Photo by: Abby Bellow
A local Oklahoman found himself attending the State of the Union address last week after a surprise invitation.
Moore Fire Chief Gary Bird was personally invited to sit with the first lady, Michelle Obama, while her husband addressed the nation.
“I was very excited and very blessed to go to the State of the Union address,” Bird said. “Basically, I was told that I was going to represent the policemen, the firemen, the teachers, the military and all the people that responded to the tornado, and to represent the people of the City of Moore.”
The whole trip began just days prior to the State of the Union address, according to Bird.
“Our mayor, Glenn Lewis, called me on Saturday about noon and he said he needed me to write down some phone numbers and call them right away because they needed to talk to me,” Bird said. “So I called them and they told me the first lady wanted to know if I wanted to sit in the box at the address. …we started playing phone tag … It was 4 o’clock Monday afternoon before I even knew when I was going to be leaving and we had to be there Tuesday night.”
Bird was already dodging news stations on his way to the airport.
“After going through security again, they ushered us up into the box and that’s when Mrs. Obama came in and sat down,” Bird said. “They went through the speech and everything, and then after that was over we went downstairs and everyone that was in the box took pictures with the president there.”
Bird was seated next to Kathy Hollowell-Makle, a D.C. teacher that talked down a potential school shooter, and San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee.
“It’s a more than a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Bird said. “Only 24 people sit in that box once a year. And you get to meet so many wonderful people.”
President Barack Obama delivered the State of the Union address on Jan. 28 at the U.S. Capitol in Washington.
“The whole speech is just a package and you kind of have to take it all,” Tyler Parette, junior political science major, said. “It’s designed as a political act. It’s like a theater production and the president – every president, this isn’t specific to Obama – is trying to manipulate the people into walking away from that experience with a positive outlook on their party and specifically their administration.”
The tradition of the State of the Union address is not necessarily one of the most concrete in United States history.
“We didn’t have a State of the Union as we have it today for a better part of our history,” Parette said. “The first two presidents, George Washington and John Adams, did the State of the Union address. But Thomas Jefferson thought it was too much like the king walking into Parliament and saying what the agenda should be, so he quit doing it. He would write a letter to Congress every year and say, ‘Here’s the State of the Union.’ That happened until, I think, Woodrow Wilson in the 1940s. So for 150 years, we didn’t have it.”
The viewership of this year’s State of the Union address hovered around approximately 33.3 million people.
“It’s become a really unifying event for all Americans,” Parette said. “I like comparing it to the Super Bowl because, for me, that’s kind of what it is. You have everyone who’s interested in politics sitting down at one time on one day of the year and they’re all watching the same thing happen.”
Bird achieved national television airtime through proximity to U.S. Army Ranger Sergeant 1st Class Cory Remsburg, who was hit by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan
“I think it is a wonderful opportunity for the Moore fire chief to go to the address,” senior Sarah Harrison said. “It’s something that people don’t really think about. I feel that the fire department is a very underappreciated profession, especially for a fire chief, and to be recognized in that way is such an honor.”
The service that Bird provided Oklahoma during the Moore tornadoes early last year was significant to his career as a fire chief.
“It’s hard to say how May 20 went,” Bird said. “After the fact when you stand back and look at it, it went very well. But when you’re on the inside looking at it, it looks like such a cluster because you’ve just got the feeling it’s not going as smoothly as you wished it would.”
In the midst of tragedy, Bird maintained some sense of order within the chaos of May 20, 2013.
“A lot of great things happened and a lot of tragic things happened, of course,” Bird said. “We lost several people and saw several things that you never ever wish would happen again. But lots of wonderful things happened, too. When you get to thinking how bad the world is and how many bad things go on, tragedy will make you remember there’s a lot of good left in people.”
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