Why Our Union Is Strong

Wouldn't it be great, if the strength of character, innovation, determination, and bravery present in the gallery watching the State of the Union...

• Wesley Autrey of New York, a construction worker awarded the city's highest civilian honor for jumping onto the tracks in a subway station to save a man who had fallen from a seizure.
  
  
• Julie Aigner-Clark of Centennial, Colo., founder of The Safe Side, a video series that teaches young children to make good choices in potentially dangerous situations and raises money for The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
  
  
• Dikembe Mutombo, a center for the Houston Rockets professional basketball team who recently was naturalized. In the off season, he works as a National Basketball Association ambassador for African causes.

• Air Force Tech Sgt. Michelle Barefield of Goldsboro, N.C., survivor of three improvised explosive device attacks in Baghdad.

• Pamela Battle of Washington, among the first low-income parents to apply for scholarships under the D.C. School Choice Incentive Program, the nation's first and only federally funded voucher program.
  

• Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Corey Firman of Alexandria, Va., who volunteered for more than 30 convoys in Iraq and was subjected to more than 180 incidents of hostile fire.
  

• Shannon Hickey of Lancaster, Pa., founder at age 11 of Mychal's Message, a nonprofit organization to further the legacy of her favorite priest, Father Mychal Judge. The New York Fire Department chaplain was killed on Sept. 11, 2001, when hit by debris from the World Trade Center.
  

• Marine Corps Sgt. Aubrey McDade Jr. of Parris Island, S.C., who received the Navy Cross, the service's second-highest medal, for heroic actions as a machine-gun squad leader with the 1st Marine Division in Iraq.
  

• Coast Guard Petty Officer 2nd Class Nathan Thomas of Hollywood, Fla., deployed overseas twice this year to support the Iraq war. He designed a law enforcement tactics video and lesson plans, training more than 500 foreign military servicemen.
  

• Army Sgt. Tommy Rieman of Independence, Ky., awarded the Silver Star for his actions on a reconnaissance mission in Iraq in December 2003.

Could also be found on the floor below?