Decision not to air presidential speech to schools live is censorship
To the editor:
To The School Board and Superintendent of Schools of Lee County Florida, I’d like to tell all of you that I write without any political motivation whatsoever. I do not endorse either of the major political parties’ ideas or ideals. I champion men and their ideas, not their parties. It is my hope that you understand it doesn’t matter to me if you are red or blue – I only insist that, in your jobs as public officials, you do the very best to educate the children of this community.
I was a student of the Lee County School System during the 1980s and 1990s; therefore I have experience and firsthand knowledge of what it is like to be a public school student within this community. I watched President Reagan address us on the dangers of illicit drugs on live, uncensored television in my classroom at Caloosa Elementary. I witnessed our space shuttle blown into oblivion, and seven of my heroes, one of whom was an educator, died that day, on live television, in my classroom. I wept, a nation wept, and President Reagan came to our classroom via television, to console all of us, like the father of our country, live and uncensored.
In 1991, my classmates and I watched President George H.W. Bush address a group of students in their classroom, in a school hundreds of miles away, on how education was the key to success. He was at a junior high and I was here in Lee County watching him uncensored and live at Caloosa Middle. During that period of time, both Caloosa Elementary and Caloosa Middle were recognized as National Schools of Excellence, so it seems to me that the faculty, staff and administration at the time were doing something very right with their administrative policies and curriculum.
None of these addresses were taped and reviewed by a panel to deem if the content of their message was acceptable educational material, as your press release says you will do with President Obama’s speech.
These men from our country’s past were the duly elected leaders of our nation, and we listened to what they said respectfully and with an open ear. Even though I did not agree with the policies of the previous presidents I’ve listed, I gave them my utmost respect and loyalty. They certainly earned it, as they were elected by the citizens of this great country to lead us all. Whatever President Reagan, President Bush and President Obama have to say to school children should be “acceptable educational material” by virtue of the fact that the President of the United States of America is saying it to them.
I am ashamed of your board for caving to political pressure from a loud and ignorant group of thugs. I am infuriated at your policy that reeks of, dare I say it, Soviet-style censorship. Each of you is a coward for not fighting to ensure the children of this community experience a moment where the leader of our nation is speaking directly to them on live television. By choosing this course of action you, have completely lost my support and respect, earning nothing but my ire. I will work to do whatever I can to remove each of you from your elected seats and appointed positions. This spineless attempt at a compromise of taping and only showing after review has shown the school children and citizens of Lee County that you have no respect for our elected President of the United States.
Gregory Elsberry
Fort Myers