Governor's Western Maryland Town Hall Meeting
Frostburg, Maryland
February 4, 2009
So why are we here? I asked all of you to join us tonight in doing probably one of the most important things that happens in any democracy, in any representative government, and that is an opportunity for us to talk and for us to dialogue. And for all of us who work for you to be able to hear your concerns and to be able to do our very best to address those concerns.
And I wanted to share with you some of the things that our State government is doing. You know at this time of the year Governors and even the President of the United States will soon do a State of the Union. We did our State of the State last week. And traditionally that happens in Annapolis. But, really, the State of the State is defined in other places, isn’t it?
It’s defined in Cumberland, it’s defined in Hagerstown, it’s defined in Frostburg, it’s defined by the kids working hard here at Mountain Ridge High School.
So I thought we should kind of make the rounds and give you sort of the capsulized version of the State of the State, at least as I see it, and then you can let me know what it is in that most important building block of our State, which is your own family in your own home.
So I have just a couple prepared remarks and then we’re going to open up the microphones either side.
And, you know, my parents always -- I’m one of six children and in our family, our parents always taught us that the best days in life aren’t necessarily the easy days. They’re the hard days when you, nonetheless, had the freedom and the ability to pick yourself up off the mat and make a better tomorrow.
And I submit to you that these are not the easy days. In retrospect, we may look back on them as some of the best days, though. I believe that we are actually headed in the right direction as a State, though it’s kind of hard to see from all the pain and suffering that’s going on, but we are making some tremendous strides together. And it’s because of those strides and because of that hard-won progress through the years that I believe we are going to come through -- power through this recession and come out on the other side much sooner than a lot of other States in the union.
So what is our mission? What is our mission for you? It is this. As we serve the people of our State, our mission is to strengthen and grow the ranks of an upwardly mobile middle class, including our family owned businesses and our family farms.
To improve public safety and public education in every part of our State and to expand opportunity; the opportunity to learn, to earn, to enjoy the health of the people we love, as well as the environment we love to more people rather than fewer.
And it’s a mission and a purpose that’s founded on the beliefs we share. You know, for all the diversity, regardless of what football team we root for, regardless of what part of America in miniature that you call home, the truth of the matter is, for all our diversity as a State, there is a lot more that unites us than divides us.
And the most important of them is our belief in the dignity of every individual and our belief in our own responsibility to advance the common good. In other words, to make our State a better place, to make this a better world to leave to our kids.
