About Me:

Dominic Dorsey II is a student activist, entrepreneur, poet, aspiring author, radio personality and president of every organization he's ever joined since the 7th grade. He began a career in public speaking at the tender age of 13 and has spoken in front of crowds ranging from 50 to 800 people at any given setting. From working on an Anti-Violence Teen Resolution in Washington D.C. to present to congress, to staging a protest against his university for racial discrimination and student funding inequity. Dominic prides himself on the lessons of leadership he's learned across the way. Lessons he hopes to share with students across the country. With Music (hip hop in particular) being his passion, this blog is a place to organize all his thoughts and observations on the topic. Along with stories addressing politics, pop culture, race & ethnicity and religion; it is the hope that in visiting this site, subjective analysis can stimulate conversation to enlighten the masses.

Random:

Donna Simpson of New Jersey is looking to go down in history as a women that weighs 1,000 pounds (SMH). She told telegraph.co.uk, “I’d love to be 1,000lb. It might be hard though. Running after my daughter keeps my weight down.” She's got three kids, from 3 to 14. Where's Howard Stern now? (*shoutout to Illseed @AllHipHop.com)

PLEASE! PROTECT OUR CHILDREN FROM INSPIRATION!

Posted by dap_dorsey Sep 9, 2009



This is getting more than a little bit rediculous. So conservative parents were more than a little concerned about President Barack Obama's speech he gave yesterday from Wakefield High School in Arlington, VA. So much so that many parents forbid their children from attending school or upheld their right to keep their children from being taught Obama's "Socialist Political Agenda"...


Are we really arguing this? First off, it would be different if this were an election year and Obama was making every attempt to score brownie points with voters through thier children's adoration. George Bush was the creator of not only his own doctorine, but that tactic as well. So I can't throw a shoe at the Republicans for protesting when the Democrats launched an investigation into Bush's speech. Right wing conservatives just out and out can not stand the fact that Barack Obama won and by a landslide, that there's a consorted effort to believe that he's conspiring not only to redistribute wealth, anihilate our rights to choose health care (have not's be damned) and give up on a war we haven't won yet, but he's crossed the line now. He's tampering with the young minds of our children... THE HORROR!!!!

In case you missed my sarcasm, I need to give you a little background information. I actually have worked with school aged children for most of my life. I taught Algebra and basic mathematics literacy to students aged kindergarten to 12th grade for over 10 years. In the latter part of that decade I actually worked for a Catholic School's after school program daily supervising, reading to and even coaching 4th through 8th graders. Even though these students might idolize Barack Hussein Obama as the president of the century and the greatest thing since the iPod, they still have the attention span of a gold fish most times. Especially for anything mandatory like listening to a boring speech.
This is the devil's advocate speaking. I haven't spoken to my younger brother's yet (11 and 13), but I suspect that they felt privileged for the President of the United States to take time out of his schedule of protecting the freedoms we enjoy and trying to dig us out of a deficit 4 years in the making and a job crisis with unemployment reaching the teens I'm sure by mid November.
Why then can't parent's share the same sentiment? I read Obama's speech. It really was all about basic things parents and teachers tell their students and our kids every year when school starts:
  • Pay attention to your teachers
  • Do your homework every night and on time
  • Be responsible for getting the best grades and being on your best behavior
  • Working hard

Why then were there parents and protesters a few blocks away from the roucus crowd of 1500 students Obama spoke to and inspired, holding up signs reading: “Obamecation. It takes the Village Idiot,’’ and my personal favorite, “Obama-cation Dumbing Down Students.” Clearly members of the Glenn Beck and Lou Dobbs fan club, but even still. The president's speech was released in it's entirety on Monday for parents and school administrators to review before students attended school the next day. Considerate as that might be, reading the speech it was highly unnecessary. If you've seen Remember the Titans, if you've seen Hardball or Sunset Park or Rudy or Glory or even the Longest Yard you can imagine the atmosphere of awe at a man who's accomplished so much in a short amount of time. Better yet, a man who's accomplished what people thought for over a century would be impossible.

And even though America is still not ready for a Black President, ready or not he's here and making an impact. A POSITIVE one. He's an inspiration in himself. Say what you want to about his decisions made, but no one can deny he's a charismatic and brilliant orator. He talked about being the kid who was home schooled who hated getting up at 4am to go to the kitchen table to learn. But he did it. He even let up on some insight...parent's hate getting up that early to get you ready for school. He related to these students on a personal level.

There was not a single bit of rhetoric that encouraged kids to be proud that we're working towards a single payer system. There wasn't any mention of an apology for hiring an administrative staff person who believed the government was involved in the terrorist attacks of September 11th. It's not about rumors, drama or scandal. It's about the future of America sitting behind a wooden desk facing a chalk board thinking what will I be while trying to grasp conjugates, vocab and long division. It's about those kids reading Catcher in the Rye laughing because they get to read a book with cursing in it. It's about those little boys who can't wait to push the girls off the slide so they can play king of the mountain.

The one time Obama did deviate from his script was to remind the kids that they are the future of America. Actually, verbatim he said: “The future of America depends on you." How can you not stand behind a message of inspiration and empowerment?

“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 – none of that is an 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. There is no excuse for not trying.’’

So in the spirit of Obama's speech, to the right wing conservatives who vehemently opposed what fellow republicans Laura Bush, Newt Gingrich, Lamar Alexander and Bill Frist say may be the most important thing our President can do in challenging America's youth...I say congratulations. You get an E for effort. Because right or extreme right wing, there's no excuse for not trying, right?

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