Less than perfect

Editorial

America is working again, declared President Bill Clinton in his State of the Union Address, as he paraded before the American people an exhaustive inventory of accomplishments during his administration. Unemployment is down. Violent crime is down. The budget is balanced.

The president addressed the nation on the evening of a day on which his attorneys began their opening arguments in his impeachment trial. Only in America, the late pundit Harry Golden would have said. Only in America would our democratic system of government keep on working, even as a body of elected officials considers ousting our highest elected official.

The congressional chamber was packed Tuesday evening, and millions more Americans tuned in to hear Clinton's address. Yet there surely was as much interest in the state of the presidency as in the state of the union. Many probably watched the address because they throught Clinton might mention the impeachment. Rather, what came through loud and clear was the underlying message that the business of government continues.

Clinton articulated a vision of America for the next century. He touched on matters of immediate concern - Social Security, education, crime, hate, the environment - while exhorting citizens to look beyond today to the future. Politics, yes. But politics grounded in real issues. Case in point: While Clinton's call for national hate crimes legislation may receive no more than a gratuitous nod from lawmakers, it makes an important statement about how we as a nation should treat one another. We need to look only as far as the Rev. Jerry Falwell's stunning recent claim that a Jewish "Antichrist" likely walks among us, to know that the propensity for misunderstanding and hate remains alive in our nation.

As the president urged the American people to continue to work for "a more perfect union," he embodied the essence of our nation - a nation where even given less than perfect leaders, and a less than perfect union, our lives, individually and as a people, move on.

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