2011 State of the Union

Last night, I had the opportunity of watching and observing the 2011 State of the Union which was held in Washington D.C.  The event was not like any other because of three things. One, John Bayner was elected the new speaker of the house and became the successor of Nancy Pelozzi, two, Senator Kathy Giffords of Arizona was not present because she was the victim of an assassination that almost took away her life.  Giffords is now being treated in a well recognized rehabilitation center in Houston, Texas,  and last but not least, the most important part of the event was that Republicans and Democrats who represent the same state were sitting next to each other.  So far this is the only event in history when opposing political parties were combined rather than the traditional, Democrats on one side and Republicans on the other.  The reason why this idea went in to effect was to give tribute to the wounded and murdered from the Tucson shooting which was the same tragedy that almost took the life of Giffords.  But most importantly, to unite as one group, one America to bring ideas together to improve their country not only economically, but for the future that it beholds for their citizens and bright minds of tomorrow.
 President Obama's speech  was broad and straight forward instead of a list of things to do.  Obama's speech covered the most important needs of America like technology, economy, education, and energy. It also covered the achievements they had over the past year. The firts topic that Obama tackled was the economy of the United States.  Obama emphasized on international trading with China, Indonesia, and the rest of the world as well as to compete with them in order to benefit their economy.  Obama also talked about the unemploymet rate and how to bring more jobs and money to support themselves.  Obama mentioned that getting jobs and the financial crisis were bigger than politics and election panels because it is still the most problematic issue in America with unemployment going up more than 9%.  Obama's goal was to make jobs in America the most prosperous in the world and the best to do business with.  In order to make the goal a reality was by doing American innovation with creativity and imagination starting now and Obama called it our, "Sputnik Moment."  A reference to the Soviet Union surpassing America by putting the first man on the moon.
The next topic that Obama wanted to talk about was using clean, solar, and wind energy as well as natural gas.  His goal was to use less fuel from other countries and focus more on our own.  He believed that this will help benefit our environment and health.  Obama's goal was by 2015 that America will have clean energy cars and that 80% of America will have clean energy sources in 2035.
Obama's following topic that he wanted to discuss was the current and future of the American Education.  As of today, China and all of Asia have surpassed America in science, reading, and mathematics and it made them the top 3 and 4 in the world.  One of the Asian countries, South Korea, has made "nation builders" out of their children because of longer school hours, days, and children value education.  This causes America to no longer be in the top 20 in education in the world.  Obama stressed the Government, schools, and its teachers to give the best education possible to the bright minds of tomorrow because if not, America will fall behind in every field, they will be outranked in the world, America will no longer have a lasting legacy of people with diligence to improve and change America and the world, and America will no longer be known as the best education in the world possible by the eyes of every child.  I myself personally am a VISA holder and always dreamed of studying in America and I am so happy that I got this opportunity of a lifetime.  It would break my heart if America's education would not improve and not give equal opportunity to learn for children like me.  If this ever happened, no one and even me will no longer dream of studying in America and it would be a complete waste of our time.  The solution that Obama proposed to improve the system was that parents should help educate their children.  What he meant in his own words was that they should be motivated not to find success in winning a Super Bowl, but winning a Science Fair.  Also proposing the Race to the Top developed by both political parties to replace the No Child Left Behind Act.  He also emphasized on students treating their teachers with the same level with respect, 100,000 new teachers to teach engineering, science, technology, and Math, higher education should reach every American, make college more affordable, and by the end of the decade, America would have the highest proportion of grades in the world.
Finally, aside from technology being available for use and improvement to America and its citizens, Obama wanted to improve America's agriculture as well.
Obama's words that explains the big idea of what he was trying to propose was to fix what needs fixing and move forward.