The State of Our Union

I love that title: "The State of the Union Address." It sounds so big and important and governmenty (I know, that's not a word--humor me here). But more than that, I loved the delivery of that wonderful speech last night.

I'm not sure what I was expecting. I've never actually watched the whole State of the Union Address from start to finish before. (One reason, among others, is that for most of my life, we didn't own a working television. ;)) However, last night I was determined to see the whole thing, and to listen to every word. I turned the TV to face the kitchen and turned up the volume as loud as I dared, so I could hear it above the grind of the dishwasher, the water running over the potatoes I was peeling and the dryer going in the background.

I was half afraid the speech would be a bit of a namby-pamby "let the Dems and the Republicans get along and work together" kind of thing (not that that would be so terrible), but I must admit, I was rather pleased to see good old "Dubya" taking a such a strong, no-apologies stance on the controversial issues: a Constitutional marriage amendment, privatization of Social Security, the war in Iraq, health care, etc. Ya gotta love a President who doesn't have to worry about reelection. ;)

Dan emerged from the back room just when President Bush was introducing the Norwoods, the family whose son was killed in Fallujah. I intently busied myself with the potatoes at that very moment, but Dan still saw me dash away a couple of tears. *grin*

I am always proud to be an American, but there are other moments when I'm really proud of America. Last night was one of them.