Content:President Obama’s Steps to Winning the Future (plus my thoughts and commentary)
1. 1. Encouraging American innovation
-President Obama discussed the amazing track record America has on innovation (from the Wright brothers to Google and Facebook) and said we need to continue that
-America has always been about reinventing ourselves and we need to continue doing that
-President Obama discussed the fact that when the Soviet Union surprised us by launching Sputnik, we didn’t have any idea how we would catch up, let alone pass, them in Space. The technology didn’t exist but we did it through an encouragement of innovation and education. He called this our “Sputnik Moment” and discussed innovation in several areas, especially clean energy.
-I agree with pretty much everything he said in terms of innovation. However, it seems that much of the innovation that has occurred in the US in the past years (with internet innovation being a specific example of this), no jobs have been created. We need innovation that will not only advance our lives but also advance our industry. That innovation needs to create jobs.
2. 2. Educating America’s future
-Along the same lines as innovation and the Sputnik comments, America needs to refocus on education. We are dropping in the worldwide rankings when it comes to education and we cannot afford this.
-Education should be celebrated. The President said that, both in and out of schools, students should be encouraged and inspired. He said that children should learn that we shouldn’t only celebrate the winner of the Super Bowl, but also the winner of the Science Fair. I’d love for this to be the case (being the total geek that I am) but we have a long way to go. Science just isn’t seen as something cool to do anymore and that is a shame.
-He discussed the Race to the Top program which is meant to revitalize and reinvigorate our schools and education system. I don’t know much about it in terms of details but I hope it works!
-He also discussed the fact that people come from all over the world to study in our Universities and benefit from our higher education systems, then return home. While not much can be done about that, we can do something about the children of immigrants who graduate from our Universities and want to stay in the US but instead are deported or kicked out because of their illegal status. This is frankly ridiculous and foolish and something should be done about it.
3. 3. Rebuilding America
-President Obama mentioned that we are falling behind (sounds familiar) and that America’s engineers graded our infrastructure a D. I can say after being in England that in terms of our railroad system, that is indeed the case. While many people would see a refocus on railroads as a step backwards, I think its great. President Obama said the goal is to provide 80% of Americans access to high speed railways. This will go a long way towards decreasing our dependence on foreign oil, decreasing pollution, increasing ease of transport around the country, and, as President Obama mentioned to laughs, avoiding the uncomfortable pat-downs in the airports. I wonder, however, if security at railroad stations would increase significantly if people started travelling by train more often.
1. 4. Knocking down barriers to success
-This encompassed a lot, including eliminating earmarks, reforming lobbying practices, suring up trade agreements, fixing government regulations, and reorganizing the federal government to eliminate redundancies and inefficiencies.
-President Obama also mentioned rebuilding faith in the government. This is crucial at a time when approval rating of Congress was as low as 13% in December. I’d love to see how this is done…
Now for surface issues, like applause and stuff like that
-While I appreciate the sentiment behind breaking down the barrier between Democrats and Republicans, I didn’t like the fact that they were sitting interspersed because it made it harder to see who was applauding what issues. It was pretty obvious when everyone was applauding and standing, but where you would get just a smattering of applause or ovation, unless you recognized the person (and lets be honest, how many people can recognize all 535 members of congress?) you wouldn’t know what party they were from and the general consensus of the parties.
-The biggest applause, as usual, came when discussing the troops and their families. I think its great that the military gets such good support from both the Congress and the American public and I’m fully aware of the fact that there was a time very recently when this was not the case. However, I quite often feel as if it’s a useless show of support and a far too easy one. Its not hard to wear a ribbon and stand up and applaud but its another thing altogether to understand and acknowledge the sacrifices made by our troops. While I’m not making any sacrifices and wouldn’t claim to be, there are men and women in the military who routinely do so and are not nearly as appreciated as they should be. I think about what I’ve learned about the home front during World War II and the amazing sacrifices made, both by the soldiers fighting and the people back at home. Victory gardens, collecting scrap metal, working for the war effort. We are in a time of war, and yet American go about their lives with no regard for that fact. Putting a yellow ribbon on the back of your gas-guzzling SUV just doesn’t seem like enough support for the troops.
-Again on the subject of the military, its always interesting to see when the Joint Chiefs applaud. I thought they were like the Supreme Court in that, seeing as they are meant to be politically impartial, they don’t applaud for anything. However, when the troops were mentioned, they did in fact applaud and stand up. But, they didn’t applaud for everything involving the troops, which was intriguing. Particularly the fact that, while there was a lot of applause for the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and President Obama’s request for all University’s to open their campuses to recruiters and ROTC, there wasn’t any from the Chiefs on those topics.
-I have to mention it. House Speaker John Boehner wore a pink tie and cried when President Obama mentioned him. Seriously dude?
-The biggest laugh in the speech happened when President Obama made a joke about smoked salmon. However the laugh was interesting because at first there were just a few people who laughed. Then more joined, but after a bit of delay. It was sort of awkward because then the laughs got even bigger and it was hard to tell if they were laughing at the joke or at the people laughing at the joke or what. Maybe its just the size of the House chamber and it took a while for the joke to get to the back of the room and for the laughter from the back to then reach the camera microphones.
My favourite quotes from the speech:
-“It is time to leave behind the divisive battles of the past, it is time to move forward as one nation.”
-“We do big things. From the earliest days of our founding, America has been the story of ordinary people who dared to dream. That’s how we win the future.”
-“I’m not sure how we’ll reach that better place beyond the horizon, but I know we’ll get there. I know we’ll get there.”
-“We do big things. The idea of America endures. Our destiny remains our choice. And tonight its because of our people that our future is hopeful, our journey goes forward, and the state of our union is strong.”
Overall a good State of the Union. Didn't really like the responses (either the official Republican response by Congressman Paul Ryan (Wisconsin) or by Tea Party selectee Congresswoman Michelle Bachman), but I guess thats not all that surprising. I am a Democrat tried and true and therefore am more likely to like President Obama's speach and dislike the responses. All in all, good way to spend a morning!
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