My fellow Americans, tonight I say to you that the State of this Union is Fragile at best and Fraught with Dangers untold at worst.
Tonight my fellow Americans we face one of the toughest roads ahead that we have ever faced since the Great Depression.
Tonight my friends we watch as over fifty MILLION people worry about having no health insurance coverage and yet must seek some kind of treatment. How can we tell them that we cannot help them pay their bills? How can we tell them that our system of health care only helps those who actually can afford it? Where are the so called "moral" leaders of the Republican Party when these voices cry out for aid and they turn their backs on them just so they can get better returns on their stock portfolios? We can do better than this.
We watch as the millions who are underinsured lose their possesions when an unexpected medical emergency destroys the family budget. Are we to turn our heads and look the other way? What will will tell the next generation? "Sorry, we don't owe you anything, you'll just have to make do?"
We can do better than this.
We watch as family after family lose their homes to sub-prime lenders who should have never been given such leeway in the first place by mercenary politicians counting on their corporate checks to keep themselves in office.
We should be ashamed.
We act so indifferent to those who need us most. We put no teeth into the laws of the land that would help prevent people from misusing a disabled parking spot, making businesses accountable for not having accessible paths of travel or not hiring a person just because they have a disability.
We must do better than this!
We do not seem to care that month after month we force people into poverty just because their circumstances through either health or misfortune have sent them to seek assistance.
Where is our compassion?
We waste time arguing about so called "moral dilemmas" when it comes to stem cell research and other scientific research that could make a real difference in a person's life, when we should be doing everything possible to rid this world of the menace of Cancer, AIDs, MS, and all the other innumerable conditions that plague us and leave us vulnerable to an uncaring society.
We should truly be ashamed of ourselves!
And what of the mothers without adequate day care and the veteran's who so proudly served our country now living under bridges and being treated no better than the common household cockroach? What of the pregnant teen looking for compassion, the victim of domestic violence looking for shelter and what about the god-forsaken never ending war that the Bush Administration has left for us that will only give us more headaches far into the future?
Where the hell are we going?
My fellow Americans we must wake up and begin to deal with the problems that truly face us! We can no longer go to work, come home, watch American Idol and go to bed hoping tomorrow will be better. People, we must become active again. We must endure the game of politics and play that game to its fullest extent if we are to call ourselves a true Representative Democracy!
My fellow Americans we must change fundamentally the way we choose our leaders, choose our congress people, choose our elected officials!
No more multimillion dollar campaigns! No more money corrupting the system through political action commitees and big money donors! No more elections where only the wealthiest, only the lawyer types or the career politicians can run for office, EVERYONE and ANYONE should be able to run for any elected office without having to amass a fortune to do so!
We CAN do this!
My fellow Americans, tonight, the State of our Union is grim. The road ahead will be difficult to tread, but if we have the courage, the tenacity and the ability to work together in the common cause of saving our nation and giving our next generations something to be proud about, it must begin tonight.
We must begin to reinvent ourselves. We must be willing to sacrifice so that everyone will someday truly have a real chance to make something of themselves.
How do we do it my friend? Be active in politics, stay active in your community, work hard for the political candidates at all levels that most reflects your issues, your needs and your values. And perhaps, if there is no such candidate, then perhaps my friends, you yourself should be that candidate! It is only through these actions that we can truly make real and honest change in this great nation of ours.
We face many challenges ahead, but we will overcome those obstacles, tear down those walls, break through those barriers and once again lead the world in strength of purpose, strength of compassion and strength of character.
The State of Our Union is Fragile tonight my friends, but it is not yet Broken. We can and we will fix it if we have the perserverance and the drive to do so and if we have the correct party in Power to make it so; that party being my Democratic Party, and all those who believe in Progress, Truth and Compassion, we can make it work and we will make it work for all those people who need our help this evening.
We will make things good again in our nation!
May the Supreme Architect of the Universe guide us well in this important undertaking!
So Mote it Be!