It’s time to get an accurate State of the Union.

Watch video of speech here: https://www.canva.com/design/DAGk-2xdTWI/II4jiHefGjpTNsuPdiggLQ/edit?utm_content=DAGk-2xdTWI&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton

Transcript:

We are living in strange times, ladies and gentlemen.

Though, I suppose it always is strange, and time does persist. Perhaps our generation, as no exception, and our exception, as no generation, insists that our period of living is most unusual to the last.

Which, of course, is not wrong, but also not nuanced. Every moment is different from the last, and every second hurdles our posterity into a reality not recognizable within a decade. Thus is existence.

Right.

We here apologize for the abstract introduction. Let’s rephrase this, shall we? 

It is time to address the State of the Union through the union of the state; let’s put aside our partisan blinders for a second. 

This is not to stray from controversy, to evade public consequence.

Rather, -and bear with me for a moment- this is to achieve truth. We set aside not our differences, but our anger. Not our perspective, but our muffled reality. 

We must put aside our attachment to sight to conceptualize a vision. We must further listen to birth an understanding. The whispers of revolution fall not on deaf ears. And echo chambers are indeed deafening.

Echo chambers?

Echo chambers. Echo chambers. Echo chambers. 

We can account quite a bit of this to social media, I suppose. After all, it takes nearly all the blame, and points nearly all the fingers. When we sell outrage, it is important to keep posted.

It is no longer is a joke, however, no SNL exaggeration. We no longer post about political topics alone, standing alone, actual politics are conducted over the comment section. Group chats are the breeding grounds of national security.

What a way to reach out to the youths!

Though I will admit, I think this method acting is going a bit far. Stubborn and obstinate, our political polarization perfectly parallels the perception of adolescence. 

If we are receiving so much representation, why do we feel unheard?

Maybe if we looked up from our phones- oh, sorry. 

Sorry. Maybe if we looked up to our phones. Well, no, that wasn’t it. Whatever. Let’s move on.

Our attention spans, as a nation, are astounding. We scroll over a video that asks for more than half a minute of our time. Heaven forbid we make a decision from four years of content. Who has that kind of time? Who has that kind of energy?

Not high school students, we can promise that much. No, instead, let the burden of the informed fall upon the shoulders of parents. Authority has generally not driven us wrong. Okay, that was cliche and overly satirical, I apologize. 

Because, even as I criticize, as we criticize, I am just as complicit to misinformation. I am just fine not knowing the affairs of the world. In the center of liberty, you can drown out the reality of the globe with the flateline of white noise.

(Pulls out phone again)- Hm- Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift are seeking more privacy! I should form an opinion on that.

Anyway, back to the speech. I find it hard to make eye contact without a camera. We find it hard to sit still without dances being performed in front of us. As the world turns, we spin in disbelief.

But we must believe, I promise that there is light, right? Polarization captured in a polaroid requires a flash of impossibly bright existence. The only issue is, gaslighting captures a different hue on camera, and cannot at all transcend dark haze in text. 

In the name of protective isolation, names are thrown around our White House far more than our high schools. Why spend the emotional energy making fun of someone, when you can capture a few more minutes of screen time? 

It just happens that in our current government system, these principles are concurrent. And their principles don’t answer to a principal, and no prince or fool will ever be represented as such, because every man that steps into the White House is a savior or a devil.

Either way, we give them too much credit. We hand over our power, insisting we don’t matter, because the “powers that be” spin in a clockwork unchangeable and mysterious. Mysterious and important, we sever ourselves from responsibility-like that.

And, I mean. It makes sense, right? Let’s transition to the colloquial here. Like, we low-key have not been given a reason to feel our own power. And even if we did matter, what is there to it? Have we been properly equipped? 

And we hate partisan politics! Oh my gosh, do we hate them! Well, we hate them, whoever they may be to you. Whoever that may be to you, I agree, and I hate them, too. Hate does exist best, afterall, in ambiguity. 

Listen, it’s not like we live in 1984. We have access to advanced technological platforms, so our Two Minutes of Hate looks more like 2 hours, if your hate has a screen limit.

Let’s call for an acceptance, a tolerance, a love for all individuals.

{noise from crowd- “You suck!”}

Hey, forget you, you can bring yourself and your president away from this country!

Ooh- sorry. Where was I? Right. Tolerance. We need and seek tolerance, it should spread like cancer, and preach like a priest. Or, whatever nondenominational authority figure you align yourself with.

Okay, forget this. I’m sorry. A state of the Union is a cute idea, sure, but there is no Congress to follow our demands. Only the government that demands our follows. Sharing has no impact other than a Youtube uptick, and, I don’t know. What are we fighting for?

Well, no. No, there is hope. There is hope and we must insist upon it. There is hope and we must insist upon it because it is real, and it is important, and it is is true. There is hope and we must insist upon it because it it real, and it is important, and it is true.

Because while we exist in hypocrisy as we complain, we also exist in virtue as we make mistakes. As we fall into the snare of hate, we acknowledge a misdirected passion. We can do so much, we just need focus, and we need hope, because it is real, it is important, and it is true. 

How could we turn our backs on a world that’s light balances its shadow? 

Our good graces acknowledge our angels and demons alike, and we thank them for the stay. High school has accentuated this virtue within us, demanded our best, and defied our worse. In the smiles of our peers, and fruition of our work, our school serves as a critical microcosm: if we can unify here, we can unify “out there.”

We am not quite sure, most of the time, what “out there” is. To us, it is a sort of shifting, amorphous prose, reciting a dialect familiar, and constantly out of reach, our world intangible. 

There are times we take in the world in fragments; view morality through a relative filter. We pick and choose our hopes and dependencies carefully, eyes gliding scrutinizingly along a conveyor belt. 

At times, we take in the world as a whole, wishing to experience every inch and crevice, every nook and precipice. We do our very best imitation of an “I Love Lucy” sketch, shuffling life into our willing vessels, and forgetting, as we so often do, to savor in the face of a daunting quantity.

There are times when we believe in it all. In humanity. In our hope, our unification. There are times when this edification is overwhelming, when we are empowered, when the scales of mercy balance those with righteous justice. When the world is right. There are times when we believe in it all.

As the sword of Damocles does swing, however, as do heads roll. There are times when we believe in nothing at all. A cynic’s realism settles along a lolled hill. There are times we care about this lack. There are times we don’t. There are times we don’t care that we believe in nothing at all. 

How do we exist in this duality?

Let me rephrase that. As we exist, we exist in duality. This congruency is no exception, the geometry of our mortality spins lucid metaphors. 

Rather, how do we exist?

How do we persist, despite this seeming contradiction? How do we battle in spite of ourselves, through only ourselves? How do we respect the power of the battalion and trust only the individual?

Only we can answer that question. We can only answer if we listen. Are you listening?

We are living in strange times, ladies and gentlemen.