The American
On their appointed days members on both sides of the Atlantic come together in a joint session. Standing room only affairs, care is still taken to assign places in a clear order of priority and distance from the ‘throne’. Americans prefer a gladhanding entrance of the President through the crowded chamber while the Brits arrive to find an already seated Queen, but it amounts to the same thing as the President and the Queen announce the priorities for his administration and Her Majesty’s Government respectively. There is also a common tradition of a rebuttal. In stark contrast to the British custom, the Americans have deemed it necessary to guard against disaster with a ‘designated survivor’ amongst the Cabinet. Since 2001 and real disaster, some members of Congress have been added to this list and asked to go to undisclosed locations. Another peculiarly American tradition is the ‘Lenny Skutnik’ seat. Since 1982 when President Reagan invited Mr Skutnik to be recognized
from the galturing, clean lery – in his energy, infracase for his structure and heroism in education.’ the wake of There an airplane was a focus crash – on domestic Presidents have economics as used this ‘call out’ well as the obligaPA RLI RIS tory peroration on the as an opportunity AM AR H ENTA R RY COPYRIGHT / ROGE to bring attention to importance of a strong an issue – as well as a photo defense blended with a desire for opportunity. peace. Education, tax and immigraSo what did second term Presition were specifics at the top of this dent Obama say as he followed in President’s agenda as well as the these hallowed footsteps? Nothing age-old desire to work with all colvery new – as it turns out. President leagues to make progress. Washington could just as easily have Former Presidents did not have said: ‘Together, we have cleared nuclear power – or nuclear weapons away the rubble of crisis and we can – to contend with, but their lists of say with renewed confidence that priorities cast long shadows down the State of our Union is stronger.’ the centuries, even as modernizaThere would not be a cigarette tion anchors each innovation to a paper’s distance between Presidents specific time and place. However, 1 through 43 and 44’s call to make there is no doubt there could be no the United States a ‘magnet for jobs dissenting voice from the President’s and manufacturing’ and ‘equip every assertion that, ‘It is my task to report American with the skills they need… the State of the Union. To improve it through investments in manufacis the task of us all.’ H
The “Quintessential Mayor” Edward Irving “Ed” Koch
American city above all else in his life, perhaps even his own heart. Driven by his fierce love of a place that is edgy and arrogant; loyal and protective, whose heart beats with the melting pot of American culture, he often declared he was not the sort of person who got ulcers. He gave them to other people by always saying exactly what he thought. It is the fate of a high profile politician to have many post-mortems on the successes and failures of a lifetime in the public eye. And no harsher public eye exists than those of his beloved constituents in the Big Apple. Now that Mayor Koch has
December 12, 1924 – February 1, 2013
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t sounds like the start of a joke: “There’s this Polish Jew from New Jersey. He goes to his Rabbi – he says: ‘Rabbi – I want to be buried in a fancy Episcopal churchyard in a Puerto Rican neighborhood in Manhattan.’ His rabbi says…” We can only imagine what his Rabbi might have said, but a joke it certainly wasn’t. Mayor Koch’s story is that of an extraordinary man who put the ‘quintessentially’
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been laid to rest, doubtless the ‘real’ stories will emerge – but to most he will remain the man brave enough to never stop asking, “How am I doin’?” – and really listen to the answer. Ed Koch: warrior, lawyer, politician – campaigner for civil rights and Israel – as sharp an observer of movies as he was of life. The star studded crowd of old friends and old enemies – often the same people – laughed and clapped and cried, and agreed there was no better salute to the man than a rousing chorus of New York, New York and to be carried straight into the quintessential New York compliment: a traffic jam as far as the eye could see. H