So what did you do for the last hour?
I would like to make a quick post about the State of the Union address given earlier this evening.
Video, transcripts, information and highlights can be found here:
I found some of his statements refreshing, touching, and others perhaps scary and lacking. There were several statements of hope and faith that our country could overcome, and of course, applause followed. Parts of this evening's speech had some refreshing humor. I speak of the social security segment. To see the Democrats clap for their success was unexpected. Watching camera shots of Kerry and (H.) Clinton was also interesting. It forced me to wonder what the U.S. would be like under different leadership. I found the sentiments regarding lost troops and their families very touching. The letter read was patriotic and emotional. The family seen seated with the First Lady was enough to move me to tears. Though several Americans do question if these losses are in vain, and I fear for the lives of hundreds of young people in service.
I did not understand our foreign policy stance and how we plan to face Iran and the question of nuclear technology. With so much distress in Iraq and other nations around the world like North Korea and Afghanistan, I question how we have the ability to approach Iran even if we should.
I was not satisfied with the statements of education, health care, economy, job rates, or response to natural disaster. No comments were made about the funding of upper level education. Every year a college education becomes more expensive and harder to fund with less and less help. As more students succeed in high school, programs should be developed now to help them continue. Anyone who is poor or close to it knows that health care is a disaster. Most citizens get by on trying to be careful and hoping the pains that ail them will go away without treatment. Jobs and the economy do not look so good if you consider layoffs, corporate scandals, overseas contract workers, jobs with less benefits and higher turnover rates.
And while money has been coming from who knows where to reach out to Katrina victims, it isn't working. Here in Houston, people still receive money to live in hotels and apartments. Money from FEMA is being given to temporarily house people and not to help establish them long term in terms of preparing them to start new lives in other cities. Coverage isn't fair and usually is tied with delays. So many months after, parts of New Orleans still look like that of countries from the Middle East. Overall, I see efforts to help these people as being a temporary hand to hold and not solutions for rebuilding a city to what it once was. Whether we like to say it or not, several of those affected were living in poverty without enough aid from the government. Because of this natural disaster, now the country is trying to help. But such a task to provide wasn't feasible then and I don't believe it is now under current relief efforts and domestic policies. I do not mean for these comments to offend those who have suffered such losses and have found ways of coping and starting new lives. My comments are about policies we have at home, about the delays in help from the government that we have watched, and the records of crime and suffering reported here in Houston of those who 'settled' here.
In closing, the hour spent watching was an hour well spent. But, I would have left with a better feeling if I would have heard Domestic Policy first and foreign later with out the call to re-establish the Patriot Act and his statement about privacy. If the U.S. isn't careful in the near future, our poverty class will closely compare to the ones we are saying we are trying to help in other countries. A few more natural disasters, dips in the stock market or spikes in oil prices, factory closings, corporate scandals, etc and the U.S. will be looking in disbelief at what has become of the lower class wondering where the middle class went and how to fund the programs that should have been started ages ago.
Well, if I rambled, was off topic or didn't transition well, sorry. But, I worry about how our government chooses its battles and how they decide to overlook the rest. And I do worry that poverty isn't going to go away and that the people who somehow manage to hang on with a paycheck to paycheck mentality won't be able to as we head into the future only causing the lower class to consume the bottom half of the middle class. But hey, with several of our national leaders being millionaires (and you need to be to afford to run) maybe they aren't aware....
with that, I'm out.
