The State of the Union—in A Word: Divided

I know you were expecting words of insight or inflammatory rhetoric about the State of the Union address. Sorry to disappoint, but I didn’t watch it. I couldn’t watch it. The transformation of oratorical (yes it is a word) exuberance (peppered with the hope and audacity we all dreamed of a mere 15 months ago) has been disappointing. After the flourish of the pen which President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, I had hoped for additional small but important steps towards social, political, and economic progress.

It didn’t happen. Sometimes I wonder what did happen. So much and then not really much at all.

What events come to your mind? Was it the long, drawn out decision to commit more troops (but not exactly what the general wanted) to Afghanistan? Was it the groundbreaking speech in Egypt that has left us with little ROI?

How about the murders of our soldiers at Fort Hood (who I am led to believe were not even allowed to carry weapons to defend themselves on a military base)? Or was it the flip-flops on Guantanamo, Yemeni detainees, and civilian trials for terrorists?

Hmmm, maybe the climate conference which was to bring us closer to world cooperation in order to reduce our carbon utilization? Or was it the continued rise in unemployment (which in Buffalo is actually not as bad as everywhere else because everyone who lost a job has left, so fewer are looking—how’s that one for turning something sour into lemonade)?

Did the stock market make you dizzy and sick to your stomach as we have all taken one roller coaster ride after another. Did you think that this thrilling ride was only secondary to the ride the public took when we bailed out all these banks and brokerage houses?  That one surely must have made a few people toss their cookies.

And what about the drama of healthcare reform. I hope the Prez now realizes that the first rule of systems change is not to change too much of any system at one time. The results are too unpredictable. And it was for this reason everyone needed to get reassurance, to make a deal, to let someone else bear the brunt of what could be disaster. So we have nothing. And all the transparency about what did or did not happen was of no comfort. (But I do believe in this case that nothing is better than a very bad something.)  Why not start with a few simpler, badly needed reforms—tort reform, curtailing insurance costs by allowing sale of insurance across state lines, ending pre-existing conditions and insuring the uninsured. These are within our reach, don’t you think, and both sides of the aisle will feel the pain and the gain.

So I have chosen not to spend time listening to yet another speech from this President who has sadly spent more time in front of tele-prompters in his first year than any other president during his entire term. For me, fewer speeches would be time better spent building the bridges he speaks about so eloquently.

Our country has had its times of great divisions. I lived through the era of the Viet Nam War. It was ugly. But I don’t recall the sense of disappointment that permeates every-day life it is being lived today. The times are difficult and we reached so high. Could that have been the cause of this fall, this lack of hope?

As I said in my last post, TMI—too much information. And on that note, I will sign off and go to sleep early. I have a lot of surgery tomorrow and Friday and I don’t want to have too much else to think about right now.  I will leave the questions for you to ponder and my advice: KISS—Keep It Simple Sugar!