Published: September 08, 2009 10:48 pm      

Politics get in way of worthy message

Schools throughout the area opted not to air the president’s speech for their students

THE ISSUE:Schools throughout the area opted not to air the president’s speech for their students.

OUR VIEW:The students missed hearing some good advice.

Somehow, politics got involved in President Barack Obama’s plan to deliver a speech to America’s students on Tuesday.

Critics apparently feared that Obama planned to use his speech as a bully pulpit. They wanted to know why he was taking his case directly to the kids. Shouldn’t he be making his arguments to adults?

Many school administrators responded by saying they would record the speech and decide later whether it was appropriate for their students.

The whole thing is a sad commentary on the current state of American politics.

Would critics have wanted to screen a speech to school kids by Franklin Delano Roosevelt? Ronald Reagan? George W. Bush? And if they had, would school administrators have listened?

We don’t all have to agree on policy issues. We might not even agree about everything the president might say in a speech to school kids.

But should the president’s staff really feel obligated to post his speech in advance so that the critics can be certain it doesn’t cross any lines?

The fact is the president’s speech was not much more than a pep talk. It was a call for students to take responsibility for their own education. Go to class and listen, the president said. Don’t let failures define you.

“We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems,” Obama said. “If you don’t do that — if you quit on school — you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country.”

Obama made no reference to the uproar. Nor did he make an appeal for support for tough causes such as his health care overhaul. He used the talk to tell kids about his own youth and to urge them to set goals and work hard to achieve them.

Some school administrators said it was difficult to take time out of a busy school day to bring everyone together for a speech, and perhaps for them, the speech really would have been better on tape delay.

The president’s message, though, was clearly worth hearing.

“I expect great things from each of you,” the president told students. “So don’t let us down — don’t let your family or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud. I know you can do it.”

Where’s the controversy in that?

— Logansport Pharos-Tribune and Kokomo Tribune