By Abigail Connolly

Tues. March 1, President Joe Biden gave the annual State of the Union Address, the first one to occur in person since the beginning of the pandemic. 

This was a historic address, not only for the context of exiting a waning global pandemic, but in the context of the looming Ukraine-Russia conflict. Reports of alterations to Biden’s address came after the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 23. These reports were actualized in the very beginning of the speech as Biden called upon those present to stand if able and in a rare show of bi-partisan cooperation, many members from both sides of the chamber stood and clapped at this announcement. Biden expressed his support of Ukraine by signaling this bipartisan effort. 

“Yes, we the United States if America stands with the Ukrainian people,” Biden said. 

While the State of the Union is traditionally used to address homeland issues across the nation, circumstances have been known to interfere with this plan. Former President Ronald Regan postponed his 1986 address due to the devastating explosion of the NASA Space Shuttle Challenger. Reagan chose to continue to address the nation on that same date but used that time to speak to the American people about resilience and mourn the losses of the seven members of the fatal space mission.  Reagan did not ignore the larger picture. 

Despite some feelings that the address should only be focused on issues at home, Biden did the right thing in addressing this crisis. This is an issue at home. The threat of a NATO attack is closer than comfortable and to ignore such a large scale issue would have been ignorant. The State of the Union is a chance to speak on American ideals, upholding democracy and denouncing its threats are a part of that. 

Photo from Flickr