My Thoughts On President Obama's First Address to Congress

Last night I was listening to the President of the United States of America and a since of pride came over me. In these grim times he gave us hope as a nation. One of the things that I have had concerns about is the status of our banking system. With our largest banks freezing credit it looks as though things are going to go from bad to worse. President Obama impressed me when he said he would no longer allow CEO’s to pad their paychecks, buy fancy drapes and disappear on private jets. No longer are we going to look the other way. You may ask yourself, what actually is naturalization? Let me do my best to explain.

Naturalization is when the government steps in and takes complete ownership of something; in this case it would be the big banks. The government will take ownership, become the CEO of those banks, run them for a few years and return them to the people when they become stable and began to return a profit. If this is to happen I suggest to those that own stock in those banks to sell, because if and when the government take over you will lose whatever percentage you have.

The Wall Street Journal has just reported that U.S. Federal reserve chairman, Ben Bernanke stating that the president has no intention of naturalizing the banks. When asked about Citigroup, Bernanke is quoted as saying, "It may be the case that the government will have a substantial minority share in Citi or other banks, but again we have the tools... to make sure that we get the good results we want in terms of improved performance"

This should come as good news to all of us. What scares most people about naturalization is the unknown such as, where does it stop? Mr. Bernanke added that we have the tools to make sure those banks are behaving in a way that is good for business in terms of long-term viability but while also supporting the economy in terms of lending going forward. The president is hoping that his economic plan will ensure the nation’s largest banks have the capital they need to meet the needs of their customers.

The Obama administration is giving the larger banks six months to raise the capital they need to do business as usual; if for some reason or another they can not raise the funds the government will step forward and purchase a minority share providing the big banking industry the capital needed to survive.

Another thing that impressed me last night was when President Obama mentioned in his address to congress the state of our nation’s schools. Dropping out of high school is not just quitting on yourself, it’s quitting on your country. I believe this is possibly the only thing said that everyone in the room could agree upon. The icing on the cake was when the little girl was introduced that goes to school near the rail road tracks where the teachers have to stop teaching whenever the train comes through because the school shakes. They were told there is no hope for their school, so she went to the library and typed out a letter, asking her principal for money for a stamp to mail her congressional representatives to ask for help. In her letter she stated, “We are just students trying to become lawyers, doctors, congressmen like yourself and one day president, so we can make a change to not just the state of South Carolina but also the world. We are not quitters.”

Americans are a unique breed of people. We are a nation made up of everyone. We must again become the leaders of the world. We can only achieve this through our education system. We must have the best teachers and students in the world. We should lead the world through advance technologies. Two areas I believe we should lead are in creating and preserving new forms of energy and becoming the nation to find cures for all forms of cancer, a disease which has touched everyone’s life.

Last, but not least, President Obama thanked our service men and women. He assured us that we would not standby and allow terrorist to plot against Americans from half a world away. The closing of Guantanamo Bay is a statement that resounds loud and clear to me, America does not torture.

Finally, as I said before, I was impressed by President Obama. With his approval rating being that as it is I can confidently say that America is also impressed. It appears to me that he is hard at work overseeing nearly every issue facing this nation today. For those that feel he’s not doing a good job, I say this to you. Give him time; it takes time to get used to job he’s been elected to. As he has said himself, it didn’t really hit him that he was president of the United States of America until he had to sign the letters to the families of men and women that gave their lives fighting, protecting and serving this country. Pray for our country, keep the faith, and never give up. We are not quitters.