“The state of our union is good” if you are talking about the recent Super Bowl. Not so good if you watched the action recently in the House of Representatives.
How can things “be good” when the President won’t shake the hand of the Speaker and she responds by ripping up his speech?
Whether you are a Republican or a Democrat this was a sad spectacle to behold.
On the other hand, at the Super Bowl, World War II veterans made the honorary coin-toss to start the game, America the Beautiful and the Star-Spangled Banner were sung, and then we were treated to one of the best football games ever. It was a battle between a mid-America team, Kansas City, and a west coast urban team, San Francisco.
Yet, nobody was shouting “coastal elites” or “mid-west rednecks!” Nobody cared about the Republicans vs. the Democrats. All in the stadium (and millions on TV) were experiencing America as it is and, in the process, enjoying each other.
There was NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell sitting next to an African-American player’s union representative. There was Coach Andy Reid being hugged by his black and white players after an incredible come-back victory. The game was a pure American slugfest followed by a hug-fest.
I didn’t particularly like the half-time show which I thought was a bit bawdy and risqué. Yet, some of the younger, female members of our family viewed it as a Latino, female affirmation for women. But, in any event, nobody was arguing the politics of it.
I can remember when black Americans were not allowed as students at universities in Mississippi and Alabama. Now, college football teams in the South are often, in racial make-up, more black than white. I can remember when it was illegal in some states for people of opposite races to marry… it was called “miscegenation.” This year the MVP of the Super Bowl came from a mixed-race family.
This is the America we have become, and it is something to celebrate. In our diversity, the “state of the union” is good.
Maybe it takes a good football game, like this year’s Super Bowl, to wake us up a bit. We are a better country than our current politics would indicate. We can compete, be different and still get along.
We will find our way through all of this. There is light at the end of the tunnel. Maybe it takes a football game to show us that there is even light in the tunnel.
Rolland Kidder
