Keep Your Child Home From School On September 8th?

[Jim O'Bryan]

It is sad.


I would also add that there is no longer any common ground, but it seems like common sense is also in short supply. It frightens me and makes me a little sad.

Valerie

Common sense is not the problem. Critical thought is the problem. Add to that some myopic
power crazed, as deemed by God, and you have some pretty scary stuff going on.

Peer pressure, catch phrases, talking points, spiral dynamics, and you have a real witches
brew of crap, that is being spoon feed to an America that finds itself 65% medicated, and
90% self medicated.

While scary, we must stand our ground and correct lies and teach critical thought. Which
seems to be especially lacking recently here, as Orwellian sounding right wing run civic
groups try to convince us to march with them like lemmings over the brink.

The School Board, the Superintendent.

Pitiful

Not sure we should even think of trusting you with more money. If all you are going to teach
is to cower from thugs on a phone.
And if all we are going to do is call other districts for advice, might as well make some
dream come true and regionalize the district.

No matter, it is pitiful.


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[Kristine Pagsuyoin]

To some extent, the Board, Administration, and community "censor" the dialog in public schools on a daily basis. There are clearly things that can't be topics at school no matter how interesting the discussion would be.

If the school is prepared to handle it, then move forward. From the sounds of things this initiative was not communicated effectively and was news to the admistrators and teachers.

Yes, to some extent we do censor some discussions in school. However, most topics, even controversial ones, are discussable as part of the curriculum. It isn’t about the topic it’s about the presentation. Good teachers can introduce controversial or interesting topics without bias by offering to students many different perspectives. They may even debate issues, the point is that they are teaching their students that they can disagree with one another and still be respectful. Teachers need to be able to do this without threat to their position.

I really do want an answer to my question. What are you afraid of? To all the people who do not want Obama to address their children, what do you fear?

I am not trying to be disrespectful—I am just trying to understand. How does telling kids to stay in school work hard and trying to get them excited about school push any kind of social policy or issue? I would understand the concern is this was a campaign speech or something.

The sad truth is that a few individuals (I will not say republicans because I don’t believe all feel this way) have grabbed on to this issue to instill fear in others. The same individuals who have tried to scare Americans into war or to scare us into or to rejecting health care reform are now scaring children to believing that socialism will destroy us. That is indoctrination. However, I do believe these individuals do not represent the entire Republican Party, and yet they are hurting the Republican Party. Most Americans will not support censoring the president, and I don’t think most in our community support that. Our school district should reflect the values of its community and I don’t think our community, no matter your political views, support not broadcasting an address to kids by a current president.

[Jim O'Bryan]

How does telling kids to stay in school work hard and trying to get them excited about school push any kind of social policy or issue? I would understand the concern is this was a campaign speech or something.

Kristine

Do you mean like the one Ronald Reagan gave school kids, mostly political. The One Bush 41
gave the kids 95% political.

No sex ed

No evolution

No civics

Soon no history

Again, this heavily democratic and smarter than this city I pray, really has to think about
what is going on with the schools with this announcement.

PS - He is black,

you know.

You know.

You know.

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[Kristine Pagsuyoin]

"We" all know.

Just wondered if anyone else would answer my question...

[Jim O'Bryan]

"We" all know.

Just wondered if anyone else would answer my question...

Generally they throw, bully then hide.

I am very disappointed in all elected officials, for not speaking up on this.

But then again, Our president is BLACK.

Here I thought it was a magical step forward, now I find out
nothing but a fascist plan to take over a country that has been
was broken by John Birchers over the last 8 years.

pitiful


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[sharon kinsella]

This is all so horrible.

I'm so tired.

[Jim O'Bryan]

This is all so horrible.

I'm so tired.

Sharon/All

Back in school they taught, "Those that forget history, are forced to relive it."

We forgot the lesson of Vietnam.

They gave us Iraq.

We forgot They had us wasting 6 years of Investigation of a White Water Land deal,
that possibly netted the Clintons $30,000-$300,000. We spent 6 years of HELL and
spending millions to finally get to impeach one of the most popular and productive
presidents of all time, for...

Now we get this.

I say, let's rock, bring back the special prosecutor, and lets start looking into war crimes,
war profiteering, and the general raping of America.

Sharon, they are not afraid of what he will say.

They are afraid he is coming for their daughters.

AND

Clinton was one of the best even while they wasted 6 years of his presidency defending
himself against these people, imagine how good he could of made it. Maybe so good that
even GWB couldn't have ruined it! Think of it.

So they figure, better get on this president right away, and make sure our legally and dully
elected President of the united States can't even think about taking care of business, and
making this country great again.

That is what they are afraid of,

and the daughter thing.
You know.
.

[Colleen Wing]

Sorry, I missed the last few hours because I had a Klan meeting or maybe I went to get my husband from the airport and had dinner. Believe what you will.

Thank you for reminding me why it is pointless to post on here.

Oh and how the R's are the only crazy ones. Spread the joy...now we can all be sad.

PS- I am not afraid of anything, I was just stupid enough to post. I was never particularly against the initiative. But sort of am now.

You win. Sleep tight. Peace out.

[Jim O'Bryan]

Sorry, I missed the last few hours because I had a Klan meeting or maybe I went to get my husband from the airport and had dinner. Believe what you will.

Thank you for reminding me why it is pointless to post on here.

Oh and how the R's are the only crazy ones. Spread the joy...now we can all be sad.

PS- I am not afraid of anything, I was just stupid enough to post. I was never particularly against the initiative. But sort of am now.

You win. Sleep tight. Peace out.

Colleen

What on earth and how do you explain the concentrated effort to discredit this president
from the day he took office?

Now I will admit, that Barack Obama is somewhat underwhelming in his ability in his first year
in office. But the rhetoric, simply noes not match the problems or issues.

Why on earth can't a President of the United States address public schools, about
the need to work hard and stay in schools? Brainwashing?

I believe that you are beyond this, but many, many, many are not.

I win, when we win.

This is our city, our country, our schools.

Our future.

Not a game.

Not talking of you, you are not mentioned, never mentioned the Rs.

I speak of birthers, deathers, liars, etc.

I am a guy that thinks Bill Clinton should have been impeached for lying under oath,
and the same for the rest. I am not in favor of many of the Obama policies, but damn
he is not Satan.



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[Gary Rice]

OK people,

Let's step back from the abyss here. In fact, there isn't even an abyss here! This is all theatrical. No lemmings are going over any cliffs, except perhaps by using their own left or right wing rose-colored glasses.

Lefties and righties have been pummeling each other since before our nation was even a nation.

It goes way back farther than has been stated here, and I'm not expecting it to stop anytime soon, but we can stop dignifying it, responding to it with hyperventilation, and fighting about it.

Discuss, yes. Persuade yes, Fight, Scream, no.

Fortunately, with the exception of the Hamilton/Burr duel and (gulp) the Civil War, American political violence has been kept to a minimum.

Let's hope it stays that way.

Obama's presidency is being villianized by righties? And Bush's was not villianized by lefties? Payback game on. That's all it amounts to.

I'm sure that both Chief Executives got over that real quick. After all, they have a country to run.

A President represents all of the people, and is the leader of this country- to be supported from the moment that he (or she) takes the Oath of Office, to the moment they leave office.

Period. Ask any soldier, sailor, airman or marine.

Take a good look at exactly how many people are actually raising political Cain in this country. Very few indeed, when you start counting noses.

Were it not for the internet or on one of those political shows, I doubt you'd ever hear about them, except in the occasional angry letter to an editor in some paper.

Under the circumstances, as I alluded to before, AS A TEACHER, I APPROVE of the way that the school's are handling this. It's not controlling the message, but the planning of the presentation and discussions afterward by education professionals that counts here.

This is a topic for Civics, Social Studies, and Government classes. Other classes do not need to be disrupted unnecessarily.

Kinda reminds me of the hoopla a few years ago when some wanted to change the color of the pen that teachers use to grade papers with- from red, to less threatening soft pastels....

Just a thought here before bedtime...

Musically, "Kumbayah" and "Eve of Destruction" can be played with the same chords....

Back to the banjo.....

[Jim O'Bryan]

Obama's presidency is being villianized by righties? And Bush's was not villianized by lefties? Payback game on. That's all it amounts to.

Payback ? This is our country, yours, colleen, jim's, everyone.

This is not some game.

I am not even talking right and left. Rs and Ds. I am merely speaking of critical
thinkers, and thinking. period.

Clinton was dogged by more than Rs.

Bush was elected by many Ds not just Rs

The War in Vietnam and Iraq has the blood of Ds and Rs.

And Obama too is being hassled by more than Rs.

The Health Care debate in the house, that is Ds and Rs. Out in the real world it is
many people that are believing the hype on all sides, and over reacting.

Please do not make this a D & R, Liberal and Conservative thing.

This is simply lack of critical thinking and bullying. This was not school policy, it was
because of a flood of telephone calls to schools and school boards across the nation.


FWIW


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[Gary Rice]

I dunno Jimmy,

If there's any kinda thinkin' goin' on here at all, I'm thinkin' that it's probably OVERLY "critical"... (smile)

Back to the banjo....

(played rightie style, by a leftie handed guy)

[Jim O'Bryan]

Sorry, I missed the last few hours because I had a Klan meeting or maybe I went to get my husband from the airport and had dinner. Believe what you will.

Thank you for reminding me why it is pointless to post on here.

Oh and how the R's are the only crazy ones. Spread the joy...now we can all be sad.

PS- I am not afraid of anything, I was just stupid enough to post. I was never particularly against the initiative. But sort of am now.

You win. Sleep tight. Peace out.

Colleen

Please accept my apology.
I never figured you as a racist, or birther.

What I am speaking of is a effort from day one to discredit this president, and belittle
before he gets off the ground.

It makes no sense, it is extra vile.

You tell me why?

Again, Please accept my apology.

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[Kristine Pagsuyoin]

To Colleen,

As I said, I don't want to ever say that ALL republicans feel, act, or believe the same thing. I think the kind of hatred and attacks that we have seen over the last decade have been initiated by a few. You and I have worked together on committees and just because we are at different end of the political spectrum doesn't mean we can't work together, or be productive. I am as turned-off by some of the extreme left "lunies" running around spewing their hate talk too. When I asked the question, What are you afraid of? I wasn't targeting you personally--just a question I wanted to throw out for anyone to answer.

What angers me is the kind of attacks and lies that do nothing but continue to harm our country. There is so much to figure out that it is ridiculous to me that we are even having this conversation, but then again, that is how it's been for awhile. The strategy to get us all arguing and debating over whether Obama should be allowed to address students in school takes away from the real things we should be talking about. And oops, when our back is turned...

[Lynn Farris]

I am so disillusioned. This is Lakewood. I thought it was a progressive, idealistic community. Even South Carolina and North Carolina are more open minded. They are allowing parents who don't want their children to hear our President speak to opt out. But not even these Southern Red States are going to the extreme of the Lakewood Superintendent. Wow! I never thought I would be suggesting that Lakewood Superintendent follow the example of South Carolina on being open minded. And shame, shame, shame on the School Board for apparently backing him.

What kind of message do you think we are sending to our children? We don't trust the President of the United States? We don't trust blacks? They are dangerous.

Are we saying that the Superintendent doesn't respect authority and neither should they? Are we saying that the message of stay in school and work hard is wrong.

I was always proud to be from Lakewood, even with the eminent domain battle. This is the first time I've ever been ashamed.