The State We Are In

I have a very visceral reaction to our "President's" voice. It makes me want to leave the room. This could be an echo of the feeling I get when I think about the man who sits in the big chair: I want to leave the country. This is why I chose not to sit in front of the television on Tuesday to listen to him speak on matters known best and perhaps only to him: The State of the Union. When he starts burbling on about the economy and the stock market, I can't help but think about all those still living in the shadows of this great country.

Yes. I said this is a great country. It doesn't need to be made great again. I can prove this simply by pointing in the direction of the "President" to whom I cannot listen. When other presidents before him played around on the fringes of our democracy, the power of our constitution has put us all back on a path that we recognize. Wars, civil strife, economic collapse. These are some of the things through which our nation has endured. When I walked through the room where my wife was doing her democratic duty on my way to the kitchen, I paused just long enough to hear him bluster about foreign terrorists. The word that rang in my ears was "annihilate." I tried to recall any chief executive before him who would have tossed around that kind of verb in an address to the joint houses of Congress and the American people. He says "strong military" and I can't help thinking of nuclear war.

Am I right to harbor such fear? If I were a betting man, which I am not, I would still bet on the systems put in place by all those wise men and women who came before. As an American watching this billowing bag of harsh attempt to represent the ideals of our country, I cringe. This is just a passing storm. Like the hurricanes and floods he took the time to remind us of at the beginning of his speech. The ones that were a result of climate change. The climate change that he refuses to acknowledge as he continues to bore into the past with his clean coal initiatives.

Maybe it's too much to expect that impeachment or coup would take place in order to put the ship of state back on a more reasoned course. Maybe there will be two more similar speeches delivered as the "President" rambles on about the accomplishments of his administration. History suggests that we can live through a Civil War, the rise and fall of authoritarian dictatorships elsewhere in the world, and the break up of "NSYNC." Maybe we can endure another three years of this nonsense. Let's hope there is a planet left to reclaim when he finally stops talking.