The president spoke for about 50 minutes, and was interrupted by applause 60 times (by my count.) To both my pleasure and displeasure, he only said "nook-u-ler" three times. I wish he'd learn how to pronounce the word nuclear. Oh well.
I am not going to list all the bullets that the president hit, those are covered better in the press, but I do want to note some things that caught my attention:
1) I particularly enjoyed this phrase from early in the speech. It sounds very familiar. I think maybe he used it last time, or a very similar version of it. "Tonight the state of our union is strong -- and together we will make it stronger." Mmmm-hmmm! Love that. It's very powerful and hopeful.
2) He mentioned that "In 1945, there were about two dozen lonely democracies on earth. Today, there are 122. " That's amazing to me. I guess it is good. I wonder if on average the people of those countries are better off than they were before.
3) He talked about the state of our society, and the statistics he mentioned were interesting: "In recent years, America has become a more hopeful nation. Violent crime rates have fallen to their lowest levels since the 1970s. Welfare cases have dropped by more than half over the past decade. Drug use among youth is down 19 percent since 2001. There are fewer abortions in America than at any point in the last three decades, and the number of children born to teenage mothers has been falling for a dozen years in a row."
4) He took another shot at the rights of same-sex couples in this remark: "Yet many Americans, especially parents, still have deep concerns about the direction of our culture, and the health of our most basic institutions. They are concerned about unethical conduct by public officials, and discouraged by activist courts that try to redefine marriage. And they worry about children in our society who need direction and love ... and about fellow citizens still displaced by natural disaster ... and about suffering caused by treatable disease." I have to come out (so to speak) and once again support the rights of same-sex couples to marry, have children or adopt, and generally enjoy all the rights granted to couples in traditional marriages. I believe that the president's crusade to prohibit same-sex marriage is wrong and goes against the spirit of America. He insinuates, I believe in the above, that same-sex marriages cannot nurture children with direction and love. Shame on you Mr President for being so homophobic. I bet there were a lot of boos in progressive towns like Austin.
5) I also would like to thank and congratulate a very special person, as the president did tonight: "Today marks the official retirement of a very special American. For 24 years of faithful service to our Nation, the United States is grateful to Justice Sandra Day O'Connor." Cheers, Justice O'Connor!
All-in-all, I enjoyed the speech, even if there were parts that I didn't agree with. It is the one time every year that I feel "part of" the government. I feel like I know what is going on and enjoy discussing afterwards the points that were made . I look forward to the continuation of the tradition.
The transcript of the speech is available from CNN, for anyone who wants to read it.
One final thing - when I was a kid, my parents took a picture of me near the TV while President Carter was doing a state of the union. I have always enjoyed that picture and I wanted to take a similar one of Bren just for fun.
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