Published: September 11, 2009 07:31 pm      

MAIL CALL: We shouldn’t jump to conclusions

Is anyone else as disgusted as I am about the country's continued downhill slide into mindless partisan politics? There is an increasing — and disconcerting — tendency by too many people to immediately dismiss out-of-hand any idea on the basis of their "party label" or elected position.

I'm neither automatically for or against proposals advanced by Democrats, Republicans or Independents, and those who adopt such positions are part of the problem — not the solution. If citizens and elected officials are unwilling to make any effort to analyze the pros and cons of ideas, whether they involve health care, the economy or any other issue, they fail to live up to their responsibilities as voters and as leaders.

Case in point: President Obama's televised speech on Tuesday to school kids. Many conservatives were quick to criticize the talk as an attempt to "spread Obama's socialist ideology," and demand that their children not be exposed to such radical ideas.

The text of the talk was posted on-line the day before the telecast. I've read it, and didn't find any hidden left-wing plots. The speech tells kids what most conservatives have been preaching for years: work hard, stay in school, respect parents and teachers, there's no easy path to success.

Should parents be cautious about information being presented to their children? Absolutely — that's their responsibility. Another role of parents and educators is to teach children to think — to analyze issues and base decisions on facts, not ideology. If we can't do that, we don't really need schools, we just need factories for robots.

Jim Burnett

Athens