President Obama last weekend at the University of Michigan undergraduate spring commencement ceremony in Ann Arbor brought with him a message that the media and those who are involved in shaping public opinion ought to adhere to: tell the truth and stop the scare tactics and fear mongering.
Instead of a major policy announcement as some were expecting, including myself, because of what his predecessors have done, President Obama offered a personal responsibility challenge to the iPod, iPhone and BlackBerry generation whose actions will determine the way this nation moves forward. Knowing how politically toxic the public space has become, where emotions are allowed to replace facts and historical perspectives when debating important public policy issues, the president challenged the graduates to consider other viewpoints in the media. He implored them to keep an open mind and let the facts, not emotions, guide their decisions.
Listening freely, attentively and allowing common sense to prevail before making important decisions is as crucial as being able to pay for college tuition.
“If you are somebody who always reads the editorial page of The New York Times, try glancing at the page of The Wall Street Journal once in a while. If you are a fan of Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh, try reading a few columns on the Huffington Post website. It may make your blood boil; your mind may not be changed. But the practice of listening to opposing views is essential for our democracy,” Obama told jubilant students in his speech at the Big House.
It is evident that young people, especially Generation Y — the next generation — are the ones most prone to manipulation, yet at the same time they are the ones who after making up their minds it is difficult to change their perspective. But Obama admonished the U-M students to make common sense choices, because they are the least tainted by the current poisonous and infectious political climate.
Their decisions are not based on angry ideological lines or divisive politics. This influential generation keeps an open mind despite what comes out of the echo chambers.
That is why you will not see that many young people in the Tea Party movement that is touring the nation with some of its members and affiliated groups questioning Obama’s legitimacy to become president.
It is Generation Y that first embraced Obama’s “Yes We Can” campaign and descended in Iowa to pound the pavement and begin the historic campaign. They had found something they could believe in and hope for without being called names or browbeaten into accepting certain ideological positions as we see in the media now.
It is the White segment of Generation Y that convinced their parents to look at Obama beyond the color of his skin and instead focus on his qualification and the credentials he was bringing to the office of president. Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri told the Democratic National Convention in Denver in 2008, where Obama received the nomination, that her children told her to support the “Yes We Can” campaign.
An interesting example Obama gave in his commencement speech was that during the health care debate, some protesters had signs reading “Keep your government hands out of my Medicare,” forgetting or not knowing that Medicare is government sponsored.
Though there was laughter in the stadium when the president said this was one of his favorite signs, it exposes the ignorance and deeply flawed premise of the protesters. It shows that despite the positions that some of these anti-Obama challengers are taking, they have not done their own research to realize the serious contradictions they are guilty of under the name of legitimate discontent.
Either the protest leaders are deliberately misleading some of these protesters for sound bites with signs asking the government to take its hand off Medicare when a 10 year-old knows the government provides Medicare, or simply the placard carriers couldn’t care less about truth as long it is against President Obama.
More disturbing is the fact that some media outlets have abandoned telling the truth since Obama was elected, and are helping anybody who is willing to make erroneous statements and unsupported positions that lack facts. As long as the outrage and the false claims energize protesters and oils the wheels of the Tea Party movement, it will be given prime time exposure.
Certain media outlets have decided that the best way to generate more advertising dollars is by sacrificing journalistic ethics, responsibility and balance. They are willing to flatly lie about the Obama administration.
Generation Y has an obligation to see those outlets for what they really are.
The critically important generation should not allow itself to be misled by the subterfuge that masks as cable news no matter who is delivering it at the anchor table.
In many ways President Obama noted that the nation is at a critical juncture and that the ultra right wing policies espoused by neoconservatives is not the answer. Those policies failed under President George W. Bush and have not, in fact, worked in decades.
Deregulation, a conservative policy loved by Wall Street that led to the financial collapse of major financial institutions in New York, is still being pushed by some conservative politicians who have mastered the practice of looking at a white paper and calling it blue and expecting us to accept it.
It is not that there shouldn’t be any debate. President Obama acknowledged that “some of this contentiousness can be attributed to the incredibly difficult moment in which we find ourselves as a nation.”
The issue is that the debate is being held on deeply biased and prejudiced platforms, where students are not allowed to make up their minds in an atmosphere where truth and facts prevail.
Elected officials are willing to lie outright in the public space about death panels that do not exist in the health care legislation to hold hostage the largest voting bloc in the nation, senior citizens.
A so-called media analyst and pundit gladly refers to a cheering Tea Party crowd as “Tim McVeigh wannabes,” a apparent reference to the Oaklahoma terrorist Timothy McVeigh, yet not even the news organization that carries this particular host corrects that kind of insanity.
That is the challenge that Generation Y faces today: Getting the facts as they are without the interjection of prejudice, hate and bias served on a deadly golden plate as “real news” for their consumption.
Clearly, if students were to take their cue for responsible civic leadership from what the media reports or what certain talk show hosts serve up every evening, we might as well forget leadership for tomorrow.
“Here’s the point. When we don’t pay close attention to the decisions made by our leaders, when we fail to educate oursevles about the major issues of the day, when we choose not to make our voices and opinons heard, that’s when democracy breaks down,” Obama said. “That’s when power is abused. That’s when the most extreme voices in our society fill the void that we leave. That’s when powerful interests a
nd their lobbyists are most able to buy access and influence in the corridors of power because none of us are there to speak up and stop them. Participation in public life doesn’t mean that you all have to run for public office, though we could certainly use some fresh faces in Washington. But it does mean that you should pay attention and contribute in any way that you can. Stay informed. Write letters or make phone calls on behalf of an issue you care about.”
Students are the pillars of society. So many movements for change throughout history have begun on college campuses where there is the rush by leaders and activists to influence the innocent minds of tomorrow.
These students who are now proud graduates of the University of Michigan have an obligation to not let their voices for change be drowned out by those with the greatest media access, but operating with few, if any facts.
University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman aptly reminded the students of their intricate position in this complex and ever-changing world.
“Graduates, your community service is praiseworthy and important. It should also be unrelenting. Civic engagement is the foundation of a vibrant, prosperous society, and more than ever, as our neighbors and communities work through this economic downturn, your contributions matter,” Coleman said.
Watch senior editor Bankole Thompson’s weekly show, “Center Stage,” on WADL TV 38, Saturdays at 1 p.m. This Saturday’s program, May 8, will take a look at whether Michigan Democrats can win the 2010 gubernatorial race with an African American on the ticket. Thompson is the author of a book on President Obama and Black America, to be released this summer. E-mail bthompson@michronicle.com .