Name: Andrs Felipe Lara

Student Code: 201317425

Section: 04

Beyond the State of the Union, there is a prepared and structured society

Each year the President of the United States gives a speech for all the
Americans in which he shows to the people the current state of the American
society and all the relevant aspects of this. And why not to do this if, as he said,
this is the country with the strongest and most stable economy and society. I think
that all this is related with the different values which are taught since every
American was a child. In this case, two of these values become relevant by their
impact through the speech to the American society: the equality and
egalitarianism and the action and work orientation. These are represented in the
effort from the government, as Obama said, to give the chance to the worker
people to have the same opportunities and assistance because of their sacrifice
they do to trade progress to the nation. With this speech, the president is trying to
persuade all the people to continue doing their stuff in the way the currently do. It
was a chance to tell to the nation and to the whole world that the US is a solid
society with strong and deeply rooted values.

First, during the event, Obama uses many motivational and popular speeches
expressions to convince and illustrate the listeners the way his government tries to

reduce the breach between different classes by reducing or eliminating taxes to the
working families, equal salary payments for the same jobs, giving a high-quality
education for all the children from Pre-K to college. Moreover, the egalitarianism as
a political thought, always tries to show the best way of look for the equality, and
the Americans, as Robert Kohls sais on his essay The values Americans live by,
have a religious background. On the speech, Barack Obama just give the people
the hope they are good citizens and over all, good human beings. In the moment
when he said different things like we secured the freedom in every state to
marry the person we love and We agree that real opportunity requires every
American to get the education and training they need to land a good-paying job
the US and beyond saw the progress of a society who has evolved from a racist
and classist one to an inclusive and equal.

On the other hand, there is a remarkable fact about the formation of

Americans which implies the preparation to a nationalist effort lifestyle. Kohls also
says that it is commonly used the expression Dont just stand there, do something
and it is related with the fact that people should not waste their time. Obama said
something so specific during his speech which can show the power of the action
and work value in the US society: Sixty years ago, when the Russians beat us into
space, we didn't deny Sputnik was up there. We didn't argue about the science, or
shrink our research and development budget. We built a space program almost
overnight, and twelve years later, we were walking on the moon. With comments
like this, all the Americans may feel motivated and actually, improve their quality of

work and the way they live just to continue bringing to the nation the progress and
advance they need to show to the world and to keep being strong and stable.
Definitely, the American mental structure is different in comparison with the
rest of the societies (as could be expected with each one of them), but primarily in
the structure related with work and economical development, this group of people
has an incredible sense of nationalism. It is reasonable because the state do a lot
of things to secure an appropriate lifestyle to all of his citizens. The DNA of the
americans has an important part: the spirit of discovery and progress as Obama
said. Surely it is not their DNA, they just grew in an environment which cultivate
themselves in an ethical practice of their musts as part of a state. Edison, Wright
Brothers and George Washington are such examples of an exceptional citizenship
and hard work for the national progress and recognizement around the world.
So, in the State of the Union I can see the abstract of many of the american
values described by Kohls in his text, but specifically the equity and egalitarianism
and action and work ones are mainly dealed with because of their huge application
in the daily life of an american citizen. A man who looks for equity in his social
society and also do his best on his work for his nation can be considered as
relevant and important in his society. It does not matter if is on the top or the
bottom of the social scale, this is important because of his role in the society.
Finally, if we all would think like americans, many of the societies probably were
not backward, with poverty or with bad governments. The social customs and the
way we grow become important elements in the difference between advance or
standstill.