Bush Gives an Emotional State of the Union Address
Stop judging and take Bush at face value...a man with love for his country.
Jami Furo
Issue date: 2/11/05 Section: Opinions
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President Bush, who offered a fantastic, heart-felt state of the union address on that Wednesday night, is often criticized for not admitting his mistakes or weaknesses. However, in his 2005 address, this was simply not the case. Bush came before the American people asking for their input on how to rectify the increasingly inadequate Social Security program. Bush gave a detailed and unpleasant description of the problem that we as a nation face with regard to retirement benefits. And then he admitted what every politician hates to admit: he doesn't know what to do to fix it. He has ideas, certainly, and he described them in detail, but he wants the best solution. He asked for suggestions and aid so that he can better attend to the situation, and he said that this project is "more important than partisan politics." These are hard concessions to make for a politician-especially one of conviction. However, he made them anyway because it was in the best interest of the American people.
The most heartfelt moment of the address came when the president was discussing Iraq. Several guests came to the speech, sitting amid Congress and next to the First Lady. The first guest was an Iraqi woman named Safia Taleb al-Suhail, and the president told her story. Eleven years ago, her father was assassinated by Saddam Hussein. She saw injustice firsthand. However, only a few days before the speech, she was in Baghdad casting a vote. She told the President how grateful she and her people are that the United States has helped them to gain democracy in their nation, and she explained how eager they are to leave their memory of their tyrannical dictator behind them.
A pair of guests to the event sat behind Taleb. They were Bill and Janet Norwood, parents of Marine Corps Sergeant Byron Norwood, who was killed in the attack on Fallujah. They stood up to the sound of thunderous applause, and Safia Taleb al-Suhail rose with them, offering a strong and teary-eyed embrace.
We forget sometimes. The media, always looking for the negative, reports news from Iraq in terms of death tolls, attacks, and explosions. Certainly, these deaths are devastating tragedies, to say the very least. We should remember these soldiers, and we should remember their bravery for fighting for our nation. However, we should also remember our successes in Iraq.
Saddam Hussein is out of power. In fact, he has been for quite a while now. We have found him, and he is being prosecuted. We have gotten food, school supplies, and other goods to the Iraqi people. And just recently, the Iraqi people had an election. They had a larger voter turnout than we do in the United States, and those voters included women.
We are so quick to judge and so quick to criticize. Maybe it's time that we see this speech for what is was: a man with a heart coming before his fellow citizens and asking for help and support.