On Sept. 8, President Barack Obama addressed the nation’s children at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Va. He spoke of education, his own childhood and building oneself up through hard work and dedication.

I read the speech not knowing what to expect and was rewarded with its inspirational and encouraging tone. It was a simple and to-the-point message for the students at the time of year when everyone feels motivated, an uplifting speech as free from political agenda as I could imagine. If I didn’t know to which party Obama belonged, I could never tell from this speech.

Sadly, many Republicans disagree.

Many did not grasp that Obama was simply speaking on basic American ideals, as many presidents have done and will do again. An article on abcnews.com cites a parent saying, “He does not have to sit in on this, he does not have to go to school and he sure as hell does not have to listen to what [Obama] has to say.”

Cynthia Mostoller, an eighth-grade teacher at Alice Deal Middle School in Washington D.C., disagrees. “Whether they agree with his message or not, they still need to be informed citizens and learn to make their own decisions. And that is what education is about.”

Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer called the speech an attempt to “indoctrinate America’s children to his socialist agenda,” according to an article on yahoonews.com. Although Greer deemed the speech appropriate after reading it, he was still skeptical that the president would deliver it. Apparently he felt Obama capable of sneaking in a new, socialist-charged script at the last minute to brainwash America’s children into little Obama-serving zombies.

An article on googlenews.com points out that Republicans were perfectly content in 1991 when President George H.W. Bush gave a similar speech, even saying, “Write me a letter about ways you can help us achieve our goals.” Likewise, in 1988 Ronald Regan discussed patriotic revival and opposition of rigid gun control. Of course, Democrats were outraged about this. Obama’s speech originally had a line about writing letters; Republicans threw such a fit that it was removed. Obama’s speech addresses ideals that most Americans share, regardless of political affiliation.

American parents cried socialism, indoctrination and political agenda. They complained that Obama is invading their homes and telling their children what to do. Many yanked their kids out of school to spare them the corruption. Online forums revealed an uncomfortable number of ridiculous accusations that made me wonder if people even read the speech. That they probably did is even more uncomfortable, because it shows that people were not reading and then making a decision. People have an idea of what they think is happening based solely on rumors and stereotypes, and refuse to think differently.

Remember all the nonsense about Obama the Muslim wanting to blow up America? People believed that. People dislike someone and then take negative, outlandish rumors as fact. If facts are presented, they are ignored. People take a speech asking children to work hard and not expect people to do things for them – ideals I thought most Republicans admired and promoted – and turn it into some socialist mind-control plan. Even when presented with a word-for-word copy of the speech, they can’t get past it. Our inability to listen to one another is severely hindering us socially and making it that much harder to tackle problems and move forward in this world.