From left: Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.; Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas.; Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.; Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M.; and Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., talk in the House Chamber before the start of President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address at the U.S. Capitol, in Washington, D.C., Jan. 25, 2010. (Official White House Photo by David Lienemann)

On Tuesday, January 25th, I proudly watch President Obama give his annual State of the Union address. Since the Tucson tragedy there has been a call for unity, and it was interesting to watch members of the House and Senate cross party lines and sit next to each other. Some in the media called it “Prom Night”, I personally prefer “Date night”. In previous years the Democrats would sit on one side and the Republicans on the other, needless to say (depending on the President’s party) when the standing ovations occurred it would obviously be one sided.

I have read, and heard, that several found this seating arrangement boring, that it led to a less lively live audience as members seem to be more restrained — perhaps more self-conscious about leaping to their feet when their seat-mates stayed in their chairs. I, personally, found it delightful – there were more moments of united applause then ever before. Let’s face it, when the person(s) next to you start applauding (or standing) it’s infectious and it leads to all others to do the same. I would hope that in the future, all SOTU’s continue with this format, unfortunately I doubt that this will happen.

I’m not going to review most of what the speech said. Many publications have done so, and you can watch the SOTU  on the White House website. There are a couple of things I would like to mention. First, I loved that everyone wore white and black ribbons in honor of Congresswoman Gabrielle Griffords. The white symbolizes hope and the black anti-violence. The ribbons were also worn by Congresswoman Gabrielle Gifford’s and her husband as they watched the state of the union from her hospital room.

When he spoke of education and stated “In South Korea, teachers are known as “nation builders.” Here in America, it’s time we treated the people who educate our children with the same level of respect. We want to reward good teachers and stop making excuses for bad ones. And over the next ten years, with so many Baby Boomers retiring from our classrooms, we want to prepare 100,000 new teachers in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math. In fact, to every young person listening tonight who’s contemplating their career choice: If you want to make a difference in the life of our nation; if you want to make a difference in the life of a child – become a teacher. Your country needs you.”  My immediate reaction was to say to the State Governor’s NOT to cut education, when attempting to balance their budgets. I do understand that many States are in financial difficulties, to put it mildly, and I can only speak of the State of Texas where I reside. In Texas, instead of dipping into the States “rainy day fun” Gov. Perry will be recommending that all public education funds would be cut 10 percent by the Senate, 11.5 percent by the House. He won’t even put the education issue as an emergency issue that would be a priority in the first 30 days of the 82nd Texas Legislation. What did he consider a priority over education? Legislation to require a voter to present proof of identification when voting and legislation that would require a woman to undergo a sonogram before electing to have an abortion.  Okay, sorry, I got off the track of the SOTU but these “emergency” issues are NOT an emergency when issues such as education are.

In conclusion, I just want to applaud our President for another wonderful speech. It also seems that the majority of Americans polled gave him a big thumbs up.

An overwhelming majority of Americans approved of the overall message in President Obama’s State of the Union speech on Tuesday night, according to a CBS News poll of speech watchers.

According to the poll, which was conducted online by Knowledge Networks immediately after the president’s address, 91 percent of those who watched the speech approved of the proposals Mr. Obama put forth during his remarks. Only nine percent disapproved.