I give you....hope, I, uh, hope.

Well, The President's speech was actually quite nice.  Say what you like, but the man can give a speech.  I'd have to say that I do agree with his top three priorities of Energy, Healthcare and Education.  I doubt I'll always agree with his methods for making improvements, but I also honestly hope that I'm wrong and he is right on every single one of them. 

All during the Education section, I kept thinking say something about parents getting involved, come on SAY it.  And, he did.  I would have liked to seen it more forceful, maybe something along the lines of stop putting everything else in front of your child's education, get your sh*t together and help that kid LEARN, but, I was glad to hear him say something about it anyway.

I also liked the call for everyone to go back to school.  I'm not in school, but I put myself through 2-3 "classroom-in-a-book" books every year, and I I still thirst for knowledge every day.  It is both sad an inexplicable to me that anyone doesn't want to learn or doesn't want to work to learn.  Our graduation rate is truly pathetic, and it is the path to our ruin.

I also hope to see something come of healthcare reform.  I work for one of the largest companies in the world, and my healthcare sucks compared to what it was 5 years ago.  I don't think government is necessarily the answer, but it's damn clear that neither is private industry.  Maybe if they do actually work together, we can figure out a way to let those who work have healthcare that doesn't make them afraid to use it.

On energy, man, I sure hope we finally do something that thinks beyond the next ten years.  I also hope we do something that DOES think about the next ten years, but we've gotta do more than that.

On the whole, I enjoyed the speech.  Speeches that talk of hope are generally enjoyable to listen to.  I'm gonna go ahead and stay hopeful for tonight anyway.  We'll see how it all goes, but, for right now, a little hope feels kinda good.