Altron
Well-Known Member
Comrade B. Hussein Obama said:Hello everyone - how's everybody doing today? I'm here
with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And
we've got students tuning in from all across America, kindergarten
through twelfth grade. I'm glad you all could join us today.
>I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school. And for
those of you in kindergarten, or starting middle or high school, it's
your first day in a new school, so it's understandable if you're a
little nervous. I imagine there are some seniors out there who are
feeling pretty good right now, with just one more year to go. And no
matter what grade you're in, some of you are probably wishing it were
still summer, and you could've stayed in bed just a little longer this
morning.
>I know that feeling. When I was young, my family lived in Indonesia for
a few years, and my mother didn't have the money to send me where all
the American kids went to school. So she decided to teach me extra
lessons herself, Monday through Friday - at 4:30 in the morning.
>Now I wasn't too happy about getting up that early. A lot of times, I'd
fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. But whenever I'd
complain, my mother would just give me one of those looks and say,
"This is no picnic for me either, buster."
>So I know some of you are still adjusting to being back at school. But
I'm here today because I have something important to discuss with you.
I'm here because I want to talk with you about your education and
what's expected of all of you in this new school year.
>Now I've given a lot of speeches about education. And I've talked a lot
about responsibility.
>I've talked about your teachers' responsibility for inspiring you, and
pushing you to learn.
>I've talked about your parents' responsibility for making sure you stay
on track, and get your homework done, and don't spend every waking hour
in front of the TV or with that Xbox.
>I've talked a lot about your government's responsibility for setting
high standards, supporting teachers and principals, and turning around
schools that aren't working where students aren't getting the
opportunities they deserve.
>But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the
most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world - and none
of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities.
Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers;
listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the
hard work it takes to succeed.
>And that's what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of
you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you
have to yourself.
>Every single one of you has something you're good at. Every single one
of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to
yourself to discover what that is. That's the opportunity an education
can provide.
>Maybe you could be a good writer - maybe even good enough to write a
book or articles in a newspaper - but you might not know it until you
write a paper for your English class. Maybe you could be an innovator
or an inventor - maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone
or a new medicine or vaccine - but you might not know it until you do a
project for your science class. Maybe you could be a mayor or a Senator
or a Supreme Court Justice, but you might not know that until you join
student government or the debate team.
>And no matter what you want to do with your life - I guarantee that
you'll need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a
teacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a
lawyer or a member of our military? You're going to need a good
education for every single one of those careers. You can't drop out of
school and just drop into a good job. You've got to work for it and
train for it and learn for it.
>And this isn't just important for your own life and your own future.
What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the
future of this country. What you're learning in school today will
determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in
the future.
>You'll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in
science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop
new energy technologies and protect our environment. You'll need the
insights and critical thinking skills you gain in history and social
studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination,
and make our nation more fair and more free. You'll need the creativity
and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies
that will create new jobs and boost our economy.
>We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and
intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems. If you
don't do that - if you quit on school - you're not just quitting on
yourself, you're quitting on your country.
>Now I know it's not always easy to do well in school. I know a lot of
you have challenges in your lives right now that can make it hard to
focus on your schoolwork.
>I get it. I know what that's like. My father left my family when I was
two years old, and I was raised by a single mother who struggled at
times to pay the bills and wasn't always able to give us things the
other kids had. There were times when I missed having a father in my
life. There were times when I was lonely and felt like I didn't fit in.
>So I wasn't always as focused as I should have been. I did some things
I'm not proud of, and got in more trouble than I should have. And my
life could have easily taken a turn for the worse.
>But I was fortunate. I got a lot of second chances and had the
opportunity to go to college, and law school, and follow my dreams. My
wife, our First Lady Michelle Obama, has a similar story. Neither of
her parents had gone to college, and they didn't have much. But they
worked hard, and she worked hard, so that she could go to the best
schools in this country.
>Some of you might not have those advantages. Maybe you don't have
adults in your life who give you the support that you need. Maybe
someone in your family has lost their job, and there's not enough money
to go around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don't feel
safe, or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know
aren't right.
>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 talking back to your
teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That's no excuse
for not trying.
>Where you are right now doesn't have to determine where you'll end up.
No one's written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your
own destiny. You make your own future.
>That's what young people like you are doing every day, all across
America.
>Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas. Jazmin didn't speak
English when she first started school. Hardly anyone in her hometown
went to college, and neither of her parents had gone either. But she
worked hard, earned good grades, got a scholarship to Brown University,
and is now in graduate school, studying public health, on her way to
being Dr. Jazmin Perez.
>I'm thinking about Andoni Schultz, from Los Altos, California, who's
fought brain cancer since he was three. He's endured all sorts of
treatments and surgeries, one of which affected his memory, so it took
him much longer - hundreds of extra hours - to do his schoolwork. But
he never fell behind, and he's headed to college this fall.
>And then there's Shantell Steve, from my hometown of Chicago, Illinois.
Even when bouncing from foster home to foster home in the toughest
neighborhoods, she managed to get a job at a local health center; start
a program to keep young people out of gangs; and she's on track to
graduate high school with honors and go on to college.
>Jazmin, Andoni and Shantell aren't any different from any of you. They
faced challenges in their lives just like you do. But they refused to
give up. They chose to take responsibility for their education and set
goals for themselves. And I expect all of you to do the same.
>That's why today, I'm calling on each of you to set your own goals for
your education - and to do everything you can to meet them. Your goal
can be something as simple as doing all your homework, paying attention
in class, or spending time each day reading a book. Maybe you'll decide
to get involved in an extracurricular activity, or volunteer in your
community. Maybe you'll decide to stand up for kids who are being
teased or bullied because of who they are or how they look, because you
believe, like I do, that all kids deserve a safe environment to study
and learn. Maybe you'll decide to take better care of yourself so you
can be more ready to learn. And along those lines, I hope you'll all
wash your hands a lot, and stay home from school when you don't feel
well, so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter.
>Whatever you resolve to do, I want you to commit to it. I want you to
really work at it.
>I know that sometimes, you get the sense from TV that you can be rich
and successful without any hard work -- that your ticket to success is
through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star, when chances
are, you're not going to be any of those things.
>But the truth is, being successful is hard. You won't love every
subject you study. You won't click with every teacher. Not every
homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right
this minute. And you won't necessarily succeed at everything the first
time you try.
>That's OK. Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones
who've had the most failures. JK Rowling's first Harry Potter book was
rejected twelve times before it was finally published. Michael Jordan
was cut from his high school basketball team, and he lost hundreds of
games and missed thousands of shots during his career. But he once
said, "I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that
is why I succeed."
>These people succeeded because they understand that you can't let your
failures define you - you have to let them teach you. You have to let
them show you what to do differently next time. If you get in trouble,
that doesn't mean you're a troublemaker, it means you need to try
harder to behave. If you get a bad grade, that doesn't mean you're
stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.
>No one's born being good at things, you become good at things through
hard work. You're not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new
sport. You don't hit every note the first time you sing a song. You've
got to practice. It's the same with your schoolwork. You might have to
do a math problem a few times before you get it right, or read
something a few times before you understand it, or do a few drafts of a
paper before it's good enough to hand in.
>Don't be afraid to ask questions. Don't be afraid to ask for help when
you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn't a sign of
weakness, it's a sign of strength. It shows you have the courage to
admit when you don't know something, and to learn something new. So
find an adult you trust - a parent, grandparent or teacher; a coach or
counselor - and ask them to help you stay on track to meet your goals.
>And even when you're struggling, even when you're discouraged, and you
feel like other people have given up on you - don't ever give up on
yourself. Because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your
country.
>The story of America isn't about people who quit when things got tough.
It's about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their
country too much to do anything less than their best.
>It's the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and
went on to wage a revolution and found this nation. Students who sat
where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world
war; who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon. Students
who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter and
Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other.
>So today, I want to ask you, what's your contribution going to be? What
problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What
will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years
say about what all of you did for this country?
>Your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make
sure you have the education you need to answer these questions. I'm
working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment
and computers you need to learn. But you've got to do your part too. So
I expect you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best
effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you.
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.
>Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.
This is the biggest threat we're facing now? This evil, communist speech telling everyone to get an education? This speech makes baby jesus cry.
Ya, with a 60% senate majority, we pretty much have a one-party government that can push through whatever legislation it wants.
Ya, the unemployment rate is pretty close to 10%
Ya, we just gave billions of dollars to Japanese and Korean car manufacturers via Cash For Clunkers
Ya, there's so much federal deficit that if we stopped spending tomorrow, my great-grandchildren might be able to finish paying it off
Ya, Sarah Palin has reached "Britney Spears" level where it isn't even funny to make jokes about her anymore
But, by far, the most pressing concern in the minds of all Americans is this sick and evil speech, the cornerstone of an anti-american communist's plan to overthrow America. Lordy lordy, pull the little ones out of school tomorrow, we must protect their ears from this poison. Why, we shouldn't be forcing the children into learning. We need garbage men. We need janitors. We need our American kids to have the freedom to drop out of school and compete with illegal aliens for the most unpleasant, lowest paying jobs. Public education is a communist conspiracy to indoctrinate the children into Obama's web of lies and corruption.
