAT (black) guy – what’s his title? oh, the (black) president – speaking directly to our kids. Heaven forbid some (black) guy who went to Harvard and has accomplished a thing or two in his lifetime be allowed to influence young minds. Yikes! He might encourage them to study hard and respect their teachers or something.

In fact, this is just Obama’s tricky way of passing on his socialist agenda to our kids, or so sayeth the nuts. What gall that (black) president guy has! And it’s not because he’s (black) that we hate him, of course; it’s just that he’s a socialist. Whatever that is.

These nuts have somehow managed to get a stranglehold on the entire Republican Party. (Motto: Just Say No To Everything The President Suggests!) A lot of people are actually listening to the nuts and their Crazy Like A Fox News commentators, who have hijacked common sense and replaced it with fear-mongering lies.

Among the Fox News Nutwork and other Far Right comments about Obama’s education speech:

“Just when you think this administration can’t get any more surreal and Orwellian, here they come to indoctrinate our kids … This is what Chairman Mao did.” – Monica Crowley, Fox News commentator

 “This is something you’d expect to see in North Korea or in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.” – Oklahoma state Sen. Steve Russell, a – surprise! – Republican

“As the father of four children, I am absolutely appalled that taxpayer dollars are being used to spread President Obama’s socialist ideology.” – Jim Greer, chairman of the Republican Party of Florida

“Hitler came after the YOUTH too. Coincidence?? Maybe not.” – Some guy named TexasFred, a blogger on a pro-gun site called Traction Control

As you all know, stupidity has gone viral.

So, with such a brain trust taking issue with a president urging kids to work hard in school, I thought I’d take a look at Obama’s anti-American speech to see if I could find evidence of indoctrination and evil-doing.

And I found it! You betcha! Below are direct quotes from Obama’s education speech with me explaining how he’s clearly trying to steal the youth of America for his own purposes:

Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. (Yikes! Straight from the socialism handbook – From each all that he can give.)

Maybe you could be a mayor or a Senator or a Supreme Court Justice, but you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team. (Holy cow! He wants to turn the student governments in our schools socialist, too!)

You’ll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math … to develop new energy technologies and protect our environment. (See that! He wants to turn our children against oil companies and into tree huggers.)

If you quit on school you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country. (Good grief! He thinks kids belong to the government!)

I was raised by a single mother. (He’s so TOTALLY against fathers! He hates normal, American two-parent families!)

My wife’s family didn’t have much, but they worked hard, and she worked hard so that she could go to the best schools in this country. (Straight out of an Orwellian nightmare! That horse Boxer in Animal Farm was ALWAYS vowing to work harder.)

I hope you’ll all wash your hands a lot. (Jeez Louise! Now he’s telling kids that their parents don’t even keep them clean enough.)

Find an adult you trust … and ask them to help you stay on track to meet your goals. (That’s it! Now he’s completely undermining parental authority.)

If you’d like to read Obama’s entire rant to our school children, go to whitehouse.gov. You’ll be shocked and outraged, I tell you.

Listen. I know I’m preaching to the choir here. I know that people who read ZestofOrange aren’t the nuts. (Our readers even understand sarcasm.) I’d love to be able to reach the crowd that isn’t attracted to common sense, but I don’t know how, do you? I just can’t imagine how to successfully fight ignorance of that magnitude.

But maybe … just maybe … President Obama reached a few of the nuts’ children on Tuesday, the ones who actually showed up for school despite the terrible (black) president’s speech. Maybe Obama DID manage to spread a little propaganda – the kind that inspires kids to think clearly despite how dumb their parents are.

I know from personal experience that a charismatic president can have a direct influence on a kid. I was in junior high school when President Kennedy, who was white (but Catholic), spoke directly to me and millions of other American school kids about the importance of exercise.

He gave us the President’s Challenge on Physical Fitness, and he seemed to personally care whether I could walk the balance beam, do a sit-up, climb a rope and run fast. I loved it. I felt so important, and I wanted to do well for him.

And I did. I didn’t quite reach the stars but, because of Kennedy, I eventually managed to climb a rope all the way to the gym ceiling. A small part of me believed that our president read my physical fitness scores when they were sent to the White House. I can’t tell you how good that felt.

So maybe … just maybe … some kid wants to climb a rope to the stars today to please his president. Or hers. Let’s cross our fingers and hope.

Beth can be reached at beth@ZestofOrange.com.

Tags: Beth Quinn

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 8th, 2009 at 3:37 pm and is filed under Beth Quinn. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.