If I had to name just one area where our president excels it would have to be use of all the tools available to him for communication.
President Obama’s 2011 State of the Union will, no doubt, afford us a masterful example of this. You can see it here
There’s been so much criticism of Obama in the last 2 years. Most of it has come from the media and the pundits who give us benefit of their opinions about how he is performing in his position as President. Most of it has come as a direct result of micro-critiquing and taking his words and work out of context. We as citizens can’t rely on talking points if we want to understand what’s going on.
The Internet gives us a unique place in the molding of our government and our economy. It allows us to see first-hand events that significantly impact our lives. I sometimes think it’s foolish of us to rely on others to tell us what is going on when we can view in real time events like the State of the Union address, how Congress is voting on issues like the health care bill and other critical events. When this kind of information is available to us and we can go back and watch for ourselves exactly who is saying what and when, we have no one but ourselves to blame for not understanding the complexity of current events.
So many times, I’ve read or listened to media accounts of events and gone back to view the actual videos or documentation and found them wanting. I see too often how individual reports tend to slant and rewrite reality. Until now, we’ve been guided by the advice to “watch the money” and check out who’s staying what in terms of what they have to gain by their observations. That advice still is very wise.
But, now more than ever before, a second advice is “go to the source”. Find the original recorded documents and videos and review the whole picture, not just the sound bytes. It certainly does make sense to get quick reports and to listen to what critics have to say about events. But failing to get our information by checking out the source of their observations, reviewing the entire event or document, and asking hard questions leaves us ill-equipped to make intelligent decisions. Worse than that, our failure to do proper research is what’s leading to the splintering of our society.
The President has done a masterful job of navigating through one of the toughest periods in our country’s history. We, citizens, haven’t got a clue about all the complexities he’s had to work within his effort to right the ills that we face. Tonight he will try to put that into language we can understand. Like any great leader he will try to help us focus on the tasks at hand and set our sights on the future.
I encourage you to join me in witnessing this event first hand – and then let’s talk about the implementation of his vision.