Poll: I need permission to watch the president!?

[Yoshemo]

At my school, the senior class students were going to watch Obama's speech he made on Wensday. But a bunch of crazy parents complained, saying its propoganda and is brainwashing the children. So instead of dealing with them, they made a permission slip that is needed to be signed in order to watch it. These are 17-19 year old people that need to get mommy's permission to hear our leader talk. This is really pathetic to me. We never needed permission to listen to Bush's idiotic rants

EDIT: I live in Michigan

 

[Arsen]

Give them the option to watch it or not.

I can understand some opposition to what he is saying, but at the same time it's the opportunity to watch the president speak. As long as he encourages something positive I'm for it.

 

[Xyphon]

You really shouldn't need permission to watch him. ESPECIALLY if you're above the age of 16. Parents today are just really overprotective. They want to shelter their children from the world instead of allowing them to taste different aspects of life that appear to us every day.

 

[Conqueror Kenny]

If you're old enough to vote (I'm not American so I may be wrong on the voting age) then you should be able to watch your leader speak without permission. Just seems silly to me.

 

[twistedshadows]

No, because I always had to watch Bush's speeches in school without the option not to. Why should it be any different now? Just because there's a Democrat in office? That's ridiculous and a total double-standard. It's the president speaking, which anyone should be allowed to watch regardless of whether they agree with what he's saying.

 

[Zarthek]

let the students choose.. not the parents... sheesh, some people are just, plain, nuts!

 

[xXZer0]

I guess if you want to watch it then let them and if they don't then don't make them. For me though i'd say I want to watch it so I don't have to something like work or learn

 

[Starke]

Yeah, welcome to American Politics. The aftermath of the Bush regime is that a lot of people in the far right are absolutely terrified, at the same time we've got groups like Fox News telling these people that the President isn't the president, isn't an American citizen, that he's a communist, and so on, which scares them even more. Like I said, welcome to American politics of the Third Millennium.

I'd almost say, on ideological bias, write a paper to the White House protesting this treatment. There probably wouldn't be any upshot, but you never know.

Not knowing your parent's ideological leanings, I suspect that they wouldn't sign, but, lean on them to, if you want to see it.

 

[Yoshemo]

Not knowing your parent's ideological leanings, I suspect that they wouldn't sign, but, lean on them to, if you want to see it.

My parents hate Obama, but they don't care if I watch him. I've seen it on tv anyway

 

[stone0042]

That's bullshit, but I'm assuming everyone who reads that thread already knows it. Personally I wouldn't watch, but that's because I don't think much of him as a leader.

 

[ace_of_something]

As old as you are there is no reason you can't make your own decisions on that sort of thing. Though all he was saying was 'stay in school and study hard'

Polarization is so stupid in this country.

 

[Pimppeter2]

Clearly 20 year olds are prime subjects for brainwash

 

[ProfessorLayton]

At our school, we had to have a permission slip to get OUT of seeing it.

Either way, who's crazy enough to think that it was propaganda? It was Obama telling kids to stay in school and wash their hands. Hell, if that's propaganda, Blues Clues is up there with Soviet Russia!

 

[S-Unleashed]

You really shouldn't need permission to watch him. ESPECIALLY if you're above the age of 16. Parents today are just really overprotective. They want to shelter their children from the world instead of allowing them to taste different aspects of life that appear to us every day.

Pretty much what I was going to say.

 

[deleted_scifidownbeat]

DELETED

 

[Starke]

Not knowing your parent's ideological leanings, I suspect that they wouldn't sign, but, lean on them to, if you want to see it.

My parents hate Obama, but they don't care if I watch him. I've seen it on tv anyway

Yeah, mine don't hate him, I believe they did vote for him on my argument (mostly that if McCain dies before 2012, we'd have had former Governor Palin as president (*Shudders*)). Though they are still wary of him. How they managed to remain aligned with the Republican party these last five years is something I'll never completely understand.

Still, the entire situation bothers me a bit. The point was dialog. In a democracy sometimes you win, sometimes you don't, but the debate should be the primary focus, not this whole, "the other guy won, so I'm going to hide my kids from it and pretend my guy won for the next 8 years," behavior I've been seeing. I know that's overly idealistic, but it still bothers me that we've gotten this far from it. As far as I know no one would have even considered shielding their children from a public address by Kennedy, or Johnson, or even Clinton.

Sorry, I'm rambling, but, this behavior disturbs me on a number of levels.

 

[Radeonx]

My school just gave kids the option to skip it. Anyways, that is just bullshit. A senoir has the rightd to choose what he does.

In a fool's world, yes! Because we all know how much the President uses his brainwashing techniques, especially in an encouragement speech to a bunch of children! The evil bastard!

 

[Pilot Bush]

lol no one said yes. Liiiibbberallll