# Best excuse yet for keeping your kid home from school tomorrow "Obama might get shot" **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 20, 2009, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-excuse-yet-for-keeping-your-kid-home-from-school-tomorrow-obama-might-get-shot/482105 "2009-01-20T05:35:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2009, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-excuse-yet-for-keeping-your-kid-home-from-school-tomorrow-obama-might-get-shot/482105/1 "2009-01-20T05:35:05Z")
[God I do love the Eastern Shore!](http://sbynews.blogspot.com/) > [@](#): > > Kids Going To School Tomorrow? I Think NOT > > "My children will not be attending school tomorrow. I feel we have made the right decision after days of mauling it over. > > The decision came after speaking to a teacher “completely off the record” in the drug store after school Friday. After small talk, I said something along the lines of “have a nice long weekend” and added that my kids may not be there Tuesday either because I felt a little uncomfortable sending them and letting them watch the inauguration without family . . . just in case something was to happen. > > She responded that she did not agree with the school holding the inauguration in the cafeteria for all to watch at the same time, and this school was the only school in Worcester County to do this. I asked why?, because of the principal’s wishes to do this? She said no, because the school was primary black students. She sarcastically asked if the any schools had televised an inauguration before, which of course, I knew the answer was “no.” > > We agreed on the fact that parents should’ve been invited to watch with their children and not dis-invited. We also agreed that the schools are taking a huge risk by televising such a momentous occasion with a chance of it being very disastrous (someone could be crazy enough to take a shot at Obama, etc). After reliving the conversation that we had and hashing it over with my husband, we agreed that if my children were to watch, I’d rather it be with us. > > It doesn’t matter who we voted for, it’s the fact that all day tomorrow, Obama is going to be shoved down my children’s throat. . . and why? Because he’s black? Because he’s promised change? Or just because he’s our next president? … when all the other inaugurations were never televised at school. > > I believe that the school (instead of sending home a note stating the ‘optional’ dress code for Tuesday) should have sent home a permission slip, asking if their child is allowed to watch this event." ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2009, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-excuse-yet-for-keeping-your-kid-home-from-school-tomorrow-obama-might-get-shot/482105/2 "2009-01-20T05:40:13Z")
I’m sure the writer did spend a lot of time mauling it over. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2009, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-excuse-yet-for-keeping-your-kid-home-from-school-tomorrow-obama-might-get-shot/482105/3 "2009-01-20T05:53:17Z")
Sounds like the same kind of snivelling sour grapes (with the obligatory racial digs) we’ve been hearing from right wing pundits and blogs and message boards all week. The pretended anxiety about Obama possibly getting shot (something this author is probably secretly longing for) is original, but it’s pretty obvious that what really bothers her is the idea of her kid seeing an image of Obama which shows him in any kind of positive light, and which has not been filtered and altered by the paranoid righty propaganda machine. God forbid her kid get any kind of glimpse of reality. ---
**Author:** ![Kolga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e56c9b/32.png) [@Kolga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolga)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2009, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-excuse-yet-for-keeping-your-kid-home-from-school-tomorrow-obama-might-get-shot/482105/4 "2009-01-20T05:58:32Z")
I honestly am trying to understand some of the rhetoric (not the stuff in the OP, 'cause that’s just nutty weirdness) about “let’s not make a big deal out of this.” 'cause it IS a big deal. Obama is the first non-white president in American history. How, in the name of all that’s holy, is this NOT a big deal? Can people who didn’t vote for Obama really not understand that regardless of their antipathy toward him, this is an historic moment? Something that comes once in the lifetime of a COUNTRY, much less a person? ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2009, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-excuse-yet-for-keeping-your-kid-home-from-school-tomorrow-obama-might-get-shot/482105/5 "2009-01-20T06:49:14Z")
You gotta understand the media conditioning. To those who believe it, the man who will become President tomorrow is just a product that was promoted and sold - and not by any honestly profit-oriented merchant either, but by a manipulative do-gooder elite who (so they have been told) panders to divisive interests, affirmative action, and that hollowest of all hollow promises, “brotherhood.” ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2009, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-excuse-yet-for-keeping-your-kid-home-from-school-tomorrow-obama-might-get-shot/482105/6 "2009-01-20T15:11:58Z")
> [@Kolga](#): > > I honestly am trying to understand some of the rhetoric (not the stuff in the OP, 'cause that’s just nutty weirdness) about “let’s not make a big deal out of this.” A combination of sour grapes, mistrust, and misunderstanding of the idea of being color blind. Oh, and maybe some concern that “the blacks” will riot if something happens to Obama. Fortunately we’re above such concerns around here. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Auntbeast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Auntbeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Auntbeast)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2009, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-excuse-yet-for-keeping-your-kid-home-from-school-tomorrow-obama-might-get-shot/482105/7 "2009-01-20T15:21:51Z")
I hope like hell they televise the inauguration at my daughters school. She may not know what she is watching, but I’d like her to see it. I hadn’t really thought about it, but had I inquired prior and found out they weren’t showing it, I might have kept her home so she could see it. People are dumb. ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2009, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-excuse-yet-for-keeping-your-kid-home-from-school-tomorrow-obama-might-get-shot/482105/8 "2009-01-20T22:10:55Z")
They probably broke a few fire codes wiring up my little school so the kids could watch it- if they didn’t, I was going to keep them home to make damned sure they saw it! God, I hate teh stupid… ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2009, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-excuse-yet-for-keeping-your-kid-home-from-school-tomorrow-obama-might-get-shot/482105/9 "2009-01-20T22:15:27Z")
> [@](#): > > She sarcastically asked if the any schools had televised an inauguration before, which of course, I knew the answer was “no.” I never understand this, because I distinctly remember the teacher rolling in a TV so we could see inaugurations and other big events as far back as elementary school – which was probably even before this wingnut was born. ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2009, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-excuse-yet-for-keeping-your-kid-home-from-school-tomorrow-obama-might-get-shot/482105/10 "2009-01-20T22:17:28Z")
my elementary school showed all sorts of big events, from inaug.s to space shuttles. not so much the high school. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-excuse-yet-for-keeping-your-kid-home-from-school-tomorrow-obama-might-get-shot/482105/11 "2009-01-21T01:53:41Z")
> [@rocking\_chair](#): > > my elementary school showed all sorts of big events, from inaug.s to space shuttles. not so much the high school. This really has nothing to do with the topic, but I can’t help recall the first flight of the space shuttle, back when I was a grad student. During the landing, the math department had a TV set up in the conference room to watch the landing. All these stodgy old math profs, some older than God, jumping up and down with excitement…