In other countries, people might feel flattered or exited. In other countries, maybe people wouldn’t care. In the US, parents are horrified at the prospect of their president talking to their children – lest he infects them with his socialist propaganda.
And that isn’t even a joke.
The whole language form a country which under Bush spent more money on government than most European countries – if you deduce the European expenditures for public health care (which is – of course – privatized in the US). That makes, per republican definition, the US a more socialist country than, lets say, Germany.
But of course the right wing always insinuates what they would do themselves if they were in power: indoctrinating children with spiritual mumbo-jumbo, ballooning the public finances, and redistributing private wealth. So the parents flock to protest and threaten to take their children out of school for that day: They didn’t choose this segregated school to have some black guy talking to their kids all of a sudden.
Not all that new then, but what impressed me was the fact that those people seem to be that terrified that they actually loose the ability to listen to what they actually are saying. Apart from the likening of President Obama to Hitler, Kim Yong Il and the devil himself (which is again a feat worth of socialist propaganda), my favourite quote of the day is from Chris Stigal:
“I wouldn’t let my next-door neighbour talk to my kid alone”
Ah, yes. I do hope all your neighbours read this.
Watched some more old West Wing episodes two days ago, and there are a lot of things to like and adore the USA for. Clearly Texas is not one of them.
P.S.: In case you wanted to know what President Obama wanted to say, here’s some info.