"I feel very scared to be in this country right now."

No, I don't feel scared to be in Bahrain. In fact, Bahrain has been quite fantastic. Rather, the title of this post refers to a quote from a mother in the US, taken from this article on CNN. But like the Secretary of Education says in the article, all the hubbub surrounding President Obama's speech to American students is just kind of silly. Really? Someone is scared to be in the US right now?

I'm going to go out on a limb here, but I'm guessing that very few people are truly scared of the leadership in the United States. I mean - is Obama's administration comparable to Ghadaffi? Sadaam? Pol Pot? Stalin? So if people are not truly scared, then what is going on?

Well, I imagine that its one of three things.

1. These people do not understand a real fear of dictatorial leadership, and they need to be a little more knowledgable about the world around them and figure out what life is/was like for people who truly live in fear for their lives.
2. These people are just angry, but don't have enough self awareness to correctly label their feelings.
3. These people are just angry, but saying "I'm angry" doesn't get the results they want. Maybe they think they sound more legitimate saying "I'm afraid" rather than "I'm angry" and feel more justified in their indignation.
   

I would surmise that its really a mix of the last two. But really - do we really need to be scared!? Or even angry about this education speech!? I don't agree with most of Obama's economic decisions, but this doesn't mean that he's dictatorial, grabbing for power at every chance or looking to innoculate our children with his "leftist-communist-socialist" propaganda.

Maybe I'll be proven wrong, but I think the speech on Tuesday will be about working hard in school with no partisan message. As a social studies teacher, opportunities like this are fantastic, as the president is speaking directly to students. It gives teachers a chance to relate things like civics and government to their own experience.

Not only that, but as I said in this post, Obama is providing an example as a leader that people (and kids) should work hard. Will this inspire every student in the classroom? Obviously not. But its quite probable that thousands of kids will be inspired. Is that not worth the speech?

I don't think that the people who are claiming to be scared are part of some sort of right-wing conspiracy, or even that they are intentionally trying to add to the derailment of Obama era policies. However, they are letting their anger and frustration over other areas (health care, economic policy) cloud their judgment and color every decision that Obama is making.

Really?! (That's right. I said "really" for the third time. That's how ridiculous these people are).

You're scared!? Tell that to the next Afghan refugee that fled the Taliban in the 1990's. Or someone who's lived in Somalia. Or someone who lived through the purges in Soviet Russia.