Can you answer this one question?

[Sunlei]

The White House

In less than two weeks, the President will deliver the State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress.

The State of the Union is a tradition that's as old as the presidency itself -- but here's something we haven't always been able to do:

Ask you, the American people, what you'd like to see come out of it.

We're putting together a special memo ahead of the speech -- one comprised of the voices of Americans from across the country, sharing that one simple but powerful thought.

Change will take work from every single one of us. So after you respond, share what you're willing to do to help see it through.

ADD YOUR VOICE http://www.whitehouse.gov/your-feedback-2015?utm_source=email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=email413-text1&utm_campaign=sotu

Thanks for adding your voice -- we'll be in touch as we get closer to January 20.

Not sure if my email link to the White House will work, anyway the White House DOT Gov. is taking input on webforms and has a list of several current issues the President will focus on his last two years.

[yeoman6987]

1. Well back in the day, the Presidents speech was delivered

to Congress and read there. Due to the media having talking points prior to the speech, is it necessary to air it anymore?

[Sunlei]

2. yes, IMO SOTU is necessary to be in public on Free TV/radio so all Americans can see if they want.

I don't want the media to tell me about the Presidents speech.

[Igel]

4. Then there are options

It can be published on the whitehouse.gov site.

It can be a videocast.

It can be broadcast on public radio.

Or what typically happened for most of US history: It can be published in the newspaper and read at leisure by those who want to watch it.

Thing is, most of those take positive effort. You have to find it if you're interested. That's different from having whatever you're watching interrupted so the SOTU can be pushed front of you. As with so many other things, as interest drops off it seems that more effort has to be made by others to make sure the American populace eats its peas, whether it likes them or not.

Take voting. We've expanded access to the polls. When I started voting decades ago, I had a 10-hr window to vote in unless I could give a valid excuse why I needed an absentee ballot--it wasn't "no questions asked."

We've extended voting hours so I have a 14-hour window. We have early voting, so I can vote for weeks before election day in any polling place in the county. I 8 a.m., 9 p.m., 7 days a week.f I don't vote, over the course of those weeks I typically still wind up in at least one store or public place where there's a polling place that I choose not to vote at but could.

We have voting by mail. All it takes is a phone call for a ballot to show up at my mailbox so I can send it in. Or I can pick one up at several other locations. The "effort" would be saying, "Oh, this is the form I need. I'll take one and put it in my pocket and fill it out at home."

Yet voter turnout is still typically lower than it was when it was much harder or much less convenient to vote.

[Sunlei]

6. is live on public radio every year & free TV not every American has a computer, or internet access.

Most people have a TV &/or a radio in America.

Voting should be much easier 24/7 at every 'Gov' office and 24/7 online also.

[66 dmhlt]

7. Radio doesn't work for those of us whose world is silent.

[Sunlei]

8. You're are right about that.

There is free media where they have captioned, youtube is one and there are others here on bbc online.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/accessibility/guides/subtitles/

NPR, National Public Radio has captioned radio format http://www.npr.org/blogs/thisisnpr/2013/05/28/177751307/breaking-the-sound-barrier-npr-labs-brings-radio-to-hearing-impaired

[yeoman6987]

5. Well that is true.

I briefly forgot we don't have a truthful media.

[shraby]

3. The media has been known to slant things. Need I say more?