{"id":5363,"date":"2009-09-08T08:00:10","date_gmt":"2009-09-08T13:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=5363"},"modified":"2009-09-08T09:31:18","modified_gmt":"2009-09-08T14:31:18","slug":"editorial-what-is-obama-flap-teaching-our-kids-startribunecom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=5363","title":{"rendered":"Respect?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sunday’s Strib editorial<\/a> actually ends with a modestly useful point:<\/p>\n

Education has never been as strategically important to national well-being as it is today, as other nations move quickly to overtake this country in the knowledge-based economy of the future. Given that challenge, a simple speech on the value of education should not be a matter for partisan contention.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well, yeah.\u00a0 It should not be.\u00a0 Education has much, much bigger problems\u00a0than\u00a0a speech from\u00a0a President.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And I personally don’t have a huge problem with the Presidents speech, in and of itself.\u00a0\u00a0The bureaucracy certainly overstepped in\u00a0its rah-rah approach to publicizing and curriculumizing the speech – it smacked\u00a0of personality cultism like a 2×4 to the back of the head “smacks of” impact – and people do need to be vigilant about this kind of thing.<\/p>\n

But the Strib is shocked, shocked, to realize that Americans disagree about politics:<\/p>\n

\u00a0But these are odd times. Unfortunately for our children, even a back-to-school welcome can further divide us.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

True.\u00a0 But the address is hardly alone.<\/p>\n

But just seven months into the Obama presidency, nothing is simple. The political lesson some seem intent on teaching our kids today is rooted in what appears to be a growing lack of respect for the office of the president. How very sad.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A “Growing lack of respect” for the office of president?<\/p>\n

What did <\/em>the Strib – as reliably DFL-leaning a publication as exists – have to say about the endless, toxic disrespect that was paid to the previous President?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bear in mind that disagreeing with policy isn’t direspectful – conservatives opposed Bush’s spending, quaint as it seems today.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This after eight years of running columns that referred to President Bush as “the occupant”; eight years of Garrison Keillor’s sniffing down his nose over Bush’s accent with nary a word about policy; eight years of Susan Lenfestey’s paranoid, hate-drenched Bush derangement.<\/p>\n

Yeah, Strib.\u00a0 Your concern for respect for the office is touching.<\/p>\n

It ought to give Americans pause about the toll of excessive partisanship when the president is faulted for planning to urge the nation’s schoolchildren to learn their lessons. On Tuesday, the first day of school for many Americans, the president’s brief address should be a valuable reminder that students serve their country as well as themselves when they succeed academically. That message deserves a top-level spokesman.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And the notion of “respect for the office” deserves a spokesman who isn’t marinading in cynical hypocrisy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sunday’s Strib editorial actually ends with a modestly useful point: Education has never been as strategically important to national well-being as it is today, as other nations move quickly to overtake this country in the knowledge-based economy of the future. Given that challenge, a simple speech on the value of education should not be a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5363","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5363\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}