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4H Get to Know Your Government
Conference You are here to learn more about your government and get a closer look at in action. And you are all to be complimented and commended for caring enough about it to be here not to mention to get up as early as you did just to make it to this breakfast. 4-H is incredibly important. It meets what I call the resiliency test. Research has been done on young people on the negative factors in their life. Why does one group over here do well, while there are others that struggle. This has to do with care and support in their life and having someone to show encouragement. Young people were given high expectations, help to get over the bar. They had opportunities to contribute meaningfully to their social environment. All of those factors are what make up 4-H. It provides tools that will be with you for the rest of your life. Thank you 4-H. It is always refreshing and very encouraging to come to one of these events and see so many young people interested in government. Regardless of whether your interest in is the legislative, judicial, or executive branch of government or even the lobbying side, it is all important and in need of your involvement. So thank you for being the leaders that you already are. Between all of you here and the youth legislature along with the numerous young people that we as political leaders constantly run into expressing interest in government, it is easy to feel comfort in knowing that our children and grandchildren will be well represented. I would like to spend a few minutes in sharing with you some concepts and perceptions of mine on what makes a good leader. I have seen some pretty effective young leaders over my many years in the political world. Young people who have been listened to. Just last year Senator Pridemore from Vancouver asked a young lady who was his page in Olympia, if she could pass a bill into law what would it be? She said it would be to allow for sign language experts to be allowed in the car when the deaf were taking their driving test. Obviously they were at a terrible disadvantage from a hearing person. You see the young lady is deaf. This year Senator Pridemore introduced the legislation and it has passed the senate. She got to witness its passage. Representative Mary Skinner form Yakima was able to help an elementary school class get a bill passed to name the Wholly Mammoth as the state fossil. Now granted this is not earth shattering public policy that will be copied throughout the land. But it is an example of determination and perseverance. The kids started the project when they were in the second grade to learn the legislative process. They learned it all right. They got the bill introduced and it failed. And then it failed again when they tried in the third grade and again in the fourth and then in the fifth it looked like it was going down again. The sad thing was the teacher who started it all was retiring at the end of the school year and all of the kids would be going on to middle school. Representative Skinner came to me and asked for some help with some procedural problems that could end up killing the bill probably for ever. We worked together, D and R, and finally got it through with letters and calls and visits and sheer determination from a group of elementary school kids. Last year Senator Jacobson from Seattle had an 11 year old constituent, Alex Jonlin, who thought that there should be an advisory group to government of young people and actually had a proposal drafted that the senator had drafted into legislation and it passed. Today there is a Washington State Youth Advisory Council. Only trouble is the legislature had amended his bill to make the eligibility age to serve on the council 14, prohibiting young Alex from serving on his own creation. This year at 12 he is down here attempting to change the age back to 12. He is bright, articulate, aggressive and very effective. One of the most amazing young ladies I ever met in my career was a lovely young lady named Sheely Mauck. She was stricken with Polio at seven months old and so she never walked and was in a wheelchair yet she swam on her school swim team, took karate and moved up three belts, worked at the senior center helping the elderly, worked on environmental projects and made care packages for the victims of the tragic shootings at Columbine. She was selected as the Boys and Girls Club Youth of the year. All of these young people are wonderful caring people and there are many more like them throughout our state, many of which are in this room. I get the good fortune of meeting with a lot of them. I usually get asked by young Americans like you about how you get elected or what you can do at your age to prepare yourself to run for office. My answers are pretty simple. They are: get meaningfully involved in positive organizations and activities to build a resume of caring. Know the issues facing the community, state and nation. Of course once you are ready to run, put particular emphasis on the community that you are interested in representing. And finally, build a base of at least a dozen people that believe in you and will help you with the organization and implementation of your campaign plan. But that is the practical stuff you need to do, but that will not make you a great or even a good leader. That comes from within. It is what defines your character and your strength, not just as a leader, but as a person. Now we have different kinds of leaders. We have those that run for office to gain a title. We have the talk show leaders who get their guidance from the talk show. After all if a person is on the radio espousing points of view they must be totally on top of the issues and of course right. That is particularly evident in those hosts who when they ask a guest a question they butt in and answer it themselves forgetting they actually have a guest or caller on the show. We have the “my way or the highway” leader. They are always right and anyone else with a differing idea is not only uninformed, but most likely is just plain stupid. We have the party hack leaders, whatever the political party leaders want is what they do. Now this is where I share my more independent point of view. It is a view that has been developed from observing and being a part of the political process for over 30 years. I never look first at the person’s view of issues. I look first to whether or not a person has convictions on issues; that they are serving for a purpose, not a title. I may not agree with that person, but I know that they are true and honest in what they are attempting to do. Next I look at whether or not that person will listen to another point of view and will at least consider it and be willing to talk about compromise. This is a characteristic that is critical in our great state because one factor in making this the great state of Washington is its diversity of people who come from the many different places, with many different backgrounds and many different needs and philosophies. If you are a talk show host talking about how to resolve an issue you only need to convince the like minds in your geographic area. But if you are one of the legislators here with us this morning and serving in the legislature you must consider the people of Seattle as well as Sedro Woolley and Spokane. I look at whether the person is willing to break from the heard and be their own person, willing to stand up against the pressure of the caucus or the party when he or she believes that their personal convictions are challenged. You probably would refer to that as peer pressure. And finally, I look to whether the person who wants me to support them for office is compassionate and cares about others less fortunate. Now most of these characteristics are not found in the political science books at the University or will be espoused by those who run the political parties. But, that is not where you should take your guidance from. It should come from your common sense, your bright minds and your good hearts. You follow those three leaders and you should be OK either as a leader yourself or in choosing one. Finally let me remind you that your participation does count as does your vote. I have seen races decided from a coin toss to break a tie. The mayor of the small town of Bucoda in South Thurston County was elected by a five vote margin. And of course there was the Governor’s race of last year where out of 2.8 million votes the first count gave a 261 vote lead to Rossi, the mandatory recount brought it down to 42 votes and finally the third count gave the race to Governor Gregoire by 129 votes. Regardless of your feelings about the race there are two important points. The first is there are very few other countries or governments that can go through elections like we have all over the country, federal, state and local with so many checks and balances, with such close outcomes and do it all peacefully, accepting of the outcomes and without violence. The second and foremost point is your participation does matter. It matters now. And it will in the future. An old comedian by the name of Groucho Marx said, “Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies”. You can help your community, State and Nation to apply the right remedies by being a part of this incredible form of government we call democracy. It is great to see you here. Thank you and good luck in all that you do.
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