With full faith in the power of collective human ingenuity and grace, my optimism abounds. The State of the Union is teeming with that same optimism, and we should always celebrating our achievements, small and wondrous. But dosed with reminders of the shortfalls and deep seated problems that still ail our country, the #SOTU is made sincere, as we show off our bona fides with humility.

To admit that while we’re investing in the strongest military to protect our people, interests, and values, our defense contractors are outputting defective F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, and our greatest commercial aircraft manufacturer has much work to do to keep the magic of flying safe.

Admit that while we are able to offer life changing scholarships to our youngest achievers, there is a broad scourge of ignorance and underachievement in our school systems, and their custodians are responsible. They need to work together to move our culture and methods in education to their greatest heights.

While criminal justice reform is rightfully a subject of national attention and the work is being done, we need to double down on our efforts. There are far too many for whom tonight’s sleep in a cell, for a non-violent crime, is another of far too many.

While a strong border policy is one part of improving and preserving healthy communities, the future of America is comprised of those that are here today and those yet to come. The conditions we are subjecting our asylum seekers today should bother us greatly, and we need to raise them to a higher standard of care. We need to train our professionals up, down, and across the large enterprise of immigration management, to reunite and support those that will carry the American spirit forth. But the solution for us all is beyond that, it calls upon our office, and its agents at the frontiers of foreign diplomacy and aid, to help Mexico and the nations of Central America in every way possible, to improve the quality of life for their people at home.

While we are ensuring the most efficient and high quality medical care anyone can get in the world, there are communities for whom that quality is out of reach, and there is an enormous amount of work to do to make the costs simply understandable, and certainly payable, by all families, no matter their economic stature…

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…America is a place where anything is possible, just look at me here. And we don’t know if it’s just begun, but there are a ton of improvements still to be made. We can only make it if the people can forgive my failures, be less divided along the lines too oft exploited for political gain, and work together on what we can all agree on, while accepting partial wins where compromise can be found.