Every year (more or less — there are plenty of exceptions), the President of the United States gives a little speech to Congress (and anyone else who might be listening or watching). They call it the “State of the Union”.

And yes, the State of the Union addresses are usually pretty boring. OK, if you’ve missed all of the administration’s rhetoric since the last one, it may be a good chance to catch up. Otherwise, they’re generally like ‘hey there, we’ve got some serious problems but we’re in this together and things are either starting to look better, or going to start to look better real soon.’

Last year when I was listening to the State of the Union address I was with my father who was laid out flat on his back with an injury, that according to the doctors, was going to be take at least 24 months before he would be able to get back to work. He was devastated as was I. I remember looking up online about how to apply for social security disability benefits. Obviously my father was a perfect candidate, or so we thought. He seemed to meet all the requirements for social security disability benefits, but his application was rejected. I’m still not sure whether I filed it improperly or we didn’t make a strong enough case. Well to make a long tedious story shorter, I did another online search, this time for ssd attorneys who could help guide my father through the appeals hearing before an Administrative Law Judge. Well it worked out. His application was finally approved after his social security disability lawyer filed additional papers and prepped my father for his day in court. My father, who is now in rehab and can actually sit upright for about three hours a day without any pain, and I listened to this year’s State of the Union address in a slightly better state of spirits. My father is ever so slowly improving and he is receiving some monies that have been very helpful. Perhaps at next year’s State of the Union address he will be totally recovered and working again.

It wasn’t always that way. George Washington delivered the first State of the Union, though it was written instead of spoken, and it was called the “Speech of the President of the United States to Both Houses of Congress”.

We will discuss some of the finer details of this in the pages to follow. You will come across some important information many people don’t know about. It is interesting to think about some of these things remember to consider the events that must have occurred leading up to these historical events.