State of the Union Address – Grand finale.

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(ThyBlackMan.com) Grand finale is defined as “a very exciting or impressive ending of a performance.”

Last Tuesday night, President Barack Hussein Obama gave his final State of the Union address. This was his farewell discourse to Congress:

“Tonight marks the eighth year I’ve come here to report on the State of the Union.

But for my final address to this chamber, I don’t want to talk just about the next year. I want to focus on the next five years, ten years, and beyond.

“Let me start with the economy, and a basic fact: the United States of America, right now, has the strongest, most durable economy in the world. We’re in the middle of the longest streak of private-sector job creation in history. More than 14 million new jobs; the strongest two years of job growth since the ’90s; an unemployment rate cut in half. Our auto industry just had its best year ever. Manufacturing presidential seal has created nearly 900,000 new jobs in the past six years. And we’ve done all this while cutting our deficits by almost three-quarters.

Anyone claiming that America’s economy is in decline is peddling fiction. For the past seven years, our goal has been a growing economy that works better for everybody. We’ve made progress. But we need to make more. And despite all the political arguments we’ve had these past few years, there are some areas where Americans broadly agree.

“We agree that real opportunity requires every American to get the education and training they need to land a good-paying job. And we have to make college affordable for every American. That’s why Social Security and Medicare are more important than ever; we shouldn’t weaken them, we should strengthen them. And for Americans short of retirement, basic benefits should be just as mobile as everything else is today. That’s what the Affordable Care Act is all about. Nearly eighteen million have gained coverage so far. And our businesses have created jobs every single month since it became law.

“I believe a thriving private sector is the lifeblood of our economy. I think there are outdated regulations that need to be changed, and there’s red tape that needs to be cut. But we can do so much more. Last year, Vice President Biden said that with a new moonshot, America can cure cancer. Tonight, I’m announcing a new national effort to get it done. I’m putting Joe in charge of Mission Control. For the loved ones we’ve all lost, for the family we can still save, let’s make America the country that cures cancer once and for all.

“We need to reject any politics that targets people because of race or religion. This isn’t a matter of political correctness. It’s a matter of understanding what makes us strong. “We the People.” Our Constitution begins with those three simple words, words we’ve come to recognize mean all the people, not just some; words that insist we rise and fall together. But it will only happen if we work together. It will only happen if we can have rational, constructive debates. It will only happen if we fix our politics. A better politics doesn’t mean we have to agree on everything. Our Founders distributed power between states and branches of government, and expected us to argue, just as they did… (but) it doesn’t work if we think the people who disagree with us are all motivated by malice, or that our political opponents are unpatriotic.

“Too many Americans feel that way right now. It’s one of the few regrets of my presidency?—?that the rancor and suspicion between the parties has gotten worse instead of better. There’s no doubt a president with the gifts of Lincoln or Roosevelt might have better bridged the divide, and I guarantee I’ll keep trying to be better so long as I hold this office. What I’m asking for is hard.

“So, my fellow Americans, whatever you may believe, whether you prefer one party or no party, our collective future depends on your willingness to uphold your obligations as a citizen. To vote. To speak out. To stand up for others, especially the weak, especially the vulnerable, knowing that each of us is only here because somebody, somewhere, stood up for us.

“That’s the America I know. That’s the country we love. Clear-eyed. Big-hearted. Optimistic that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word. That’s what makes me so hopeful about our future. I believe in you. That’s why I stand here confident that the State of our Union is strong.”

How brilliant of the president – to invoke a phrase made famous by the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. – “unarmed truth and unconditional love.” Better angels, indeed.

Love him or not, it cannot be denied that he is a consequential president. As the first African-American to hold our highest office, he will always matter. Happy Birthday, Dr. King. And thank you, President Obama. I wish you Godspeed throughout your grand finale.

Staff Writer; Arthur L. Jones, III

This talented brother is a local Minister, weekly featured Democratic Op-Ed columnist, non-profit advisor, and sees the Braves winning it all this fall. Rev. Jones welcomes your comments! Please email him directly at: tcdppress@gmail.com.

James Davis says:

January 17, 2016 at 8:17 pm

With All Due Respect This President Needs To Step-up And Do The Right Thing For Black America!

Whatever this president has accomplished is now obscured by the condition the African American people find themselves today. This point is being hammered home to you because now Black America is facing a “second recession” in less than ten years. Knowing the true AA unemployment rate which is 18 percent becomes even more critical and makes a difference, as this rate will average higher in the coming weeks and months. It makes a big difference that you know your true unemployment rate when you stand up and protest for jobs, as we will have to, as this second recession clamps down on African American people and neighborhoods. This recession coming so soon after The 2008 Great Recession which the black community has yet to recover from will literally affect AA households in the worst ways imaginable.

This president came into office understating the African American unemployment rate, and indeed the national unemployment rate. What is a litmus test of quality leadership of any leader is whether he has put those who heavily supported his election to office in a more positive position than they were when he entered office. In other words, are black people better off, than they were before he entered office. Overall, I would suggest that they aren’t. Healthcare is an area where there might be an exception to this. Otherwise the State of Black America is bleak.

The major reason for this bleakness can be in part due to this president understating the unemployment rates for political gain. Understating the unemployment rates damages African Americans way more than it damages whites or any other worker groups simply because the black unemployment rate is so much higher than any other worker group. The true unemployment rate currently puts blacks at 18 percent, just 7 percent shy of 25 percent which was the rate declared by the nation in the 1930’s to be not a Great Recession for the nation but a Great Depression! If this President wanted to do one single thing that would help African Americans more than anything else, it would be… instruct his Secretary of Labor through the Bureau of Labor Statistics to dump the changes Bill Clinton made in counting the unemployed and go back to counting the unemployed the way it was done before Clinton.

The true rate of national unemployment is 9.9 percent as stated by the u-6 category ( http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t15.htm ), which counts those who currently are neither working nor looking for work but indicate that they want and are available for a job and have looked for work sometime in the past 12 months and persons employed part time for economic reasons who want and are available for full-time work but have had to settle for a part-time schedule. You see, if the true rate of national unemployment is 9.9 percent as the u-6 category states, then the African American unemployment rate which is normally almost double that of the national rate is easily 18 percent.

The high unemployment rates are the heavy burden African Americans have been carrying on their backs for almost the last ten years. With the black unemployment rate established at 18 percent, the unemployment rate of our young people, between 17 and 20 years who have done the right things in most instances by studying hard and graduating from high school, is conservatively 50 percent or higher. These youngsters are stressed out and have no clue why they cannot find a decent job as they idly sit around our communities. Chicago, Ferguson and Baltimore are examples.

http://www.thefixthistime.com