On one hand, I LOVE that these kids are inspired and encouraged by a potential president. On the other, I am reminded of some other videos I have seen from Pre-WWII Hitler youth videos. At the same time, this is really cool, and scary as Hell.
This looks familiar, and sounds promising…What say you?
Dude, that is scary. In the words of Kelly Kapour fromt he office…. OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG
Eek. This kind of stuff scares me. I wonder if these young, impressionable kids are really speaking for themselves and their own inspiration… or merely given a script to recite by their parents/teachers/choreographers.
I’ll note my bias here: a) I’m an ardent Obama supporter, b) I live in a city with 70%+ African-American population, c) Godwin’s Law: I have a strong, negative reaction any time someone brings up Hitler to illustrate their point (unless they’re particularly pointing out political fascism, aka Keith Olbermann is my hero.)
Because YouTube merely EXISTS, kids will sit around and dream up dumb things to put on it. Step’s always had v. militant choreography (when it’s not outright krunk). Regardless of religious speculation, all of these step groups name themselves in the style of Greek houses. We have a frat who practices across the street from our house, and they’re great kids. While it often looks like testosterone-fueled cheerleading (dancing gone retarded), I know your marching band days also clue you into the grueling precision of their discipline.
I do think it’s sad that the kids (in their words) say they’ll achieve great things because of Obama, but with our education system, and the demographic their charter school targets (urban at-risk kids who show aptitude in science/technology), Obama might be the first person who has ever said to them, Hey: I believe in your potential.
But seriously, if a bunch of white cheerleader girls put on their dad’s hunting gear and twirled hockey sticks and American flags, the intertubes would have a parade.
Well, I know most of the people who frequent my blog and I knew that there was going to be about 4 or 5 responses that I worried about.
1 – mean NO disrespect to Obama
2 – I tried VERY hard to not chose a side, and I have NO PROBLEM with what these kids are doing.
3 – The “Nazi” reference is not “just” to connect Hitler to Obama, that is not my desire. My opinion/observation is that these kids (and the people who have uploaded all the other Obama tribute songs) are VERY reminiscent of WWII songs to Adolf.
4 – I fear that blind loyalty (either left or right wing) is harmful. I fear that we are making some real scary statements (on both sides) and instead of becoming better Americans, we’re becoming more polarized.
5 – Growing up in Atlanta, I am very familiar with the differences between the races. I am not voting for McCain because I’m white or NOT voting for Obama because he is black. I am voting for who I think will BEST lead the country. Period.
6 – If we all spent more time investing in people (young and old) I think that extreme movements (like the Obama videos and news coverage) would become less and less important, and it would become more about who the candidates are as leaders.
7 – Basically this whole post was about this: “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”
- George Santayana