It has taken me about a week to have a reaction to President Barack Obama’s 2011 state of the union address.

I’m troubled by the theme of “fairness” that he espouses.

Not troubled by fairness, of course. It’s a noble norm.

It’s just that, lacking a shared enemy, fairness is a tough sell. When King George or Adolf Hitler or Osama bin Laden threatens, I think fairness has a chance among us. In the face of shared UNfairness, as in taxation without representation, as in supremacy of a maniacal master race, as in annihilation of us all as infidels, we can be fair to each other.

When no such enemy exists, I don’t know. I just don’t know if we’re that noble.

I think we could be.