Congressional Addresses: Now with Less Pain!

I'm a firm believer that part of being a good citizen is staying informed and listening to our leaders when they want to address us. That being said, it has been a long 8 new millennium. It was incredibly hard to sit and listen to the horrible policies, the fake promises and the nails-on-chalkboard-esque giggle wink of President Bush. Compound this with the constant ovations (some all-inclusive, the more fun ones partisan) and poor oratory skills and this part of citizen never felt like such a burden.

All that in mind, it was exciting to see a new face at the podium and unified colleagues standing behind him. .Yes it was still dull, the ovations too frequent and the policies a bit too dull (he's just a man!) Yet, I feel that Washington was stuck in a rut for a long time and at last there's been a bit of shaking up. Certainly these are not original ideas, but its something I hope strongly not to lose sight of in the coming weeks, months and years. 

This is a new generation coming to power and that is something that I will never see again in my life until I'm no longer a part of the group that made it happen. Seeing the approval numbers for Obama and his stimulus package demonstrates that the people are behind him and that they trust him to right this ship. 

One final partisan note would be how hypocritical the republican house members still appear...refusing to rise for the ovation about the Stimulus Package all while sliding the money of their states into the pet projects they love. I most sincerely hope that they come around and start playing the game by something other than the old rules, but if not it will be nice to see them get their walking papers in the coming years. 

But I don't mean to be bitter (yet another lingering effect of the eight year doldrums). I see our country with its best years ahead of us, and hope only that I can live long enough to see its full return to grandeur. We've finally elected the best man for the job instead of the lesser of evils...mabe we'll finally learn that elitism isn't such a bad thing in choosing the leader of the free world.

(Image from cnn.com)