| Remarks by Governor Kulongoski |
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| May 26, 2006 |
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Crane Union High School Commencement
Thank you, Superintendent Adsit, for your introduction. Parents, faculty, friends of the graduates, and most of all – to Crane Union High School’s great class of 2006: Thank you for giving me the honor of being your commencement speaker.
First, I want to recognize the eighth graders who are getting their Elementary Diplomas today. I know you come from many different schools – but I have the same message for each of you: Congratulations. You’re doing great. But today is like halftime at a football game. The game isn’t over. So I want you to keep working hard. Finish school. And I hope to see you four years from now at your own high school commencement.
Mary Oberst, the First Lady, is with me today. Mary is a lawyer and used to edit law books, which meant she’d take out her pen and use it like a Weed Wacker – to cut out all the unnecessary words. Now she does the same thing with my speeches. So I’m going to try to follow President Franklin Roosevelt’s three rules for graduation speakers: Be brief. Be sincere. Be seated.
Mary was actually surprised when I accepted your gracious invitation to be here because she knows that I rarely give commencement speeches. This may go back to my own high school experience, when instead of being voted “Most Likely to Succeed” – I was voted: “Most likely to skip graduation and go fishing.”
I’ve changed quite a bit since those days. First of all, as Governor, I can only play hooky if somebody puts it on my schedule – which sort of defeats the purpose. I also have a much better understanding that no matter where you start in life, education is the portal to the American Dream.
But even with my profound appreciation for the importance of education – and what it has meant for my own life – I still love to go fly-fishing. And I still think of myself as the guy who believes that feeling the tug after a strike is the best part of fly-fishing – not tossing out words of wisdom to smart, Internet savvy, hard working, and promising young men and women, like you, who are on the verge of remaking Oregon – and the world.
But when I learned the motto of this year’s graduating class: “Never forget that only dead fish swim with the stream” – I knew that I had a special bond with you, and that this was a commencement I could not miss.
Like many of you, I didn’t live at home when I was growing up. I was raised in a Catholic orphanage with 150 other boys, so I know about the fun – and frustration – of living in close quarters, with a lot of rules, and not a lot of privacy. I can only pray that you didn’t give your teachers as much grief as I gave the nuns.
It is not just the shared experience of dormitory life that makes me feel a special connection with you – it is also the shared experience of learning to swim up stream. This is what I’ve always done – from refusing to be held back by low expectations when I was young, to refusing to accept anything less than an affordable and accessible college education for every Oregon high school graduate with good grades.
But today is not about me. Today is about you. And I know that you have always been willing to take on the challenge of swimming up stream.
This is the last public boarding school in Oregon – in a school district that is bigger than some states. For you, the size and distance of Harney County has meant long travels, and long periods of time away from your families and communities – not to mention four long years of hard work to earn your diploma. But you did it – and you have my warmest congratulations. My deepest admiration. And my greatest confidence that your success so far is only the beginning of a future filled with accomplishment, recognition, and pride.
Since commencement is about the start of something – not the end of something – I have some more thoughts about the future I’d like to share with you. Traditionally, my job as Governor is to tell you that you are the future of Oregon. And, believe me, you are. But even more important – you are the future of Crane, Burns, Lawson, Princeton, Diamond – and all of the great communities in southeast Oregon.
Your success in reaching this day is like a stone dropped into a pond creating ever-widening ripples. The first ripple is your own future. By finishing high school and preparing for a post-secondary education, a skilled career, or working in the family business – you will be able to write your own ticket, and achieve your own prosperity.
Your success will also help preserve the small towns and farming communities where you were raised, and the way-of-life that your families, friends, and neighbors have known for generations. Beyond that, your success is critical to maintaining the vitality and unique character of eastern and rural Oregon, which, in turn, will make all of Oregon a better place.
Recently, some kids from Diamond were visiting me at Mahonia Hall, where I live. They had never seen rhododendrons before and were amazed by all of the colors. But I take these flowers for granted. My point is this: We are a large and diverse state – and I believe in this diversity. It is Oregon’s great strength. That’s why, together, we must do everything we can to protect rural Oregon’s social, political and economic values – values that have helped shape your character; made this school an Oregon landmark; and will guide you – I hope – throughout your lives.
I want to talk to you for a few minutes about why the values of rural Oregon are so important – and why I’m counting on you to help preserve them. Let me start with social values.
Long before I became Governor, I was traveling to every corner of this state talking with Oregonians about what matters to them – and listening to how they describe themselves.
They would use words and phrases like: Independent, adventurous, religious, patriotic and connected to the land. And they’d tell me that they believe families and communities matter most of all, and that individuals can make a difference. What I was hearing – and still hear every day as Governor – is the spirit of Oregon, a spirit that exists everywhere in this state, but is more visible, more taken to heart, and more a part of everyday conversation here than anywhere else.
What about political values? Needless to say – I’m a Democrat. But I believe strongly in our two-party system. So yes, we may have political differences – but we can all agree on the issues of economic opportunity, affordable health care, and a quality education for Oregonians of all ages. And where we do disagree, those differences should not divide us. They should make us stronger.
For me, Oregon is a great tapestry – and we need to find the common threads that bind us together. The place to start is with an understanding that our children – no matter where we live in Oregon – are not just a common thread. They’re the golden thread. So while I believe deeply in the give-and-take of democracy – and hope that you will become engaged in political debate and defend your political values – I also believe that education excellence is an objective that every Oregonian should be able to support.
That’s why I have already called for a 6-billion dollar budget for public education for the 2007 and 2008 school years, and at least 10-percent more the following two years. I want Oregon’s children to have nothing less than the best education in the world that will launch them toward economic opportunity – just as Crane Union High School is doing for you.
Which brings me to economic values. This may surprise you, but I think that every Oregonian has an obligation to understand the unique characteristics of Oregon’s rural economy, which is based on natural resources.
The generations of people who have lived and worked the land in Harney and other rural counties have the right to see that their children and grandchildren enjoy the same opportunities and quality of life they had. That means government must recognize the uniqueness of places like Crane and Narrows and French Glen – and make sure that our land-based economies have the ability to sustain themselves and grow.
This is not just about jobs and wages – as important as they are to your future. This is about preserving for you the beauty, pace, and traditions of rural Oregon. You may choose a new path in life – but if the path you choose leads you back here, I want this to be a place you can always call home.
My greatest fear is that if we cannot resolve growing differences over how we use our land and other natural resources – we will not only weaken our state’s overall economy, we will put in jeopardy the future of our rural communities. This is a price that is simply too high to pay – because as I said, the values that best describe Oregon are found right here. If we lose them – Oregon, as a place, will not be the same. And that spirit of Oregon that I mentioned a moment ago – and which lives in all our citizens – will not be the same either.
I promise you I will do my part to keep rural Oregon thriving by adding to the 100,000 new jobs that I’ve already created in Oregon over the last three years. By investing more money in education – at every level. By holding down the cost of tuition – and providing more grants to Oregon high school graduates that want to go to an Oregon community college or university. By protecting our rivers and lakes – so you can keep catching those fish heading up stream. And by using my office to talk about the importance of your future.
But I need you to do your part too. I told you nuns raised me. Well they didn’t just raise me, they taught me some valuable lessons.
First, they taught me to always remember where I came from. This beautiful part of Oregon needs your skills, energy and talent if it is to give to future generations the same quality of life it has given to you. And while I understand that for some of you, Harney County may not always be home – I hope it will always be in your thoughts, prayers and memories.
The nuns also taught me to never be judgmental, and to treat people with respect. They taught me the importance of tolerance, the value of listening, and the benefits of humility. And while they could be tough – the nuns did not expect perfection. They knew I would fall – many times. And they were right. But they did expect me to get back up, learn from my mistakes, and keep going forward with hope and optimism.
That’s what I’ve always done. And that’s what I always want you to do too. Keep going forward. Keep swimming upstream. Never forget where you came from, and remember your future in our future. We are all in this together. We are one state with one common destiny.
Thank you. God bless you. And God bless Oregon.
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