Opinion: A tale of two videos

Thus far on this blog, I have posted a few articles encouraging you to research things you see and hear, and not to to just accept things as fact because a friend, employer, reporter, or political party told you to. It's called free thinking. You gather data and form an opinion. Further research will either reinforce the opinion or shed a new light on things. But sometimes, a person just needs to react to the emotion of something that happens. This week, such a story has got me outraged, and so this blog article is going to present more of my opinion than I have expressed yet on this blog.

This is the story of two videos. One features a class of second-graders who sing two songs, although one is done more like a chant, both in praise of, not God, not country, not Mom and Dad, but Barack Hussein Obama. One song that the children sing contains quotes almost directly from the spiritual "Jesus Loves the Little Children,":"He said red, yellow, black or white/All are equal in his sight. Barack Hussein Obama.". 7,8 year old children are chanting political slogans in praise of a man using the lyrics of a Christian spiritual song as its basis? But if the chant is disturbing, the song is downright terrifying. Sung to the tune of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic", the first line is changed from " Thine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord" to "Hello Mr. President, we honor you today". Watch the video. Here are the complete lyrics for both songs:

Song 1:Altered lyrics of "Jesus loves the little children"-The actual lyrics are parenthesized)

Mm, mmm, mm! (For I love)
Barack Hussein Obama (the little children of the world)

He said that all must lend a hand (I will take you by the hand)
To make this country strong again (Lead you to the better land)
Mmm, mmm, mm! (For I love)
Barack Hussein Obama (the little children of the world)

He said we must be fair today [See the list of actual lyrics below]
Equal work means equal pay [See the list of actual lyrics below]
Mmm, mmm, mm! (For I love)
Barack Hussein Obama (the little children of the world)


He said that we must take a stand [See the list of actual lyrics below]
To make sure everyone gets a chance [See the list of actual lyrics below]
Mmm, mmm, mm! (For I love)
Barack Hussein Obama (the little children of the world)


He said red, yellow, black or white(Red and yellow, black and white)
All are equal in his sight (All are precious in His sight)
Mmm, mmm, mm! (For I love)
Barack Hussein Obama (the little children of the world)


Yes!
Mmm, mmm, mm (For I love)
Barack Hussein Obama (the little children of the world)

Here are some of the other lyrics to "Jesus loves the little children"

Jesus calls the children dear,
Come to Me and never fear,

Jesus is the Shepherd true,
And He’ll always stand by you,

He’s a Savior great and strong,
And He’ll shield you from the wrong,

I am coming, Lord, to Thee,
And Your soldier I will be,

And Your cross I’ll always bear,
And for You I’ll do and dare,

Song 2:Sung to the tune of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic"

Hello, Mr. President we honor you today!
For all your great accomplishments, we all doth say "hooray!"

Hooray, Mr. President! You're number one!
The first black American to lead this great nation!

Hooray, Mr. President we honor your great plans
To make this country's economy number one again!

Hooray Mr. President, we're really proud of you!
And we stand for all Americans under the great Red, White, and Blue!

So continue ---- Mr. President we know you'll do the trick
So here's a hearty hip-hooray ----

Hip, hip hooray!
Hip, hip hooray!
Hip, hip hooray!

I'm sure a large number of service people past and present are thrilled with this.


Charisse Carney-Nunes has been credited as the author of the songs. She is Senior Vice President for Programs at The Jamestown Project. More on them below. Among her many duties, she sets direction for issues and ideas. She is the author of the children's book, "I Am Barack Obama"(2009). She attended, but lists no degrees, from Harvard University. She has spent the last few months visiting schools on the East coast to promote her book. A poster of the book is seen to the side of the children in the video.

According to the author's website, ""I Am Barack Obama" is not a book about Barack Obama. Rather, it allows children to see themselves through the inspirational story of President Obama growing up as an ordinary child asking, “Who will change the world?” Ultimately, he realizes that he will". Did I just read that right? The book is not about Barack Obama, yet in it "he realizes that he will" change the world. Are you as confused by that contradiction as I am?

The Jamestown Project is a group based in Cambridge, Mass. Among the strategies The Jamestown Project uses to achieve their goals are formulating political strategy and public policy, and cultivating new leaders. Could they possibly mean cultivating these very second graders? As much as I hate to do this, I am going to make a reference to Barney the Dinosaur. A large part of Barney's success and effectiveness is the fact that he teaches children via songs. Barney's greatest hits are all familiar tunes with the lyrics changed to teach the lesson du jour, if you will. Is this not the exact same thing we are seeing here?

In the last couple of weeks, I have talked with a 21 year old and two high school seniors who all had one thing in common; none of them knew what happened in 1776. It got me wondering just what the hell are they teaching in schools today. I certainly hope that this is not the curriculum of the future. I mean, if a group of students at a college were to post a video like this on Youtube, it would amount to much ado about nothing. But these are second grade children. They trust adults to teach them right from wrong. They accept what they are taught. They will not be able to intellectually reason for themselves for almost ten years yet. By then, it may be too late.

Yes, I was a vessel of mixed emotions when I saw this video. Anger, bewilderment, outrage, sorrow. I began to think that the future was growing dimmer for the future of our country. Then I saw this video; two of these girls are 6, two are seven, and one is eight. I think that just maybe, America will get through these times. At least I certainly hope so.

While researching this article, I came across two more videos of school children singing praises to President Obama. I did not post them for two reasons. First, because they were in a foreign language and were subtitled. Secondly, because the content was just too upsetting to put on my blog. You see, in both videos, Kenyan Muslim school children were singing about how President Obama would be responsible for the defeat of America. I will not provide the link here; you can search Youtube if you must see it for yourself. Thanks for reading. Take care.-PetePedia