State of the City Address

Andrea Steele

JMC414

02.17.15

State of the City Address

            Inside of City Hall, Mayor Steve Williams stood in front of members of the town and presented his State of the City Address.

            Though the snow may have kept some away from attending, involved members of the community still came out and attended the speech Tuesday.

            The mayor began by discussing the projects that have been going on since the last SOTCA. In September, the first phase of the demolition of Northcott was completed and the moving those who lived there throughout residential areas in the city is being set into motion.

            Other developments in the area were set in motion earlier in the year, such as the West Virginia Broadband Deployment Counsel and the effort of deploying high-speed broadband in sections of our city.

            During the mayor’s last speech, his final words were, “Behold, we are here to do a new thing. It’s been a long time coming, but I know change is going to come.” Now, change is happening in Huntington and continuing to happen. As we embrace these changes, we embrace a new way of life in this city. “A new way, a new direction, a new path,” the mayor said.

            As predicted, the mayor said that the city would be focusing on the four major projects in Huntington as well as the decrease in our cities budget. The city will continue to recreate the aesthetics of Hall Greer Boulevard by removing Northcott Court, moving the residents throughout Huntington and bringing more business to the area.

            The mayor said the project is estimated to be completed over a six-10 year period, however there are stipulations to the project. The biggest issue, the mayor said, is the drug issue we face in Huntington. With this, the Mayor’s Office of Drug Control Policy is working with the fire department and community leaders to assess the steps to be taken to resolve this issue.

            According to the mayor, there have been 87 overdoses since January 1. “We had 87 missed opportunities to save a person’s life,” the mayor said.  The issue is an ongoing battle in our community that the mayor hopes to resolve.

            The mayor concluded his speech with saying the ambition of this city is great. “We have enormous opportunity before us. The projects that I have outlined are substantial in scope. What will the state of city affairs look like in 2065? What will people walking down the hall of this building during the 200^th anniversary of the construction of this temple of public policy be contemplating?”

            The goal for the city is change and transformation, and that’s what the mayor hopes to see happen, “it’s been a long time coming, but the change has finally come.”

           

State of the City Predictions

Andrea Steele

JMC414

State of the City Address Predictions

02/17/15

            In a classroom inside of Smith Hall, Marshall University students come to class to meet and greet personally with the Mayor of Huntington.

            Mayor Steve Williams came to JMC414, a public affairs reporting class, Wednesday, February 11 to give some insight to students as to what his State of the City speech would consist of.

            Students came prepared with questions to ask the mayor and the mayor gave a further look into what his speech would entail.

            The basic outline of his speech will follow a similar pattern of his speech from two years ago because, according to the mayor, the plans should remain consistent when following through with a long-term project.

            With all the recent construction around Huntington, the mayor will explain the future plans for the city. Continuing with the current projects around the city, the mayor said there are still four main undertakings going on. These projects consist of continuing to update the city through reconstruction, tearing down and building throughout the city. These projects are: the ACF property, which is from Marshall University’s campus to the Highlawn area, working with Frontier Communications and the America’s Best Community Competition, cleaning up Huntington and the moving of the Northcott low-income housing and lastly, bringing broadband and the “virtual ribbon” to Huntington to connect the city better.

            The mayor will also discuss Huntington’s budget and the decrease of 5% and where it’s coming from. Mayor Williams did say that there will be no layoffs and that the 5% decrease was predicted.

            Other issues that will most likely be brought up during his speech will be the storm water problems and fixing the streets of Huntington.

            The mayor finished by stating that he feels the city is strong and vibrant.

JMC 414: Wednesday, Feb. 4 assignment

Andrea Steele

02/04/15

“I Have a Dream,” August 28, 1963.

“We shall overcome, we shall overcome, we shall overcome someday,” were the words that echoed through the air, flowing out of the mouths of over 200,000 people as they marched to the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to hear to the dream of one man.

Americans – both black and white – standing behind Civil Rights, stood shoulder-to-shoulder Wednesday to listen to the powerful words spoken by a passionate Baptist minister from Atlanta, GA.

Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. has a dream. That dream is for blacks and whites to one day be seen as equals, for his children to one day in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin.

“1963 is not an end, just the beginning,” King said. It’s been over one hundred years since Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing the slaves who were in the 10 remaining states in rebellion.

“But 100 years later, the Negro still is not free,” King said. “One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.”

 King passionately proclaimed his dream for all listening, in hopes that they too might share in this vision: the vision that this will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning, “My Country ‘Tis of Thee.”

Let freedom ring.

State of the Union Predictions, 2015.

With the upcoming State of the Union Address, many American citizens have their own ideas and speculations as to what the president will be speaking on.
Personally, I believe he will spend most of his time addressing the four E's: Education, Equality, Environment, and Economy.

Higher education has always been a hot topic in politics. Keeping education affordable so that more jobs will be available and people will be adequately trained for the jobs is a key plan in any politicians platform, so of course Obama will touch on the issue of the cost of higher education, how we can make it more affordable and also his dream of one day it being free.

With many States around the US continuing to open up their minds and overturn old rules when it comes to marriage, Obama will surely address the issue of equality. Gays, lesbians, transponders - equal rights for all. Not only for the LGBT community, but also equal rights for women and all races.

I think that Obama will approach the topic that has been in the media for years now: the idea of climate change and protecting our environment. There are many steps we can take as a Nation to better our environment, even small steps in our local community. It is important that Americans are brought to an awareness of how the way we live affects the world and if we don't do something to change it, it will be too late.

Lastly, Obama will talk about our economy. There's the economy in the big picture, and there's our local economy. The economy as a whole can't get stronger until cities band together to strengthen the local economies around our country.

Besides the four E's, Obama will most likely talk about the issues in the middle-east, as well.

These are my 2015 State of the Union Address predictions.

State of The Union Address: Prediction Outcomes

Andrea Steele

JMC 414

Recap: State of the Union Address 2015

After looking back on my personal predictions of main issues that would be presented in President Barak Obama’s 6^th State Of the Union Address, I was pleased to see that I was at least half correct. While my predictions weren’t on point, I had a general idea of the things he would be discussing in this years address.

Education, Economy and Environment are usually the three big topics on the president’s list for his State Of the Union Address. These weren’t the only subjects he addressed, of course, he also spoke on immigration and National Security, two other large issues I predicted him speaking on.

I wasn’t sure of the exact emphasis in each topic that he would discuss, but I knew the general ideas in his speech. Education has always seemed to be an important issue for the president and I knew this would be a subject that he addressed.

While I had predicted the president discussing education, I had not foreseen exactly which area of education he would focus on. This SOTU, he primarily directed his focus on college and higher education. With more people attending to college and furthering their skills, Obama believes that we will be able to continue creating higher wage jobs.

With the continual rise in the economy, President Obama discussed solutions to families making ends meet with higher wages. I assumed he would examine this issue during his speech, however, I did not know how well he would tie in the economy with education. He smoothly brought both issues together to create a visible solution: higher education = higher wages.

From higher education and higher wages, the president also discussed the higher temperatures. I had hoped that the president would bring up the concern of the climate changes, and he did – quite well, actually.

Lastly, the president spoke a lot on equality throughout the entirety of his SOTU address. Especially being the day after we remember the great Martin Luther King Jr., the reminder to American people that we are one people was greatly needed. I greatly appreciated the presidents’ final words on agreeing to disagree on certain issues. Rather than looking on the Brightside, such as teen pregnancies and abortions nearing all-time lows, people continue to fight about who is right and who is wrong on issues such as these.

So looking back, I predicted the gist of what would be discussed. However, if I better followed politics, I think I would have done a better job at attempting to foresee the issues he would choose to bring up.

Of course, there were two things that I did foresee: first being the very put-together Michelle Obama. She is the Jackie O. of her day. The second being the president incorporating his wit as he neared the end of his speech when he stated: “I have no more campaigns to run. I know because I won both of them.”

Photo bombing.

While at the ceremony for the plane crash last thursday, I noticed a plethora of photographers that were not associated with any type of media.
Photography is becoming a problem.
People assume because they have a "professional" camera means they can go wherever, whenever and take photos.
However, this is not true.
It's distracting enough having four or five photographers running around from actual papers, taking photos for their jobs.
Then you add about 15 more photographers jumping into shots and walking in front of people there to remember those lost, and you have utter chaos.
How disrespectful were those who ran around during a moment of silence, or in the middle of someones speech?
Marshall needs to work on keeping better control somehow of only allowing media to be taking photos during ceremonies during events, especially one as important as this one, so it doesn't look like a rodeo.
One of the football players even commented that while they were watching the lifestream their view was obstructed by the mass amount of photographers gathering around the fountain to shoot those placing the roses.
It was a bit out of control. It's sad that people lack enough common sense to realize how inappropriate that was.

Does time stand still?

A famous quote associated with the plane crash of Nov. 1970 is "time stands still." 

Does it?

43 years later, our community still comes together to honor those perished. 

However, on the campus of Marshall University that was so affected by the crash 43 years ago, classes still go on. Shops are still open on campus and around campus.

Why can't our town stand still for one day?

Would it hurt businesses so much to take part in remembering for one day by shutting down business.

What if our town actually stood still?

Professor's not from around the area have a small idea of why we do what we do on Nov. 14 every year. They won't cancel class. They won't take a moment of silence.

It wouldn't be difficult for our student body to come together and show Marshall that we want to truly stand still.

Why is the ceremony not a university excused absence?

Marshall University needs to stand still on this day.

Maybe next year, if enough students come tougher with this same passion we can truly be a town where time stands still.