Beginning with George Washington’s first message delivered before a joint session of Congress on Jan. 8, 1801, the State of the Union speech has been made annually by the President of the United States.
Required by the Constitution as a report on the condition of the country, the speech may also be used to lay out the future plans of the president and to seek help from Congress with proposed legislation. The speech is similar to those given annually by the CEO of large corporations and other organizations.
The President of the United States recently made his State of the Union report to the country. If you listened to this speech you probably thought the speech was given in English – a language that you thought you understood and as he talked, you thought you did understand what he was saying.
However, after his speech, you are informed by the media that the speech was really in Democratic and to clarify what the man should have said you are given another speech by someone who is speaking Republican. To be sure the citizens understand the state of the union, you are given yet another speech that follows in a relatively new language – Tea Party.
In case any confusion might still remain, numerous political analysts on television further explain exactly what the real state of the union is today.
Citizens are very interested in the state of our country, but the primary interest is in the state of our individual, personal state of the union. The President has told you how the nation is doing, but what about you?
The respected Kiplinger Letter predicts that there will be a great difference in how our different states will recover from the recession. The same can be true of individuals.
The John J. Heidrick Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University reports that there is what they call a “ deeply pessimistic feeling about the economic future.” Most people believe that it will take “many years” for them to get back to the point where they were when the recession hit.
Lincoln had his opinion about how to handle the day to day living –he thought people would be about as happy as they expected to be and that is probably true today.
So, if you have a financial problem, face it as a challenge and determine how you can improve it. Go over your budget item by item to see where expenditures can be trimmed or even deleted.
How has your state of the union changed from last year? Do some homework.
Running a household is not a great deal different from running a nation provided you skip over the trillions of dollars involved. The financial decisions are just as important to a family of four as they are to the nation. Both governments and households have to make decisions that may have a long lasting effect so try to make your financial decisions wisely.
This column is written with some tongue-in-check presentation, but it represents one of our greatest freedoms, one of which other countries are jealous. We can again be thankful that we live in a country where we can freely speak our mind.
We are making fun of our state of the union speeches but it is in no way intended to be disrespectful of the President’s State of the Union address.
If you aren’t satisfied with the state of your union, think about it and make up your mind how you can change it.
The economy is slowly growing and we will return to the glory days but it will not be tomorrow. In the meantime, be frugal, get your personal state of the union where you want it and enjoy the future.
Bita Bullet is the pen name of a local anonymous writer who can be reached at opelikaobserver@att.net