|
|||
|
This article was published in The Bulletin (Bend) in June 2002 Your article on Oregon’s budget being worse than expected (May 18) indicates that with budget issues assuming crisis proportions the character and competence of Oregonians and their putative leaders will be sorely tested. When it was becoming obvious the budget would be a serious issue, I happened to be reading a biography of Winston Churchill and a collection of his speeches and found myself comparing Britain in 1940 with Oregon in 2002. In May, 1940, Britain was threatened by the armed might of Nazi Germany. It was the eve of Europe’s greatest tragedy, and the British people recognized their perilous situation. Food and fuel were tightly rationed. In 2002, Oregonians were worried about the price of gasoline going over $1.50 a gallon and who they could get to pay for their children’s education other than themselves. At the same time medical researchers were warning most Americans were overweight. In a speech on May 13, 1940, Winston Churchill was blunt and candid with the British people. He told Parliament and the nation that he had "nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat." He finished that speech with "Come then, let us go forward together with our united strength." The opposition parties in Parliament and the people they represented rallied to Churchill’s call, putting political differences aside. If the youngest generation of Britons are aware of this moment and the subsequent history, they should be immensely proud of their grandparents. The quality of a nation and state is determined by the people and the leaders they choose. The rallying of the British people to Churchill’s call was probably the greatest factor in resistance to Hitler until the United States intervened. Oregon in 2002 is led by Governor Kitzhaber, a good and decent man, but not by any stretch of the imagination a leader of Churchillian dimensions. Most politicians in Salem are thinking of themselves, especially their own reelection, and rejecting every opportunity to show political courage and do what is right for the state. Instead, they offer us Measure 13 to postpone making hard decisions that are inevitable. And what of the people of Oregon? Where the British were prepared to make, and many made, the ultimate sacrifice, most Oregonians appear, if we accept the preponderance of political comment, to be rallying with unenlightened self-interest to the call of "No new taxes." Parents of school children join in the chorus complaining about taxes even though at $5,000-plus per student, most of them are probably getting more out of tax revenues than they are putting in. Where the British saw themselves as members of a nation to which they were duty-bound, Oregonians, for the most part, seem to regard themselves as individuals that happen to live in Oregon. Sacrifice? The only sacrifices that Oregon’s politicians offer are the utterly contemptible lottery and sin-tax schemes to target and sacrifice the most vulnerable groups in the state. How callous and cynical can they be? Is this what American servicemen fought and died for? Did they go off to war so their children and grandchildren could spend their weekends buying frivolous items in shopping malls and tool around highways and on lakes in their gas-guzzling toys while they allow their state’s highways and bridges to fall into disrepair and put schools and children at risk? Did they keep America safe so this generation could spend $50 or $500 or $1,500 on some three- or four-hour sporting event and then use their freedom of speech to whine about paying another $15 a year for auto license fees that would help maintain highways and bridges? As we approach another Memorial Day we might wonder what veterans must think of the current generation and of the sacrifices they made for them. We might also give some thought about our being worthy of these sacrifices. Bill Bodden, Redmond, OR |
"Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country." President John F. Kennedy |
||