The President's Picture in Every Classroom

[BanTheGOP]

For the first time since JFK, I believe that children in classrooms will be pleased to see a picture of Barack Obama in every classroom in every school in this country. We should start a program that will encourage local businesses to pay for the frames and the pictures so that our children can be inspired to dream.

Here is a typical picture:

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When the children recite the pledge of allegiance, they will now have a proud, magnificent icon to associate with, making it easier for our instructors to teach about fairness, inclusion, and tolerance without having hypocritical republican leadership involved.

That alone is enough to ensure our children are engergized and hopeful about their future, and to OUR future as well.

[izquierdista]

1. Wrong

That's what was wrong with the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, and currently with North Korea. Cults of personality have no place in a democracy. If you want to put up a picture, put one up of Obama's boss -- the Constitution.

[BanTheGOP]

2. Normally I would agree with you...

...but President Obama is an exception, as he EXEMPLIFIES the type of leader that encourages freedom, progressive inclusion, and the ability for children to be inspired. While putting up the Constitution is an admirable idea, keep in mind that it should be a LIVING document, not one that is dead in the water for over two centuries as certain members of our Supreme Court keep harping over.

But putting a picture of President Obama actually inspires people to look at the Constitution in its true intent: of establishing guidelines that allow individuals to create progressive paths for themselves, their families, and their communities. In this case, a picture would have the OPPOSITE effect from indoctrination that you are fearful about. It is not indoctrination when someone from our side whose intent is inclusionary and progressive is honored in this manner.

[izquierdista]

3. Exception?

Then he should an exception in the usual run-of-the-mill need for leaders to plaster their pictures all over the place (I forgot Saddam Hussein as well in my last post). Let his acclaim be shown by private displays and honors, but public institutions have no business putting up pictures of the 'Dear Leader'.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

13. Absolutely not. No exceptions. For one thing, every exception is a precedent.

The only way to keep partisan right-wing politics out of schools is to keep partisan left-wing politics out of schools too.

If you make children salute a president of Obama, it's inevitable that they'll end up being made to salute a picture of someone like Bush.



"It is not indoctrination when someone from our side whose intent is inclusionary and progressive is honored in this manner."

If you genuinely believe that which side does it has anything to do with whether it's indoctrination or not, then there is no hope for you, I fear.

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

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[Donald Ian Rankin]

15. Did you mean this to go to the OP?

I'm reasonably confident the OP is a troll (take a look at the comment in the profile; it has much more in common with right-wing caricatures of liberals than with real liberalism), whereas the poster you replied to seemed quite reasonable.

[Divernan]

4. Are you aware that no other industrialized country even HAS a "pledge of allegiance"?

It is considered fascist, abhorrent and reminiscent of Nazi Germany. I believe there were pictures of Stalin in every Soviet classroom. Catholic schools used to have pictures of the Pope in every classroom. You get the idea? Democracy is not about any leader being infallible. Although the koolaid drinking neocons do think that way.

It is far from psychologically healthy to teach children to see any political leader as sacred, sanctified or the object of devotion (as per the definitions of icon, below).

We're pretty happy here about the election - but some 47% of the voters are not. Sounds like you want to rub their noses, via their kids, in their loss. Obama wants to reach out and be inclusive. That requires a diplomatic, tactful approach. So get a grip. Obama is not a god.

also i·kon (ī'kŏn')
An image; a representation.
A representation or picture of a sacred or sanctified Christian personage, traditionally used and venerated in the Eastern Church.
An important and enduring symbol: “Voyager will take its place … alongside such icons of airborne adventure as The Spirit of St. Louis and Bell X-1” (William D. Marbach).
One who is the object of great attention and devotion; an idol: “He is … a pop icon designed and manufactured for the video generation” (Harry F. Waters).
Computer Science. A picture on a screen that represents a specific file, directory, window, option, or program.

[BanTheGOP]

5. All valid opinions...

...but we have to start trust in our leaders with our children somewhere. I think the key is that children would WANT the picture in the FIRST place, and NOT be indoctrinated with it as pictures of republicans and even some Democrats would present.

A better solution will be to leave it up to each class. But at least it provides a stunning, exhilarating example to each student about the possibilities that each one of them have to change the status quo and return the country to its quest for tolerance and inclusion.

Again, the key factor is unwavering acceptance, not forced acquiescence.

[Muttocracy]

6. I'm with you - an allegiance to the flag is odd enough; allegiance to person would be worse. nt

[geek_sabre]

7. how about no? nt

[noamnety]

8. No.

We shouldn't be contributing to brainwashing our kids into falling for viewing politicians as any sort of idol. We should be teaching them to use critical thought - even when it's at the expense of leaders that they generally admire.

I sure the hell don't want any politician's face associated with a pledge of allegiance. (Not that our school actually says the pledge, we stopped that years ago, sometimes I am surprised to remember that other schools still do it.)

Obama is way better than mccain ... but he's been wrong on women's right to chose - whenever they need to chose, he's been wrong on FISA, he's been wrong on funding the war, he's wrong on Afghanistan, he's wrong on gay rights. I could not use him as a model for "tolerance." Like all politicians, he sells out when he needs to to win elections, even when the thing he's selling is human rights.

Please drop the cult of personality. It's destructive for democracy. In the long run we need students who can continue civil rights struggles even when a democrat is in office. People had to fight like hell to get rights even when it meant fighting against JKF. We shouldn't let them forget that.

[LWolf]

10. No, thanks.

No mandated pictures of government leaders in classrooms.

It's been done before, of course: Mao and Hitler, for example.

As a matter of fact, no mandated pledge of alliegance. If it's mandated, it's not real. If it's real, it doesn't need to be chanted every day like a psychological programming tool.

[Morpheal]

11. DICTATORSHIPS PUT PRESIDENTS UP IN CLASSROOMS: DEMOCRACY PUTS "WE THE PEOPLE" UP IN CLASSROOMS

I would much rather hear that something representative of "we the people" were in each classroom.
Not something about an individual person, a leader, a face, but something representing the people whom that individual serves.
The fundamental principles upon which America is founded are far from well served by the picture of a president in each classroom.
It is a sign of dictatorship, not democracy, and a sign of the inability to tell the difference between dictatorship and democracy,
when a president's picture is placed above "we the people" for them to do homage to.

It sends exactly the wrong message.

It is America's ideals turned upside down.

How will we ever get America turned right way around again, from this endless overturning that excesses of executive power
and government running roughshod across civil rights and contrary to the good and will of the people that the Cold War and
Republicanism brought ? While it seemed well justified during a world war, it is no longer justified if we are to accept, nurture
and cherish peace. It was not a way to human freedoms and rights, but constant war never is. During war there is a tendency
to place one man, one leader, one dictatorial and authoritative voice, a Commander in Chief of military power, above all else,
and above "we the people". "We the people" give up our "self evident" "truths" and rights for the sake of military victory, but
when war comes to an end, that must change.

No one man's picture should be in any classroom, above "we the people" of the United States of America.
If legislators and Barack Obama wish to put a copy of the constitution above every teacher, in every classroom, in America
then the fundamental principles upon which America allegedly strives to founded are then upheld, and perhaps safeguarded.

Robert Morpheal

[IrateCitizen]

12. Meet the new boss...

... same as the old boss.

[Name removed]

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[BanTheGOP]

16. Sorry for the late reply, but this bears a response.

If you noted the substance of my posts, you would note that I give concrete reasons WHY the republican party should be banned. I don't know how many times I have to spell it out, but the bottom line is that the republican party is NOT a political organization in the sense that it supports free and unfettered political discourse since Barry Goldwater. If the republican party were about ideas and about true limited government, which are valid political positions, then I would of course still be vehement in my opposition to their ideals.

Of course, because those ideals failed in an evolving world globalization effort, the crimes of many republicans have been documented ad nauseum. If we actually put the republican party on the hot seat in the senate, they'd be hard pressed to defend themselves from the onslaught of the criminal charges that are levied against them; and as they run for "office", their campaign contributions then become illicit financial support methodologies.

Sorry, your calling me a "troll" won't wash. I walk the walk, please start doing more than talking the talk yourself.

[Hopfrog]

17. Trolls are people too

I would love to think that this caricature is simple trolldom, but it isn't. Recently I was in a coffee shop where I saw a SHRINE to Obama, alongside Kwan Yin, Buddha, and Ganesha. To be fair, I wouldn't say that the proprietor of the cafe was a politically thoughtful person--they were just folks, swept up in the political moment, and they didn't realize the...uh...arrogance of what they were doing. That stuff goes on; I would like to think that I'm just as tolerant when it goes on on the other side of the aisle. The difference is, when you see leftists deifying Obama, its in a coffee shop. I've seen posters up pretty much equating the Bush Doctrine with Jesus, and Ive seen those in police stations..........