Plug for President Obama

March 28, 1939 marked the end of the 3 year Spanish Civil War. One would expect such a time to be a time of rejoicing, of healing, of rest. It was anything but. 193,000, by some sources, of the losing Republicans were executed by the victorious Nationalists. The reason given: the Republicans and the Nationalists had such diametrically opposed views on the way Spain should be governed that one could not permit the other to live, let alone have a voice. This may be an extreme, but it is by no means an isolated example of what happens when dialogue between two opposing people or parties is allowed to shut down and they cease to find common ground. In America we are not preparing mass executions of those who disagree with us, however, the events of the Spanish Civil War should give us pause; perhaps those on the other side aren’t evil or crazy, maybe they’re just human.
I’m not a big fan of President Obama. I don’t like his policies; I don’t like his advisors; I don’t like his pastimes and, frivolous as it may be, I don’t like the way he talks; it bugs me. When I got my hands on the text of his speech he gave to K-12 students last night, I went into it expecting-hoping, really-to find a propaganda piece that I could rip on and feel justified in complaining about the President. I was disappointed in that hope; but the fact that I was disappointed demonstrated how far I had adopted the party spirit so prevalent in America today, and, to a greater extant, in Spain 70 years ago. So this post is a plug for President Obama; for once, we agree. I can work with that.
“But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life-what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home-that’s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude…That’s no excuse for not trying.” Personal responsibility. That was the essence of his speech. And in a time of government bailouts and a debate over “free” healthcare, nothing could be more pertinent. What life hands you doesn’t matter, what matters is what you do with it; I can think of few messages it would be better for the children of America to hear. Good one, Mr. President. Now if I could just change the way you talk…