...Thanks to Walt Kelly

A RANT! A RANT! I DO CONFESS IT.

I tried to figure out how to make a connection between my photo du jour and the BLOG writing. O.K., O.K., I know it's a stretch; but that's not so unusual in these matters. SO HERE GOES: What would the Rush Limbaughs and Steve Russels in American be willing to have the President say to American school children?
The latest surge of acid partisanship in American culture is a reminder to me that I myself am deeply partisan, perhaps unreasonably so; therefore, I must continue to reexamine what I think and say and write, especially when the subject is government or religion. I confess that I sometimes (some would say “often”) move a couple of notches beyond reason in my thinking and speaking and writing about, for example, former president George W. Bush. I confess that my reactions to his speeches were usually not based in reason (...and Ronald Reagan would say, “Now... there you go again, Jerral”!)... not altogether unlike my reaction to fingernails scratching a blackboard. My reaction to Rush Limbaugh is the same: definitely not reasonable. His very appearance can set my teeth on edge even before he begins to speak. Mea culpa.

But I don't want to be unreasonable in my relationship with my friends... and I don’t expect always to agree with my friends, and I don’t expect them always to agree with me; but I do want to be clear-headed and reasonable in my conversations and other communications. One of my best, long-time friends, someone I love, responded to my September 3rd BLOG post by saying, “Re Obama's back to school speech,  first draft. Seems like a lite version of Chairman Mao's or Leader Kim's reeducation format, really.  This guy scares me. Jerral, you really got me steamed!” ...and we're not talking here about Oklahoma state Senator Steve Russel, who said, “As far I am concerned, this (Obama’s talking to students) is not civics education - it gives the appearance of creating a cult of personality. This is something you’d expect in North Korea or Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.” My retired friend was not a civics teacher, but he and many others on the other side of the political divide from where I stand believe President Obama's speech to children is an advertising campaign for socialism.

What we have here is a popular, unusually transparent president of the United States, who is being compared by otherwise reasonable people to Chairman Mao Zedong, Leader Kim Jong-il, and Saddam Hussein. A few days ago I even heard someone compare President Obama to Hitler because he is interested in “getting to American youth.” As the kids themselves like to say, “Give me a break!”

This latest flap has me flummoxed. I would have thought almost everyone in America would think it's a good idea for an American president to encourage America’s young people to study hard, to learn their lessons well, to set high goals for themselves and to set about achieving those goals. Not in a million years would I have thought I would hear reasonable people say they think of the American president, any American president, in the same way they think of Chairman Mao, Kim Jong-il, Fidel Castro, Saddam Hussein, or Adolph Hitler. So, President Reagan, here I go again. I believe such thinking and such talk are not only unjustified, ridiculous, and altogether unmerited; I think they are just plain stupid.