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Focus on the message, not the messenger
By Jesse Wallace
Contributor
Published September 10, 2009
Paris High School students, along with millions of kids across the country, heard the president’s education speech Tuesday. Student feedback has rendered the speech a success, due to the fact that it hit three points: stay in school, work hard, and make your country proud.
Although the speech gained much criticism, the students inside the school didn’t focus on the media attention; they focused on the message. Many people in our community and around the nation chose to cause an uproar about the President of the United States giving a speech to young people about the importance of education and hard work.
The speech was not politicized and had nothing to do with a political agenda, as some would like to think.There are still those among us who think that our president, Barack Obama, is “un-American,” ”un-patriotic” or “the second coming of Hitler.”
These allegations I personally find offensive and disrespectful to the president. Regardless of whether you agree with the presidents’ policies or not, he is still the President of the United States and for that he deserves respect.
But for the people of our community who feel scared of Obama leading the country I have some suggestions for you.
One, why don’t you try being a contributor instead of being an angry American without reason; you are not doing your country any good by bringing down the president and his ideals without a proper solution of your own.
Two, if you don’t support his policies then you have a chance to change that in 2012, but for now the election is over and the country has spoken. You have to respect that.
Three, stop infiltrating your children’s minds with this nonsense. Sadly to say this same hatred and disgusting mindset has made its way down to the high school. Parents and adults, you are the role models for the youth in this community. Do not give them the thought that your actions determine how they should act when the issue of the president comes up.
Making these allegations and remarks without explanation only feeds into the Paris stereotypes that we are a racist people. Surprisingly, some students are handling this a lot better than some of the adults.
Sometimes as a student when you endure tough classes and the stress of school you need that extra motivation to let you know that you can do it. As a student I got the motivation that I needed to keep giving my all in school and in the community.
The president’s words of “yes, you can” during his campaign may have encouraged some who were on the brink of giving up, to keep trying and never give up.
So my message to parents across the community today is that, we as students got the message and applied it to our lives. We chose to focus on the messenger and what he represents as a person who has endured the struggles of life and made it. Whether you agree with my views or not, we should all agree to these core values: improvement of education, more kids graduating from high school and the development of future leaders in our community. If we meet these challenges it will strengthen our city and further re-build Paris into a sanctuary of justice and prosperity.
Jesse Wallace is a Paris High School student and an occasional contributor to The Paris News.
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