Walking in the Valley A weekly column for those who live and walk in Silicon Valley by Barbara Dahlgren

State of the Union Column for the week of January 25-31, 2004

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The U.S. Constitution states in Article II, Section III that the president “shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the state of the union and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.” That’s just what President Bush did last week.

George Washington gave the first State of the Union message. Franklin Roosevelt first used the phrase “State of the Union” address. Truman was the first president to give it on TV. Lyndon Johnson was the first to give it in the evening so more people could watch.

Of course everyone approaches the State of the Union message differently. If the president is a Democrat, the Republicans pout and the Democrats clap at every given moment. This year we have a Republican president so the opposite took place.

Some approach it with a grain of salt (and a margarita) when they participate in a variation of the Drinking Game. The Drinking Game was originally designed for the die-hard TV watcher. People would throw a party, watch a certain show, and take a belt every time something was said or done. For example, they’d drink up every time someone said, “Hi Bob!” on the old Bob Newhart Show or “viewers like you” on a PBS Pledge Drive night. Or say you’re watching a football game and someone makes a touchdown. Oh, that could take too long so some just drink every time they see the ball or there’s a commercial.

Drinking games are quite popular as witnessed by "The Complete Book of Beer Drinking Games" (Mustang Publishing, revised 1999). More than 500,000 copies have been sold and it’s in its umpteenth printing. (The Yale educated authors dedicated the book to their parents "for funding four years of research.")

In 2002 two Princeton University seniors, Marc Melzer and Howard Deutsch, took it a step further by inventing the State of the Union Drinking Game. I guess that’s one way to get people to watch and listen! By the time the address is over the State of the Union can look much better than you anticipated. The rules change each year but this year some of the times you could imbibe were when: Iraq was mentioned (17 times), senior citizens or seniors were mentioned (8), a new program was announced (5), applause lasted more than 10 seconds (15), and if the speech finished in less than an hour (1). It lasted 54 minutes but I personally think it would only have been a half an hour if they flashed a big sign saying, “Please hold all applause until the end.”

Some memorable State of the Union messages were Abraham Lincoln’s “Fourscore and seven years ago...” Wait, that was the Gettysburg Address. Well, what about JFK’s “ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country.” Oh wait, that was his inaugural address. We do have Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society message in 1965 and we all know what a success that was. The truth of the matter is unless we are in a time of Great Depression, war, or terrorism crisis most State of the Union messages are the same. If a Republican is president, he pushes the Republican programs; if a Democrat is president, he pushed the Democrat programs. And that, my friends, is called ...politics!

But whether a president be Republican or Democrat the Bible bids us pray for him or her. (I know Hillary will appreciate that when her time comes.) (1 Timothy 2:1-3) That’s not a bad idea. I hate to think of presidents who lead our whole country relying on their own strength or just the backing of a certain political affiliation. After all, they can’t even write a memorable State of the Union address.

Be sure to visit this page every week to read the next edition of Walking in the Valley. You can write to the author at bdahlgren@wcgsouthbay.org.