by Mario T. García
I was thrilled at President Barack Obama's State of the Union address last week. It has to be one of the greatest State of the Union addresses in history.
What distinguished it for me was the passion in which the president delivered it. It was filled with various proposals, but these were put forth with a great deal of idealism and emotion.
There are two things in particular that I appreciated. The first was the issue of the disparity of wealth in the United States. This disparity is greater today than it was 40 or 50 years ago. The rich are getting richer, and the middle and working classes are getting poorer. Despite the fact that in general, the American economy has rebounded (the president mentioned a number of statistics to bolster that), the fact is, as he acknowledged, still too many Americans have not directly experienced this revival. Yes, we are back, as the president said, but not everyone is back.
As he eloquently said, the task now is to support policies and programs to uplift what he called the middle class, which is another term for working people. This includes new tax breaks for the middle class and higher taxes for the rich by taking away many corporate and personal loopholes for the top income recipients. This is only fair. We can't have a democracy with an oligarchy.
I also appreciated with the president's call for the Congress to pass legislation that would provide as close to universal child care as possible and to make it affordable for working people. We know that in most families, both spouses, especially with children, have to work to sustain themselves. This puts tremendous pressure on working parents with young preschool-aged children. As the president correctly noted, child care is no longer a luxury, if it ever was, and it is not a women's issue. It is now a national economic imperative. For our workers to be productive, their children have to taken care of, and the government must take a role in providing affordable child care.
There were many more suggestions that the president made, such as universal community college education for all Americans, that are not only the right thing to do, as he said, but, in my opinion, the moral thing to do. We need to care for each other and to make sure that no one falls into poverty or near poverty. We need a more equalitarian society, and this can only come from the people demanding it.
The second thing that impressed me about the president's speech was in fact the moral tone in which it was delivered. He appealed to our better angels and called for Congress to address these major issues facing the living conditions in the country with compassion and at least to concede that some people are still struggling through no fault of their own. He correctly appealed to his Republican opponents to put aside their personal animosity toward him and his programs and to address the needs of Americans, especially since they now control both houses. He called on Republicans not to demonize those whom they disagreed with and in his own way reminded them that not only are we all Americans, but that we are all children of God.
It remains to be seen whether Republicans will take the president's words seriously, but I for one was proud of him and proud that I voted for him. He may not be perfect -- none of us are -- but he cares for people, and that is what we want in our leaders.
