The earliest and easily, the most disturbing, was a video that found its way to You Tube in October of 2008 featuring a group of roughly twenty teen-aged boys dressed in black T-shirts, camouflage pants and gold combat boots. They chanted individually and with military precision, all of the things that Obama had inspired them to do and then the litany of wonderful things that Obama’s healthcare plan would do for the nation before breaking out into a group cheer for Obama. Almost immediately, the cry went out that similar to the Hitler Youth, Barack Obama or his supporters were creating a training program for young militant blacks, loyal to Barack Obama and not to the United States. Those charges were met with countercharges of racism, a charge that would be used over and over by Mr. Obama’s supporters in the coming months. That video can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mvP0ArKIGY
After the election, that video faded from memory and the country waited to see exactly what his promise of change would mean as President Obama assumed his position as the forty-fourth President of the United States. In what seems like a blur, the Federal government dolled out hundreds of billions in bailouts, passed an eight-hundred billion dollar stimulus bill, presented a Climate Bill that is currently estimated to cost us three-hundred billion dollars a year (US Treasury Report) and a Healthcare Bill that promises to be equally as crippling to the economy. Who would think there would be time for more?
As children returned to school after their summer vacation it was leaked out that the President planned a grand speech to the nation’s schools. That in and of itself, is not remarkable. Other Presidents including Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush have addressed the nation’s students during their administrations too. I suppose the difference was the reaction from Congressional Democrats and the National Education Association who deeply criticized both Reagan and Bush for their speeches. In fact, House Democrats actually investigated Bush’s use of public funds for this matter and though he was ultimately found to have done no wrong, was still chided by the NEA for wasting twenty-six thousand dollars to present the speech to school children while his administration had planned to make cuts in the school lunch program. In what amounts to nothing less than hypocrisy, these same groups would ultimately praise Mr. Obama for “reaching out” to the youth of the nation.
The concerns raised by conservative groups and parents over President Obama’s plan to speak to America’s school children were fueled by the materials that were distributed to the school district to accompany the speech. Sections of these materials indicated that they expected teachers to encourage the students to pledge that they would help the President meet his goals while others were apparently designed to fill the students with glowing admiration of Barack Obama. There were to be discussions on setting personal goals, of which the suggested subjects just happened to be in line with the President’s agenda. There was even a celebrity video that was released to go with this “celebration” of Barack Obama that showed numerous movie and music stars pledging support for the President’s agenda and ended with the celebrities pledging to Obama himself. Now maybe I am old fashioned, but I don’t recall anyone in the history of this nation pledging to anything besides the flag and the Constitution and no one has ever pledged allegiance to any one person in America, ever.
Once again, charges were made that the administration was clearly attempting to indoctrinate the youth of America into supporting the President’s agenda and once again, countercharges were levied that any opposition to the President’s speech was strictly a matter of race. It would be nearly a full week before the text of President’s speech was released for parents and school boards to read (one day before the speech was given) which led many to believe, including me, that this was not the original speech but a speech written at the last minute to avoid any additional controversy; a speech that was now, cleverly devoid of any particular political ideology.
Now we have videos appearing of school children singing the praises of Barack Obama. The first video appeared on September 24th featuring an elementary school in New Jersey. When parents saw the video and demanded an answer, school faculty would only say that the video was secretly taped and they were irate that it was posted on YouTube without their knowledge. That sounds eerily like the defense that ACORN used when they were caught on film encouraging people to break the law. While the school insisted that the song was written by the students themselves, the lyrics are clearly more advanced than the grade level of the students involved and in fact, Charisse Carney-Nunes was reportedly at the school helping teachers lead the children in song. We will discuss Ms. Carney-Nunes later but she is someone that is connected to a group that has, as part of its agenda, a program to politicize school aged children. That video can be seen here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8grOVPu_sRU
On September 29th, a second video has appeared showing a different school where the children are being led in chants about change, hope, education and national service ending in a boisterous “Yes we can!” Hmmm? I seem to recall that change, hope, national service and “yes we can” were prominent features of Obama campaign posters but again, the charges of indoctrination are being dismissed as the opponents are again being classified as racist. You do realize that when this administration has finished using the term racist, it will have no meaning at all. This newest video can be seen here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6IHkuBZtls
Charisse Carney-Nunes is a Senior Vice President of Programs at The Jamestown Project. She was also identified as one of the people leading students in song in the New Jersey video. Her bio on the Jamestown Project not only speaks of her work with the project but it also says she has recently accepted a job with the Obama administration’s Transportation Department. Why, what a coincidence!
“The Jamestown Project” as they describe themselves, “is a diverse action-oriented think tank of new leaders who reach across boundaries and generations to make democracy real. Founded and operated primarily by people of color and women, The Jamestown Project consists of scholars, activists, and communities who use five broad strategies to achieve our mission: generating new ideas; promoting meaningful public conversations and engagement; cultivating new leaders; formulating political strategy and public policy; and using cutting-edge communications techniques that reach a broad public.”
When discussing a curriculum guide they have prepared for grades 3 to 5 they write: “Children Do Democracy Too is an outgrowth of our Doing Democracy work. The purpose of the initiative is to equip children with the knowledge and tools necessary to meaningfully participate in civil society and democracy. The central question we seek to answer is, “How do we instill the values of citizenship and active participation into the youngest, and in many ways the most important, members of our democracy?”The Jamestown Project released A Children’s Curriculum for Civic Engagement in the Fall of 2008 as part of this initiative. The curriculum is based on our book:
“I Dream For You A World: A Covenant For Our Children.”
“The Curriculum adapts the concepts from the book into lessons and activities to promote civic engagement to elementary aged children. Grades 3 – 5 are the optimal age for children to not only understand their place in the world, but also a time to begin to comprehend their power and potential to make a difference in their own lives, their family, their communities, and their country. We are currently piloting the curriculum and seeking new partners to help us evaluate the program, share learning, and to strategize about achieving future goals.”
Ms.Carney-Nunes wrote another book entitled “I Am Barack Obama”. This book encourages children to find their “inner Obama”, which I suppose is the leftist equivalent of finding Jesus in your heart. She presented the book to the third grade children of the Salem Middle School, the colorful pages emblazoned on a big-screen projector above her as she read aloud. School faculty said “the children shouted gleefully “I am Barack Obama!” Her stories are of a hope that often finds confinement within the poverty-stricken city. “The most important thing I think, and the reason the book is called I Am Barack Obama, is because I like when children say I am Barack Obama,” Carney-Nunes said. “They understand that there is a little bit of Barack Obama in all of us.”
The Jamestown Project has a number of laudable goals. Their work with children is meant to enrich their lives; promote self esteem, morality, awareness and to motivate them into actions that will reward them and their community. The problems that I have with what they do and with the videos we have seen emerge from this school of thought is that nowhere, does it seem to include the parents.
There doesn’t seem to be room in this program to allow parents the ability to exercise their right to shape their children to fit their own family structure of religion, morality and yes, even political ideology. It is almost as if they don’t want to risk the parents interjecting anything that doesn’t fit their script for what they want the kids to grow up thinking and that goes against everything we have always believed as a nation. That is also the fundamental definition of indoctrination.
Paul
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