{"id":5361,"date":"2009-09-06T09:34:25","date_gmt":"2009-09-06T14:34:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=5361"},"modified":"2009-09-06T11:59:18","modified_gmt":"2009-09-06T16:59:18","slug":"listen-to-your-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=5361","title":{"rendered":"Listen to Your President"},"content":{"rendered":"

That’s what we are telling our<\/em> kids when President Barack Obama addresses the nation’s schoolchildren in his upcoming address. Be there, listen, take notes and we will talk about it when you get home.<\/p>\n

At the same time, I respect parents that are pulling their kids that day a hell of a lot more than those that are neutral on the issue, or aren’t even aware of it.<\/p>\n

This is a teaching, parenting moment.<\/p>\n

Some parents have cried “Leave the parenting to us, not the President!”<\/p>\n

But guess what, a lot of you are really crappy parents.<\/p>\n

Some are absentee. Others are uninformed, lazy or disinterested. Many are physically present but not active; wealthy but won’t invest time<\/em>. A lot of our nation’s ills can be traced back to a lack of focus, leadership and discipline on the part of parents, fathers especially, coupled with the increasingly fragmented family unit.<\/p>\n

If there is one thing to recognize Barack Obama for, he seems to be a pretty good Dad and I think its fair to say it’s a harder job than being President, and certainly while being<\/em> President.<\/p>\n

If the President is true to his mission for this address, it could be of value. The nation’s first African-American President, addressing millions of children, many of whom are without a father, telling them to stay in school, dream big, and make the American dream your<\/em> dream is good for all of us.<\/p>\n

At the same time I understand the disdain many parents have for the President’s address. This is in part due to its timing, amidst a controversial and highly unpopular push for a government takeover of our health care system, soaring deficits, and the predicted bloating of the federal government.<\/p>\n

But I also think it can be tied to a growing awareness that the President really hasn’t been the agent of systemic change that he told us he would be; that the actions he and Congress have taken to stimulate the economy have more likely made things worse; and the growing list of broken campaign promises.<\/p>\n

A lot of people don’t trust Obama any more and aren’t exactly looking for his advice, especially to their children.<\/p>\n

My kids know that we are conservatives, but they also know why. They know we don’t blindly follow or discount a politician of any particular party – my kids also know I’m not a George Bush fan and why. They also know that I am not a Barack Obama fan, but not because he isn’t like us, rather because I don’t agree with his politics<\/em>. That is not to say that there aren’t things we agree on, and that will purportedly be the agenda for his address.<\/p>\n

…and if the President strays into political or ideological territory, my kids will spot it from a hundred yards.<\/p>\n

I don’t want my children to blindly follow in my ideological footsteps. I want them to form their own beliefs and philosophies. I want them to own<\/em> them so that no one can take them away without a fight.<\/p>\n

And that is why I want them to watch the President with respect, and with an open but discerning mind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That’s what we are telling our kids when President Barack Obama addresses the nation’s schoolchildren in his upcoming address. Be there, listen, take notes and we will talk about it when you get home. At the same time, I respect parents that are pulling their kids that day a hell of a lot more than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":228,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,10,64],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conservatism","category-education","category-president-obama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/228"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5361\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}