Fuss over the Obama speech was plain silly

This from the Bowsling Green Daily News:

All the fuss over President Barack Obama addressing the nation’s kids in the classrooms was, quite frankly, silly.

On Tuesday, Obama addressed schools throughout the country, telling kids not to cut class and to stay in school.

What is so wrong with that?

Controversy had arisen days before, alleging the speech was politically motivated and it wasn’t appropriate for him to be addressing children and teenagers while they were in the classroom. Regardless of one’s opinion of Obama or if one voted for him or not, he is our president and has the right to advise our kids to follow their dreams and stay in school.The president was simply telling our nation’s kids, some of whom are dropping out of school or who are considering dropping out, to stay in school. He also challenged them to work hard, set educational goals and take responsibility for their learning.

Late last week, Kentucky Department of Education Commissioner Terry Holiday told local school districts that students could opt out of the speech if they had permission from their parents.

One has to respect parents’ opinions and if they felt like they didn’t want their kids watching Obama’s address, then that was certainly their prerogative.It is just hard to envision how our president’s message would have affected anyone’s kids in a negative way.

On Tuesday, only a handful of kids opted out of the speech in the city and county school districts. Again, that was their prerogative, but it would seem that Obama’s message was one with which Americans of all political persuasions should be able to identify.

The uproar surrounding this speech seemed to take on a life of its own prior to the president’s address, but it is just hard to understand what all the fuss was about.