New Media, Same Message.

Here is a poster for Hitler Youth, from Nazi Germany. The poster reads, "Youth serves the leader."

Here is a video for Barack Obama Youth. New media, same message.


What ever happened to the term "public servant" in reference to politicians? Apparently Barack Obama heard the term public servant and thought it meant that once he's in office, the public becomes his servant.

The fact that Obama is now targeting children is beyond frightening to me. Watching that video almost made me vomit at least five times. When they asked me what my pledge was, I said, "to do whatever I can to defeat the policies of this president" and simultaneously one of their celebrity drones was pledging to help serve the president in whatever way she can.

Of course, it all sounds well and good. Who doesn't want everyone to have access to healthcare? Who doesn't want the Earth to be a healthy planet? Who doesn't want people to succeed? Who doesn't want everyone to have food and water? Pledging to help make these things happen sounds so noble and just. Plus, they are celebrities. Children idolize these people.

The thing about young people is that they are idealistic and believe they can change the world. And they can. Young people are fearless in opposing "the man." They will work tirelessly to make change. And they are dry sponges ready to soak up whatever they are submerged in. This is why they are such an invaluable resource to those in power. Steep these passionate young people in whatever you want, and they will become an army for your cause.

Have you been to Berkeley in the past 8 years? If you have, you probably haven't made it through there without being bombarded by anti-Bush, anti-war, anti-anything-conservative protests and signs. Have you been in an elementary or high school public classroom any time in the past 30 years? If you have, you've probably noticed a marked lack of balanced viewpoints being presented. A Conservative Teacher notes experiences in public classrooms:

"Once, when I was doing my state-mandated observation, I saw a a fifth grader slapped down (verbally) by a teacher. He was given an assignment to design laws that protect the sea turtle. While other students were busy writing ways to seize private property, stop economic growth, and limit rights and freedoms of people, this student raised his hand and said he really didn't think that sea turtles needed any more help. This was a good point- something that could be debated for the benefit of the whole class- but instead, the liberal teacher simply told the student to toe the line and submit to authority and pretend to be a dictator like the other young students.

A sixth grade class I observed had students design ways to combat “sprawl," and a seventh grade class spent some time designing schemes to combat “global warming.”

I once observed an eight grade class spend several days discussing how government can combat unemployment. The plans which were analyzed and discussed where chosen by the teacher, and students read news stories and articles about the successes of these various plans. The plans which were discusses were either schemes of wealth redistribution or government-provided jobs. A constant theme of the discussion was that businesses were evil, that earning profits was evil, and that attempts to establish efficiency in business by letting go inefficient or unproductive employees was evil. This teacher believed that the purpose of a business was to provide a job, regardless or production or profit entailed from this."

Children across the nation are being indoctrinated, and don't think that's not the appropriate word to describe it. It's not fear-mongering, it's what's happening. There are nearly no conservative books in public school libraries, yet The Audacity of Hope is probably in every single one. Books like Culture of Corruption, Catastrophe, Liberty and Tyranny, and Glenn Beck's Common Sense have been on the NYT's best seller list for months, yet no public library deems them culturally significant enough to place them in libraries. And even if they were in school libraries, I can't foresee any school teacher suggesting a student actually read such nutty, right-wing misinformation. I can see high school teachers assigning Mein Kampf before the Federalist Papers on any day of the week.

I remember in my 8th grade class one of my good friends was a strong Christian and decided to break all his CDs containing music that wasn't uplifting, put the pieces in a plastic bag and stapled it to the wall in our Bible Classroom (I went to one of those "evil" Christian private schools). At the time, I was kind of awestruck by his initiative to make such a radical statement about his faith and the opposition that faith had with popular culture. Quite a few other students did the same, following suit from this young vanguard. I am reminded of this action as I think of today's youth, in today's public schools and what they are being taught to revile. I think of what the conservative teacher above said about what is being taught in schools. Frankly, I can't imagine we are far from youth burning books in opposition to the conservatives they are taught to hate. The conservatives they are taught are stupid, misinformed, ignorant fools trying to take America back to the days of desegregation. Trying to shove women back into the kitchen and corsets. I see Michelle Malkin, Bill O'Reilly, Dick Morris, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Ann Coulter's pages set ablaze by the youth in a passionate expression of opposition to closed minded conservatives. And I see their teachers praising their expression of protest, shouting, "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism!" Of course, they probably won't mention Heinrich Heine's quote, "When books are burned, in the end people will be burned too."

Any good tyranny understands the importance of indoctrinating children. The Nazi's had it down to an art. The radical fundamentalist Islamic groups understand it, and utilize it unceasingly. The dictators in Africa give children machine guns before they can even add 2+2.

Ronald Reagan once said, "Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free." Teach an entire generation to hate America, and they will hate America. Teach an entire generation that Jews are bad and must be eliminated, and they will follow mindlessly. In 1984 Orwell wrote of the Junior Spies, a youth organization who monitor adults for disloyalty to the Party. We must understand the power of youth, because you'd better believe that Obama understands that power. Radical, violent Islamists understand that power, Hitler understood that power, Big Brother understood that power.

Let me reiterate, OBAMA UNDERSTANDS THAT POWER.

This video shows youth today singing a song about Obama, and in the last minute we see youth of Nazi Germany singing a song about Adolf Hitler. If the similarities aren't jaw dropping, then I don't know what is.

So don't go about your merry way thinking that this address to schoolchildren is just another lovely effort by our new president to encourage our youth and help them succeed. It is anything but. Regardless of what the president says to the children of the nation, no matter how harmless and well-intentioned his message is to them, it sets a new precedent which puts the president in direct contact with the children of the nation. Leaders of nations should never be put in direct contact with the children of their nation. We've seen all too clearly what happens when this happens.