State of Union was a pep talk

How many guaranteed freedoms can you name in First Amendment?

By Ken Tingley

President Joe Biden concluded his State of the Union address Tuesday night by saying, “But I’ve never been more optimistic about our future, the future of America. We just have to remember who we are.”

It felt like a pep talk.

It felt like something we needed to hear before we went back out there into the real world.

My expectation was this State of Union would once again dissolve into annoying political theater that would further divide us.

Many were already saying that the State of the Union had outlived its usefulness with one side sitting on its hands and the other side leaping into exaggerated standing ovations as if  they were seeing a “Hamilton” curtain call or Springsteen encore.

This was something a little different.

The tone was one of hope.

“We are facing the test of our time,” Biden said near the end of his speech. “We must be the nation we have always been at our best, optimistic, hopeful forward-looking. A nation that embraces, light over dark, hope over fear, unity over division. Stability over chaos. We must see each other not as enemies, but as fellow Americans.”

I don’t know about you, but I needed to hear that.

There were even times when a few Republicans applauded Biden’s words.

Maybe cooperation was possible.

Maybe the division in Congress was vastly overstated.

Then, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee - President Trump’s former press secretary - responded with a Republican message that was dark and bleak.

She said Biden and the Democrats had destroyed the country in just two years.

I don’t feel that way.

It’s one of the amazing things about this country. Through wars, recessions, political scandals and a Great Depression our country has persevered, battled and come back even stronger.

We still remain a beacon for the rest of the world.

It’s too bad Gov. Huckabee doesn’t see it that way.

We are a country of vast and unlimited potential, but we have some work to do.

President Biden repeated several times: “We are just beginning.”

We can be better if we work together.

We can do our part too by being better citizens and holding our congresspeople accountable to making our communities better instead of divisive political rhetoric.

Biden was talking to us directly as a people, not as a carney barker trying to sell us something.

It was the first time I remember a president arguing his points, talking back to his detractors and asking them to join him in making things better.

I’d like to think the State of the Union Tuesday night was a new beginning and that a new dialog had begun.

A journey of a million miles must being with a first step.

I’m hoping this is the first step.

Cabin fever

Many of you may be approaching the “cabin fever” stage of winter.

If you need to get out, please join me at Northshire Books in Saratoga Springs at 6 p.m. tonight for my presentation on newspapers, journalism and my new book “The Last American Newspaper.”

Hopefully, we can have a some lively discussion about the state of newspapers and journalism.

No pushback

Considering how passionately Fort Edward residents fought off its school merger with South Glens Falls (and passing up millions in funds), it is surprising there has not been more pushback about the elimination of the Fort Edward Police Department.

The board of trustees is going forward with a law to eliminate the police department and contract with Washington County for police department. It will save the town about $200,000.

The move is long overdue and there is going to be continued problems with staffing small police departments like this. Other towns and villages might want to take note.

The brighter side

As promised, here is a little relief from the bad news of the week with a story from “Science Advances” about climate change.

A new study by MIT researchers concludes our “planet harbors a `stabilizing feedback’ mechanism that acts over hundreds of thousands of years to pull the climate back from the brink, keeping global temperatures within a stead, habitable range.”

While it is good news to think the human race can be saved from climate change, the bad news is that it will take hundreds of thousands of years. So don’t shelve the electric car idea just yet.

First Amendment

Back to the bad news, a recent poll by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression found that nearly a third of Americans could not name a single freedom protected by the First Amendment while another 40 percent could only name one, probably Freedom of the Press.

That’s a damning indictment for many of us.

The other First Amendment rights are religion, speech, assembly and the right to petition government for a redress of grievances.

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Speaking out

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Express (FIRE) recently named the 10 worst colleges for free speech:

FIRE CEO Greg Lukianoff wrote on its website:  “Since 2020, we’ve seen an upswing in campus censorship unlike anything I've encountered in my 22-year career. You’d think they'd eventually run out of students and professors to censor, but no such luck in 2022. Fingers crossed for 2023.”

Here is the list:

• Emerson College (Boston, Mass.)

• Collin College (McKinney, Texas)

• Emporia State University (Emporia, Kan.)

• Hamline University (Saint Paul, Minn.)

• Loyola University New Orleans (New Orleans, La.)

• Pennsylvania State University (State College, Pa.)

• Tennessee Tech University (Cookeville, Tenn.)

• Texas A&M University (College Station, Texas)

• University of Oregon (Eugene, Ore.)

• University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, Pa.)