President Obama name drops Boston when talking about ‘the spirit of discovery’
During his final State of the Union address on Tuesday night, President Barack Obama gave a shout out to Boston when speaking about innovation and entrepreneurship.
First, he highlighted great American thinkers. Then, it was Boston’s turn.
In fact, it turns out, many of our best corporate citizens are also our most creative. And this brings me to the second big question we as a country have to answer: How do we reignite that spirit of innovation to meet our biggest challenges?
Sixty years ago, when the Russians beat us into space, we didn’t deny Sputnik was up there. We didn’t argue about the science, or shrink our research and development budget. We built a space program almost overnight, and 12 years later, we were walking on the moon.
That spirit of discovery is in our DNA. America is Thomas Edison and the Wright Brothers and George Washington Carver. America is Grace Hopper and Katherine Johnson and Sally Ride. America is every immigrant and entrepreneur from Boston to Austin to Silicon Valley racing to shape a better future. That’s who we are. And over the past seven years, we’ve nurtured that spirit.
We’ve protected an open Internet, and taken bold new steps to get more students and more low-income Americans online. We’ve launched next-generation manufacturing hubs, and online tools that give an entrepreneur everything he or she needs to start a business in a single day.
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Mayor Marty Walsh soon took to Twitter to comment on the shoutout, calling Boston “truly a great city in a great nation.’’
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Walsh also sent a message of support for the president on behalf of the city before the speech began.
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