Obama school speech - big deal or not?

Why the confusion and outrage over the school speech?

Instead of writing a lengthy diatribe, let me briefly share how my family will deal with it.  To me, the issue does not deserve the time of a longer post.  If you want to find an in-depth opinion, you will find plenty on the Internet from writers much more talented and opinionated than I am.

• Whether my son’s school watches the speech or not, it will likely be on YouTube by dinner.  If there is a need, I’ll talk to my child about it.
• If his school does not air it, I do not feel compelled to take my son out of school. I will watch it with him at home.  His school’s patriotism would not be questioned.  Instead, I would question those who turned this into a circus so that the schools hesitated to show a message from the president.

Growing up in the 70′s and 80′s, us kids watched live and pre-recorded messages from the presidents during school.  My parents didn’t have the luxury of YouTube and didn’t get to review what we saw.  My four sisters and I went to the same schools and grew up in the same family.  We all have political beliefs that are polar opposites, so we weren’t all brainwashed by what we saw in school.  Just a couple of us.

My 8-year-old son is capable of critical thinking and has beliefs of his own that do differ from mine sometimes.  His thoughts are so simple, straight-forward, and child-like, he actually has the power to make me re-think what I believe.  As much as I would like to get a cable and download my thoughts and beliefs into his brain, and turn him into a mini-me, I have to let him open his eyes to what is going on around him and form his own ideas and questions.  Who says I’m absolutely right about everything?

Anyway, this is supposed to be a speech about staying in school so it’s not like he is going to hear about highly debatable subjects.

Again, I’m not understanding the outrage.  If you are outraged, why?