get up in the morning, walk the hard road down

How come you treat me like a worn out shoe?

~~ Hank Williams

     Watching the State Of The Union Address last night, I thought, Well at least my modest hope that it would not be Word Salad was fulfilled.

     The words and sentences did not "go round in circles," or "fly high like a bird up in the sky" (which is all very well for funk musician Billy Preston...).

     President Trump spoke in a linear structure, with no wild, off-the-cuff, (WHAT?!) sort of remarks.  He was mentally organized, spoke clearly and credibly, and made an effort to "be presidential," as some critics have urged.

     He used the word "love" kind of often.  Recognizing, or highlighting certain American people and other individuals from around the globe, and saying, "We love you" ... starting to think it's 1969 again with Love and Peace....

     Trump called for "unity" -- in the Los Angles Times, the headline on an article by Cathleen Decker reads, "In State of the Union speech, a milder-sounding Trump leans on the same divisive issues."


---------------- [excerpts from the article] ----------- He made a lengthy effort to cast immigrants as criminals, emphasizing the deaths of two girls at the hands of MS-13 suspects, their sad parents standing with evident emotion in the balcony.  

That was misleading:  Immigrants are far less apt than native-born Americans to commit crimes, statistics show.


...Trump's strength has always been his ability to divide, not to unify.  To his ardent backers, he represents something other than the typical politician -- a tough, says-what-he-thinks swashbuckler who, even if he can't make things better for them, will make them worse for those they detest. ---------------------- [end, excerpts]

     Is that what we hope for, from a president?  That he will "make things worse" for someone we don't like, or desire to look down on?  (Pass the Tylenol....)

     I had looked forward to seeing (and hearing) Joe Kennedy III's response to the State of the Union -- that, I can report, did not go so hot....  That kid needs work.  Bad lighting produced odd visual effects (shades of Nixon, 1960), 

and the congressman had a "cry" in his voice as he spoke -- whether it is deliberate, for effect, or a natural style, it did not come across.  

Irritating and ineffective.  

I wanted to shout at the screen:  "Who do you think you are, Hank Williams?  You are not a country singer!  Don't have a cry in your voice -- just give it to us!  Respond to the speech, talk about alternatives and improvements, and give us a call to action!"

     Which is what Bernie Sanders did, so I didn't have to shout at him....

     On You Tube, if you type in these two titles, you can see two informative videos:

~  "Bernie Responds to the State of the Union"

~  "Sanders says GOP should be worried about 2018"

     Senator Sanders "brings it."

     He does not talk down to people, and he says things clearly and plainly -- very easy to listen to.


     I don't mean to be too hard on the congressman from Massachusetts.  He is not responsible for my expectations.  I realized when I thought about it later, the Kennedys I actually miss are Pres. Kennedy and Bobby Kennedy, Senator from New York.  


The blindsiding dumb shock of the assassinations during the 1960s of leaders who represented the people -- the Kennedy brothers and Martin Luther King -- leaves a mute, horrified trauma in people's brains that is never gone.

     (Forget Joe III -- what I really wanted, on an emotional level, was MLK, Jack, and Bobby to -- come back to life, and -- straighten this shit out...!  Come on!  My subconscious doesn't ask for much!!)

-30-