State of the Union
January 31, 2003
Lesson 20
Civics

7. Bush's State of the Union Speech

       George Bush had a couple main things that he went over during his hour long speech on Tuesday, January 27, 2003. He went over tax reductions that he wanted passed, or were already passed by Congress. He went over wanting affordable health care for seniors. He talked about giving money to lower pollution by making pollution-free cars. He also asked Congress to pass a Healthy Trees Commission. He wanted to start to depend more on American oil and energy instead of ones from foreign countries. He wanted to give money to faith based groups so that they can mentor children. And last of all, he talked about disarming Iraq. He stayed on this subject longer then the rest of them.

       One of the many things that I disagreed with was that Bush said that he wanted to "keep the peace", yet he then started talking about Iraq, and he seemed as though he had no intention of peace, but that he wanted war. They have killed many people, and yet he still wants to "keep the peace." I think that if he wants to talk about peace, then he shouldn't contradict himself two minutes later talking about going and "disarming Saddam Hussein." This is one of those metaphors that we were talking about in English. Basically, what he means is that they want to go over and kill him.

       Another thing that I disagreed with was that he keeps saying things like, 'Sadaam Hussein is evil' and things like that. If you were Sadaam Hussein, would you really want to bargain with people that call you evil? No, the answer is that you would not. You would probably start saying things about him, and that would start nothing but a war. It is kind of like name calling in third grade, and after so much name calling a fight breaks out. There is no difference, except the fact that third graders don't have nuclear and biological weapons.

       George Bush went over a lot of things. I might not have agreed with all of them, but he went over them all the same. And to make a lighter point, did you pay attention to the clapping? The clapping made up about half of the speech!

My teacher's comments: Outstanding analysis of Bush’s speech. I too, watched and listened to his speech and your report definitely captures the essence of was said and what occurred. I especially like the way you have inserted your own opinions and thoughts about what Bush said. Your personal feelings are very thoughtful and insightful, and let me know you carefully thought about what he said.