Two Minutes and Thirty Seconds of Politics, With Apologies

I promise that this will be one of the few times that you will ever read anything remotely politically oriented on this blog.  Normally I keep my personal politics, well, personal.  Today, however, I have something I feel like I need to put out there. 

For the record, I am a lifelong Independant.  My political leanings and motivations fall based upon my opinions, not along the mandates of any particular party.  I tend to try to think before I vote, no matter how ineffectual the realities of that vote may or may not be.

Unlike our status quo, I actually hope this doesn't offend anyone.  If anything, I truly hope you share the core sentiment I'm about to express.  Whether or not I like Obama or our current Congress has nothing truly to do with this, trust me.

I watched the State of the Union address Tuesday night.  It left me, frankly, sad and a little disheartened.  I like to envision myself as, at least in broad terms, a critical thinker with some leanings toward romanticism.  As I listened to our popularly elected President speak, I found myself truly listening and imagining the picture of the country he was painting as he laid out his plans for the coming year(s).  I found myself profoundly wishing we could truly be that country.  Within that speech Obama created an image of our country where we worked together and supported one another on both a societal and a business level.  He spun a web of ideas via tax reforms, fair trade enforcements, and business and education opportunities that showed a nation that cared deeply for the wellfare of its citizenry as well as its impact on the world at large.  He showed a road paved with achievement through cooperation where 'Mission Accomplished' was not just a military phrase but a true feeling of national sentiment.

I am at heart a patriot.  I truly love the United States.  If this country was not founded as she was I couldn't say what I wish and do as I do.  I hesitate to suggest that this blog would be allowed to exist in many countries and even in the ones that it would the content would be dramatically different on occasion. 

Sadly, by the end of the address I was left with an odd taste in my mouth as if I had eaten too much rock candy.  The entire speech closed and the reality of what we truly viewed set in.  Obama created a beautiful sculpture while on stage last night of a country that truly functions.  The problem lies in that he created it out of the verbal equivalent of spun sugar and sparkles, beautiful to look at but so fragile to the touch as to be ethereal.  It's a beautiful image of this great nation but it left me with only one true response:  I wish.  I wish our politicians would put aside their petty nonsense and truly try to work together.  I wish we could create that country from the ground up if need be.  I wish our leadership, as a whole, would truly lead instead of spend their time telling us what they would like to do, if only... 

I wish that that beautiful sculpture of spun sugar and ideas would be truly used a model for action and ideaology, not as yet another long form campaign promise and a target for criticism by yet another self serving bureaucrat who has become far too used to fat checks from lobbyists to be of any real service to their constituency.

I wish.

(By the way, special props should be given to John Kerry for sporting two black eyes and a broken nose on the floor of Congress during the State of the Union.  These were supposedly the byproduct of a friendly game of hockey over the weekend.  Don't necessary care for the man's politics, but I will definitely support a referendum to grant him +10 points on his man card.)