State of the Union (extra credit)

To start off, this is an 18-year-old who is not heavily involved in politics opinion on the 2023 State of the Union Speech. The speech begins with a long list of congratulations to numerous government officials such as Kevin McCarthy, Hakin Jefferies and Mitch McConnel. Then after the pleasantries are through, Joe Biden begins by listing the strides he and his team have made so far this year. These included creating 800 thousand manufacturing jobs, supporting small businesses and capping the cost of insulin for elderly. He then goes onto state what is currently in the works such as the Roe V Wade discussions, eliminating junk fees such as airline ticket prices, climate crisis issues and the prosecution of criminals who stole relief money. At the mention of all of these improvements, everyone in the room gave standing ovations every single time. Joe Biden also gave some impressively inspiring quotes in this speech. Some examples that resonated with me were “conflict for the sake of conflict gets us nowhere”, “to maintain the best economy in the world, we need the best infrastructure in the world” and “we are not powerless, we the people are facing this”. One controversial statement that was made, and acknowledged as so, was “The supply chain begins in America.” Biden spoke quite a lot on the topic of supply chain issues along with the war in Ukraine. However, he always circled back around to something positive. An example of his outreach and want for peace was represented in the guests he invited. This included the parents of a man named Nichols who was beaten by police officers and died from his injuries. Also in attendance was a man named Darrell Woodie who helped a representative and Jeffery T. Smith, the Montgomery County Sheriff.