I don't care what your politics are -- when schools start choking at the idea of showing a video of the President of the United States speaking to students, someone needs to get a much firmer grasp on reality.

Forget that the uproar by hardline conservatives came long before a single one of them had even seen the text of the speech. Forget that they were so zealously anxious to oppose the President that they risked their own credibility on a multitude of other issues. Schools are supposed to be all about the open exchange and discussion of ideas. Whatever the speech content turned out to be, why would anyone want to censor it? Why wouldn't they want to use it as a platform for encouraging children to analyze political rhetoric and make decisions for themselves?

Whatever president is in office, someone is going to disagree with his words, his policies, his platform. The only way that doesn't happen -- at least publicly -- is if we have one party, one ruler, who vigorously suppresses all opposition, all debate, all free thought. The minute our schools start limiting exposure to ideas, we are well on our way to a fate far worse than what some would term "socialism."