President Obama gave quite the commencement speech at Hampton University, Virginia. His supposedly wise, benign words talked about how new media such as Blackberries and Twitter can be a distraction to education.
As a matter of fact, the new media can indeed be a distraction, a welcome distraction. Our current public education system does not offer students a chance to hear both sides of moral issues like abortion, homosexuality, the Middle East situation, or the war on terror. Neither are they getting a balanced view of American history. The “America” on our college campus is a racist country whose white male founders were full of hate on most issues and in love only with the institution of slavery. Our universities also teach that all men are pigs and all white people are racist. Inasmuch as the mainstream media mirrors our universities, we can use some additional media such as the Internet and talk radio to offer an alternative viewpoint once in a while.
Back to President Obama. He does not see the value of new information:
With iPods and iPads; Xboxes and PlayStations — none of which I know how to work — information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation.
Since these words come from a president who appointed Mark Loyd as his Diversity Czar to change the FCC, the same Mark Loyd who says the Fairness Doctrine doesn’t go far enough, and since Obama also claims the internet needs to be regulated, it is not too hard to read between the lines of the commencement address: Any information which challenges the Obama presidency is a mere distraction, a distraction that will enslave, rather than emancipate.
Why isn’t this being talked about more? Shouldn’t every single citizen from the left or the right find it chilling that the President of the United States is calling information a “distraction?” In point of fact, information is the only thing that allows a society to hold on to its freedom. There can never be too much information unless one has an agenda which seeks to suppress information.
Those who accuse Obama of working toward a Marxist dictatorial state are often laughed at or ridiculed. They are also called “seditionists” and “anti government.” But when George Bush was president, the left lectured us about how healthy dissent is really patriotic. Well, what can I say? If our president’s latest speech about speech doesn’t show you where he’s truly headed, it soon won’t matter what they call the dissenters. There will be no more dissenters.
Bob Siegel is a weekend radio talk show host on KCBQ and columnist. Details of his show can be found at www.bobsiegel.net. Comments to posts are discussed by Bob over the air where anyone is free to call in and respond/debate. Call in toll free number: 1-888-344-1170